10 Of The Best Gardens For Kids

In the year that celebrates the 300th anniversary of ‘England’s Greatest Gardener’, Capability Brown, EMMA E FORREST picks some of the country’s best green spaces for children

- Emma E Forrest

1. Trentham Estate

STAFFORDSHIRE

While you take in the sweeping vista over the mile-long lake dreamt up by celebrated garden designer Capability Brown, your kids can be engrossed in a search for the 15 steel wire fairies that hide in the woodlands, gardens and around the lake. If they’re not worn out by the fairy trail, there’s an adventure playground with zipwires and an assault course, boating on the lake, a maze and, for an extra fee, encounters with Barbary macaques at Monkey Forest and the Aerial Extreme high-ropes adventure course. New features this year include a sensory barefoot walk, where kids kick off their shoes and socks and trample through a therapeutic range of textures, from mud to bark and grass, as well as 12 new 5m-high dandelion sculptures to discover in the annual wildflower meadow. Adults £10.25, children (5-15) £8.75, under-fives free, family tickets from £26, trentham.co.uk

STAY For complete ease, there’s a Premier Inn on the edge of the estate, with family rooms from just £38. premierinn.com

2. Trebah Garden

CORNWALL

Kids love exploring this lush subtropical garden, with trails that zigzag between awe-inspiring Jurassic plants down to a pretty, pebbly beach on the Helford River, and a café that sells Cornish ice cream and loans buckets and spades. Children of all ages are dazzled by the gargantuan leaves of the giant rhubarb in the Gunnera Passage, and the Bamboozle, a maze between 40 varieties of bamboo. Trebah also boasts three adventure play areas – Fort Stuart, a Wild West-themed zone for under-fives; Tarzan’s Camp, for over-fives; and the Paraglide experience, for 5-16-year-olds – as well as the amphitheatre, which hosts family shows. Adults £9, children (5-15) £3, under-fives free, trebahgarden.co.uk