Covid-19 Update

Moors Valley Now Open

Updated 20 September 2020

Moors Valley Country Park and Forest reopened on Tuesday 26 May.

At this stage, some of the facilities and amenities remain closed and many of the reopened facilities have new procedures in place.

There are three simple actions we encourage all visitors to do to help keep everyone safe

Hands – Please use hand sanitiser stations.
Face – Please wear a face covering in indoor settings where social distancing may be difficult (exemptions apply).
Space – Please stay 2 metres apart from people you do not live with where possible, or 1 metre with extra precautions in place (such as wearing a face covering).

Please be aware, from 14 September it will be against the law to meet people you do not live with in a group larger than 6 (unless you are meeting as a household or support bubble).

See below for a full list of the facilities that will remain closed.

In line with the latest Government guidance, and after working closely with Dorset Council and Forestry England, the rangers have created and instigated many new procedures around the park, to help keep staff and our visitors safe and to ensure we are following best working practices. Please remember that the rangers will be working hard to ensure all visitors have the best experience possible and will adapt these new procedures as needed.

So please be patient and bear with us.

Parking

The car park is open, but with a reduced capacity
We are not currently accepting bookings for coaches and minibuses
When the car park reaches capacity it will be temporarily closed. You can view updates on our Facebook page or live news feed
Visitors with pre-booked activities, such as Go-Ape or Golf can still access the car park when closed. Please show your booking confirmation at the barriers to enter
We encourage visitors to arrive before 10.30am, or after 2pm where possible to avoid our busiest times

Normal parking charges apply. Full details of our car park charges are listed here

Facilities Now Open

Visitor Centre toilets – Covid-secure modifications in place. Please follow Hands, Face, Space guidelines
Play Parks – full details on the new Play Park guidance is listed here
Go Ape – full details of Go Apes new procedures are listed here
Visitor Centre – please wear face coverings when inside the Visitor Centre from 8 August (exemptions apply)
Cycle Hire – full details of the new Cycle Hire procedures are listed here
Railway – full details of the new Railway procedures are listed here
Seasons Restaurant – outside takeaway and limited inside seating. Before entering Seasons, all visitors must check-in using the NHS Covid-19 App (from the 24th of September). Please be aware, as a temporary measure pet dogs are not allowed to sit inside Seasons. They are however allowed to sit outside in the courtyard seating area
Ice Cream Kiosk
Golf – full details of the new Golf procedures are listed here
A limited selection of Health and Activity sessions – full details are listed here

Facilities Remaining Closed

Play Trail – Spiders, Enchanted Woods, Crocodile Crossing 1, Crocodile Crossing 2, Hawk House, Timber and Tree Top Trail are currently open – some with modifications. All other structures remain closed
Gift shop – pop-up shop available in the Visitor Centre, with all the Moors Valley family favourites
Ranger Den
Ranger-led activities and events
Larger group sessions, such as parkrun
Railway toilets – please use the main toilets at the Visitor Centre

The rangers are operating a streamlined information point service, to help deal with any issues and enquiries, but we would ask that people only raise enquiries that are urgent.

Season Tickets

On 23 March, the first day of lockdown, we froze all season tickets, both direct debit and annual, with the promise that everyone would have the closed period added to the end of their membership.

Season Tickets restarted on Tuesday 26 May, enabling members to visit us as usual. Direct Debit payments started on 1 June and we have added 70 days to all annual season tickets that did not expired during lockdown.

Anyone whose season ticket was due to expire during lockdown has had that period added to the membership from 1 June (i.e. if your season ticket was due to expire on 1 April, 8 days after lockdown, your new expiry date will be 9 June). This has now been processed and no season ticket holders need to do anything further to receive the extended date.

* Update * Now those people shielding have been given the green light to get out and about again we have also extended their season tickets by a further 62 days, or by the period left on the season ticket before it expired.

Gift Vouchers

If you have a gift voucher for parking, bike hire or our gift shop we will honour any due to expire or those that expired during lockdown, for the rest of 2020. So don’t panic you wont lose out and there will be no rush to come and use the voucher.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Help, Support and Advice

For information on the Coronavirus (Covid-19), what you need to do, what support is available and how you can help please visit the governments dedicated website.