50 Years of Family Adventures at North York Moors National Park Centres

Kelly
1 day ago
3 min read

If you’ve followed our adventures for a while, you know the North York Moors is basically our second home. Whether we’re scrambling through heather or hunting for the best ice cream, it’s a place that just feels like us. We have many family memories from when Craig & I were kids to having memories of taking our own kids to the centres.

This time we have been back to both to take on the challenge of "50 things" Although it is aimed at kids under 10 we still did the majority of the tasks and had a great time doing so.

We started our challenge at Danby Lodge National Park Centre to tackle the list of 25 things to do. You can see the lists for both places at the bottom of this post.

We Headed indoors first and tackled the list and honestly there are so many fantastic things to do. We headed to the inspired by gallery to search for an animal hiding in the artwork followed by peeking at the cave wall (gutted I'm too big for this!) Some of the other activities we did were: Practising our dry stone walling, watched Live bird cams, took on the Salmon run, followed the art trail and then made a mud pie, laid back and did some cloud spotting. My favourite activity was sitting back and listened to the birds. We litter picked, climbed on the wishing dragon and then we had some lunch before ticking more activities from our list. You can easily spend the day here having a brilliant family day out. It's free entry, free to take part and the only thing you need to pay for is the parking.

Some images from our day at Danby Lodge National Park Centre

Later in the day we headed to Sutton Bank National Park Centre to take on the 25 things from the list. Unfortunately we couldn't complete the whole list as the star lab hub was closed on our visit but we will be heading back to do it again because its a fantastic idea and keeps you busy. Some of the Activities we completed were:

Making it rain in the nature lab

Took a peek at some special objects through the microscope

Checked out the second hand books

We conquered the treehouse and log swamp

Watched the birds in the bird station and enjoyed the finest view in England.

Images from Sutton Bank National Park Centre

A bit more about the centres celebrations

Two of our absolute favourite spots, Sutton Bank and Danby Lodge are officially turning 50. That’s five decades of family walks, muddy paws, and "are we there yet?" moments.

Events not to miss at both centres to celebrate the 50th Anniversary

Big Birthday Bash - Sutton Bank National Park Centre - 3rd April

Garden party at Danby Lodge National Park Centre - 4th May

You can also find various workshops, guided walks and kids activities and trails throughout the year. Take a peek HERE and don't forget to book a dark sky experience

If your kids love space, Danby is a Dark Skies Discovery Site. They’ve got a proper observatory now! Even during the day, learning about the stars here is magical.

Don’t Miss The Golden Anniversary Exhibition

If you can’t make the parties, don't worry! From 7 November until January 2027, the Inspired by... gallery at Danby Lodge is running a special 50th-anniversary exhibition. It’s going to be a gorgeous look back at how these landscapes have changed since 1976.