Tuesday 5 August 2014

Summer Fun - Mother Shipton's Cave, Knaresborough


Another day of the fabulous summer holidays, another day trip out with my beeautifullll son.

Bliss.

Even though my love of motorway driving isn't all that great, after over six years of having a licence, I've decided that it's time to bite that bullet, get behind the wheel more and just get out and drive, otherwise I'll be missing out on so many great days.

So there I was, car full of very well behaved kiddies - my son and his two cousins - Kel and a car of girlies in front leading the way - and we were off.

Destination - Mother Shipton's Cave in Knaresborough, and wow, it is such a beautiful place.



So very pretty.

Now, I wasn't sure what to expect really - I think we were all - my son in particular - banking on some kind of long, underground cave exploration kind of a day, but this trail is nothing like that at all.

Set in a beautiful historic wood, the leisurely wander through the trees is made all the more exciting for the kiddies with a treasure trail being provided to complete, and a promise of "chocolate treats" at the end if all the clues are solved.


Chocolate and adventuring - what more do you need.

There's a whole lot of open space for the younger people to have a bit of a charge about in too, letting off a little bit of their energy, whilst the slightly older people (ie us parents!) can take refuge and watch them, sitting on one of the few picnic tables dotted about - allowing for a little rest time...

...winning all round here...!

Oh - there's a small "park" too which helped create what seemed like hours of fun and entertainment for the children too.

All throughout the woods, as well as the numerous treasure clues, there were different signs giving useful information all about Mother Shipton and why her cave is so famous.


I won't spoil the fun by telling you her full story - you'll have to pop along and find that out for yourself, but it was fab to see the minds of the children really working and taking in everything that they were being told.

They particularly found the quite spectacular Petrifying Well really interesting, and it held their attention the most.

Well, it did have a "story teller box" in full informative swing and teddies, underpants and other items dangling from the edge of the rock face in various states of the petrification (is that even a word!?) process.

Needless to say the children were hooked and genuinely intrigued with what they were being told.




Which is just what I love from a good, family day out - fun and education.

Fantastic.

As we wandered, we also found dotted throughout the woods, various different wood carvings - they certainly created a talking point for us all.



Especially this very fantastic carved angel...which took us immediately onto a full Doctor Who type discussion...and then this kind of freaked me out a little bit...
(if you're a Doctor Who fan like myself, you'll know exactly what I mean!)


I'm such a wimp.

After making some very secret wishes in the wishing well we stepped inside Mother Shipton's teeny cave itself before popping along to the museum gift shop.



Here we found a display of various, much older petrified objects - included a shoe belonging to Queen Mary from the 1920's.


Even more educational facts - I love it.

And then, after a quick "Hello" to Mother Shipton herself...


...it was time to say "Goodbye" to the caves and head off home.

A lovely little day out, far away from all things technological.

Which is always a winner in my book
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