Play

Play

Moors Valley is a fantastic place for children to play and explore. All our play areas and structures are included in your visit.

Play Guidance

  • Please take responsibility for yourself and those in your care
  • Please respect other people’s space
  • Be kind and patient, if the play areas are busy please come back later

Play Trail

Children playing on the Bewildernest play structure

Out in the Forest, discover the Play Trail with its unique pieces of wooden play equipment.

You can wriggle through giant snakes in the ‘Snake Pit’, attempt the ‘Crocodile Crossing’ and balance on the fallen forest of ‘Timber’. The trail is only a mile long but with so many exciting pieces of play equipment, you should allow at least an hour to complete it all. The trail is suitable for pushchairs and most mobility scooters.

Bee Hive

Bee Hive play structure

Created with inclusivity at the heart, the Bee Hive has a range of sensory activities to hear, touch or see and features braille to help describe the experience.

Other key features include a double slide to allow carers and children to use it together, ramps and level paths making it accessible. Located close to the Visitor Centre, the Bee Hive is located in the forest picnic area which is also home to the Gruffalo sculptures.

Music Trail

Boy playing a musical toy in the park

Discover our lakeside Music Trail. At each station you’ll find a musical or percussion instrument, each beautifully tuned to produce a soft ambient sound.

Accessible for all ages and abilities, play alone or as a group.

Tree Top Trail

Family walking on the Tree Top Trail

Halfway along the Play Trail, there is the option to divert onto the Tree Top Trail. This 5 metre high and 200 metre long wooden walkway takes you up amongst the trees and allows you to get a real bird’s eye view of the Forest.

Please note: The Tree Top Trail is not suitable for pushchairs or wheelchairs however, there is a connecting path from start to finish.

Play Areas

Woman pushing girl on swing

There are two imaginative play areas close to the Visitor Centre. The Adventure Play Area, designed especially for older children, includes a zip slide, huge space net, climbing boulder, and a fortress of towers and crossings with a long tube slide. Younger children will be enthralled in the Castle and Sandworks area with its gentle slides and swings, all set inside a safe sand area so don’t forget to bring your bucket and spade too!

Please note that dogs are not permitted in either of the Play Areas near the Visitor Centre. A dog park is provided at the entrance to the Junior Play Area. Click to find out more.

Gruffalo Sculptures

Are you brave enough to come face-to-face with the Gruffalo?

We’re lucky enough to be one of only a few places in the country with a lifesize Gruffalo sculpture and a Gruffalo’s Child sculpture plus all of the other characters from Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s popular storybook. Head to the forest picnic area to see if you can find them all.