Whats new at Samlesbury Hall for families

This weekend was my first non-working visit to Samlesbury Hall in quite a while and with the family in tow I spent a very pleasant sunny Sunday morning revisiting this very splendid medieval hall. There’s been lots going on at the hall in the last 12 months – new play area, new wafflery, new tours, new opening hours and there’s even brand new ‘glamping’ accommodation in the form of the Shepherd Hut Hamlet. So here’s my run down of the new stuff at Samlesbury Hall which we discovered during out visit.

1. New opening hours. The hall, restaurant and wafflery are now open from 10am (rather than 11am) which suits both early risers and those with very young children. It meant we had a good hour or so before we needed to refuel. (See website for full opening hours as the hall is normally closed Saturdays and some Fridays for weddings)
   
   
2. The new play area is wonderful. Our daughter, although she was a bit small for some of the elements loved the ’pirate ship’ (it’s actually the Mayflower but I wasn’t arguing with a happy 3 year old) and the miniature model of the hall itself. We spent a long time running around, climbing and being told to “walk the plank”.
   N.b. - I recommend wellies as the weather gets wetter and the surface was muddy in parts. There is a decent amount of shelter from the trees overhead so I should imagine even it rains you won’t get too wet whilst playing.
   
   
3. The New Wafflery or rather ‘Dotties Wafflery’, named after the hall’s resident ghost ‘Lady Dorothy’, was our destination for lunch. It’s slightly more casual than the restaurant and suited us better – especially as it also home of the ice cream parlour. We all had savoury waffles (there’s a children’s menu which includes a drink) and the kids had ice cream cones afterwards. There are colouring sheets and jars of coloured pencils to keep small people entertained – although the service was very speedy so we didn’t get very far with this. 
   N.B - the portions were very generous. Try and save space for ice cream!
   
   
4. New free guided tours on Sundays. Ok, so we didn’t actually join the tour but there was a lot of people waiting to join Henry VIII for an ‘insight into the fascinating, education and often bloody history’ of the hall. We will do this next time! Instead we did a speed walk through the hall (blame small children).
   
   
5. Shepherd Hut Hamlet. We had a sneak peak of the hamlet and in a work capacity I’ve been inside one of them. They are really well done – en suite, heating, two double beds, luxury toiletries and access to a fire pit should you want one. Basically this is my idea of camping and I’m now trying to round up enough friends to join me!

It was such a lovely morning that we spent quite a bit of time just wandering around the grounds collecting sticks, playing hide and seek and visiting the animals (pigs, rabbits, goats and chickens) which was really nice. It’s worth remembering that its now free entry which makes multiple visits far more appealing and its also just a 5 minute drive from J31 on the M6.

Sally