Wild child rating
Price rating
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££££
Stockeld Park
Our Number One Pick for Families with Kids of Different Ages
We've been to Stockeld Park in summer before, but Halloween turns the whole place into something else entirely, and the Mummy Maze update this year is genuinely one of the best additions we've seen.
A Genuine Full Day Out
Stockeld Park is about 1 hour 30 minutes from Newcastle, and for Halloween the Enchanted Forest fills with four live-action witches running their own spellbinding shops, a proper immersive theatre experience rather than just spooky decorations dotted about. You complete a whimsical activity trail with each witch and get a stamp for your efforts, which kept the kids properly motivated to track them all down.
The Playhive
The play hive is Stockeld's indoor adventure playground, and the theming is genuinely incredible, four connected worlds covering space, air, jungle and sea, with spiraling slides, high level walkways and interactive games throughout. It's air conditioned too, which matters more than you'd think on a proper hot summer day, or equally when the Yorkshire weather does what it does best.
Our tip, and it's one we've learnt through trial and error: save the Playhive for last. It gets noticeably quieter later in the day, once a lot of families have started heading home, so you get more room to actually enjoy it rather than queuing for every slide. Just remember, socks are compulsory inside, so don't get caught out but the gift shop does sell them if you forget. If you have multiple ages and especially little ones it is huge, so we did have one child per parent just in fear of losing one of them so bear this in mind.
The Mummy Maze
The Magical Maze becomes the Mummy Maze for the season, home to a new spooktacular trail game that sends you twisting through its paths hunting for secret objects along the way. It's more involved than a standard maze walk, there's a proper narrative thread pulling you through it, and our two were still talking about it on the drive home.
Pumpkin Picking
Pumpkin picking is included in your entry, complete with a tractor-trailer ride down to the patch and a friendly live-action Scarecrow keeping watch, though pumpkins themselves cost a small amount extra to take home. If you fancy upping the thrill factor, Zombie Laser Tag can be added for £5.50pp, two teams going to battle in a spooky woodland arena.
New for this year are Pumpkin Nights, an evening event on 17th and 24th October running from 5.30pm to 9pm, live music, stilt walkers, fire eaters and games like Crockery Smash included in your ticket. If you've already got a day ticket, entry is half price, worth combining if you want the full Stockeld Halloween experience across one visit.
What We Thought
We spent a full day here, between the witches, the maze, the pumpkin patch and the playgrounds, easily 6 hours and we still didn't catch everything. This is one to commit a proper day to, not squeeze into an afternoon.