Family Trails

Explore Herefordshire with a Treasure Trail (© Treasure Trails)

Explore Herefordshire with a Treasure Trail; a fun activity to try with your family and pooch on your Herefordshire half term break. Choose from a Murder Mystery Trail where you can solve fiendish clues to unravel a whodunit mystery or a Treasure Hunt where you find the location of buried treasure, or make like James Bond on a Spy Mission where you complete the mission like 007!

Herefordshire’s wonderful National Trust properties also offer some wonderful family trails this half term. What’s more, your four-legged friend doesn’t need to miss out and you even collect a prize at the end!

Have fun in the great outdoors at Berrington Hall near Leominster with its exciting 'Find the Feature Trail'. Help celebrate Capability Brown’s final landscape at Berrington, which celebrates its 300th anniversary this year, by following the trail around the gardens to see if you can find what Brown designed.

Alternatively, shake off the winter blues at Brockhampton Estate’s Signs of Spring Trail and discover nature waking up from its winter sleep.

Or why not take your family back in time on a Wind in the Willows Trail? Keep an eye out for the characters of this popular book read by children before and during the First World War at Croft Castle & Parkland near Leominster this half term.

Museums

Make wonderful junk models at The Waterworks Museum (copyright The Waterworks Museum)

There are interesting goings-on at The Waterworks Museum’s open day. The friendly staff are on hand to help your children draw, colour, brass rub and make wonderful junk models. This working museum in Hereford, open every Tuesday between 11am – 4pm, traces the history of drinking water from the cave-dwellers up to the present day through wonderful working engines, superb display panels, illuminated displays, guidebooks and films. Classified by English Heritage as ‘a site of clear national importance’, the Museum is home to the oldest working triple-expansion steam engine in the UK and has one of the country’s widest range of working pumping engines.

Celebrate Worcester’s spectacular heritage by visiting the Love Worcester Festival on your Herefordshire half term break. Worcester’s heritage sites are offering plenty of activities to keep adults and children alike entertained. Check out the fun trails at Worcester Cathedral and The Elgar Birthplace Museum & Visitor Centre. History buffs will enjoy a Weekend of Living History at The Commandery on February 13 – 14 (10am – 5pm). Turn your family into heritage detectives and crack the 12 letter code to win a Worcester Hamper! These events and more can be discovered on the festival programme, so you won’t miss a thing.

The force is strong at the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre in Craven Arms over half term. Join the Star Wars Jedi Academy between February 15 -19 for a fun packed training session of games and activities between 1 – 2.30 pm (pre-booking required). This award winning visitor attraction has been voted as ‘Best Family Day Out (small venue)’ by the general public and is perfect for the young and the young at heart. While you’re there, explore the 30-acre Onny Meadows with your four-legged friends, relax in the café, get up close and personal to Shropshire’s larger than life mammoth or take a virtual balloon ride over the Shropshire Hills. There’s also a new ‘Discovery Club’ for younger visitors while geo-caching (hi-tech treasure hunts) is available all year round. Whilst you’re visiting the area, explore Stokesay Castle (English Heritage) and let your children loose on their ‘Have a Go Archery and Shield Painting’ event between February 15 – 19, 10:30am – 3:30pm. Dogs are allowed in the grounds but not inside the castle buildings.

Towns & cities

Hereford Cathedral by Les Haines

The pretty nearby market towns of Bromyard and Leominster create the ideal setting for visitors to take an afternoon stroll, with half-timbered buildings and a wide variety of shops, cafes and pubs.

Discover the Mappa Mundi at historic Hereford’s cathedral, also home to the captivating chained library with its collection of rare and ancient books.
 
The charming gastronomic market town of Ludlow makes a great day out on a Herefordshire half term break, with more than 500 listed buildings. Magnificent Ludlow Castle, which reopens for half term, welcomes dogs on leads in its grounds and courtyard tearoom.

Visit too the ancient market towns of Tenbury Wells and Ledbury, and explore the Black & White Village Trail from Leominster to Kington.

There are loads of lovely pubs around as well (including many pet-friendly establishments), giving you plenty of opportunity to sample locally produced cider, Herefordshire’s best-known product!

What Else?

Why not kick back and relax at Hampton Wafre Cottage for your Herefordshire half term break? Our beautiful, pet-friendly barn renovation, situated on a working arable farm.