Lynn Porter, Reception Manager at Lancaster House often recommends Lancaster House Fun Trail to guests. During lockdown, Lynn, her husband Ash and their beautiful daughter, Matilda, found out first hand that it was a fun and interesting way to spend a day out in the city. They discovered lots of history and fascinating facts about Lancaster as well. Lynn shares the highlights of their day with us …
As the second lockdown began, as a family, we found ourselves once again looking for ways to keep ourselves active and entertained. The Lancaster City Fun Trail has been on offer to our guests at Lancaster house for some time, now would be the perfect opportunity to try it out for ourselves! The treasure trail turned out to be a great way to explore our beautiful city. We were lucky to find a gorgeous sunny autumn Saturday so our 5 year old Matilda could join in the fun too. We packed ourselves a flask of tea and some snacks to keep us going and off we went.
The trail starts in Market Square, outside the city museum and takes you on a journey around the historical buildings and sights of the city.
Although she needed a little help with the answers, Matilda loved finding the clues and crossing the answers off the map. Older kids and adults alike would find this fun too. We learnt some facts that we didn’t know previously and looking around for clues certainly made us notice things about the buildings and the surroundings we wouldn’t normally spot.
If you get stuck looking for a clue you get three chances to text for help; we were determined to try and do it all without help, but some conservation work at the historic Lancaster Castle meant that some scaffolding was obscuring one of the vital clues. We had to admit defeat that time!
The trail is a couple of miles long and takes you up and down hills and cobbled streets – so not ideal for wheelchairs or prams. It took us around three hours as we stopped a few times to take in the views and refresh with a hot drink! If you were really on the ball and made your way around with no stops I think it would take around 2 hours.
Although we found this a really fun activity in lockdown, we thought it would have been great if we’d been able to stop and visit some of the fantastic independent shops, cafes and pubs Lancaster city centre has to offer. We will return to do just that, and to visit some of the attractions we saw along the way, like the Maritime Museum on at George’s Quay and the Castle guided tour.
Matilda gave her day out a 10/10 and we would agree!
Booking a City Break at Lancaster House
To unlock all that the City of Lancaster has to offer for you and your family, book a short break online, or call 0330 4042 693
