Days out in Devon: Morwellham Quay

As the Easter holidays are upon us I'm writing about some of the great things there are to do in Devon. Whether you live here in Devon or are planning to visit for a holiday hopefully this will be of some help. For more days out please check out a useful blog I'm following at www.devon-mummy.blogspot.com

Morwellham Quay http://www.morwellham-quay.co.uk/


Our family has a season ticket to Bicton Park in East Devon, and the ticket also gives us free entry to Morwellham, so we thought we'd give it a try. Day entry is otherwise £7.95 adult, £3.95 for children (under 3's free), or family ticket for £24.95.                       

Morwellham is on the border between Devon and Cornwall, near to Tavistock. It is the site of a former copper mine and so has a range of related activities. We all enjoyed a great day, despite the weather. It was a dry day but FREEZING cold, yet the children all had a lovely time and we spent 4 hours there. We visited the cottages which used to belong to miners, saw the former school, looked at one of the boats used to transport the copper and learned about the former history of the place.

 

There is also a Victorian costume room where you could try on period outfits. For the little ones there is a playground right next to the entrance which our children loved, and which we had to eventually drag them away from. We enjoyed a tasty and reasonably priced meal at the Ship Inn restaurant on-site and felt welcome there as a family (ie I was breast-feeding the baby and my 2 older ones were noisy!). There are also picnic tables outside if you want to bring your own food.

The main feature of the day is a ride on the mine train (tickets £3.50). I wasnt sure whether this would be too scary or long for the children, but all 3 were fine (aged between 5 months and 4 years). The ride took 45 mins in total, but there was quite a bit of stopping and starting. Firstly the train went along the riverside and the driver stopped to talk about the past use of the mine. Then the train entered the mine where some audio description was played and lights showed several dioramas of miners at work.

 

Parents be warned: it was very dark inside the mine, and the train was also extremely noisy as it rattled through the mine. However, I cuddled my children close and they were fine with it all. Afterwards my eldest talked about how much fun it was. We'll definitely be going back in warmer weather as there was more that we could have seen and done.