Visit Bill Quay Farm Bill Quay Farm is one of Gateshead's quieter treasures, a twenty seven acre community farm overlooking the River Tyne, run largely by Chrysalis Training and the Bill Quay Community Farm Association for the benefit of the whole neighbourhood. It's a small, unpolished, thoroughly genuine sort of place, home to rare breed pigs, sheep, goats and geese, and it's entirely free to wander around, animal food available for a couple of pounds a bag if your wild chi

Visit Rising Sun Country Park Rising Sun Country Park is a genuine green oasis in the heart of North Tyneside, 162 hectares of grassland, woodland and ponds built, rather wonderfully, on the site of a former colliery. There are four well marked trails of varying length, a lake with bird hides for spotting ducks and geese, and, right in the middle of it all, a proper working community farm that's completely free to wander into. The lowdown: Where: Rising Sun Countryside Centre

Visit the Angel of the North Few landmarks say "you're in the North East" quite as emphatically as Antony Gormley's Angel, standing sentinel on a Gateshead hillside beside the A1 since 1998. Twenty metres tall with a wingspan wider than a jumbo jet, she's one of the most viewed pieces of public art in the country, seen by an estimated thirty three million people a year from passing cars and trains alone. Up close, she's rather more moving than any photograph quite manages to

Visit Plessey Woods Country Park Known locally as Bluebell Woods, Plessey Woods is a hundred acres of woodland, wildflower meadow and riverside tucked along the River Blyth between Bedlington and Cramlington. It has a lovely, unhurried feel to it, with winding nature trails, a sculpture trail dotted through the trees, and a river bank where otters and kingfishers occasionally make an appearance if you're patient. It's the sort of gentle countryside spot that rewards a slow wa

Visit Hamsterley Forest County Durham's largest forest is a proper destination in its own right, the sort of place you can happily lose an entire day in. Hamsterley offers a huge network of walking and cycling trails through ancient woodland, from gentle riverside strolls to more serious mountain biking routes, along with a well loved children's trail based on Julia Donaldson's stories. It's a fair drive out from Newcastle, around ninety minutes, but for a wild child who need

Visit Northumberlandia, the Lady of the North There is genuinely nothing else quite like Northumberlandia. Just outside Cramlington, a vast reclining female figure has been sculpted from 1.5 million tonnes of rock, clay and soil, rising a full one hundred feet from the surrounding parkland. Designed by the artist Charles Jencks, she stretches a quarter of a mile long, with four miles of paths winding over and around her. It's part art installation, part country park, and enti

Visit Discovery Museum, Newcastle Discovery Museum is one of those places that manages to be genuinely fascinating for adults while offering a wild child an entire day's worth of things to press, pull and investigate. Housed in the old Co-operative Wholesale Society building near Newcastle city centre, it tells the story of Tyneside's maritime, scientific and industrial past, with the magnificent Turbinia, once the fastest ship in the world, taking pride of place at the entra

Visit West Park Pump Track, South Shields If your wild child is more inclined towards wheels than wellies, South Tyneside's new pump track is well worth the trip. Opened in 2026 on the site of four long unused tennis courts, this £175,000 facility offers a large, flowing tarmac circuit designed for bikes, scooters, skates and skateboards, plus a dedicated toddler section for those just learning to balance. It's already proved enormously popular since opening, and it's entirel

Visit King Edward's Bay, Tynemouth, for rock pooling Of all the beaches along this stretch of coast, King Edward's Bay is the one to seek out if rock pooling is the plan. It's a small, sheltered, sandy cove tucked beneath high cliffs, just along from the more famous Long Sands, and considerably quieter for it. When the tide draws back, it reveals a wonderful scattering of rock pools, perfect for a determined wild child armed with a net and a bucket, hunting for crabs, anemone

Visit Saltwell Park and its famous maze Saltwell Park is often described as the jewel in Gateshead's crown, and it's easy to see why. This grand Victorian park, one of the finest examples of its kind in the country, offers fifty five acres of woodland, ornamental gardens, a boating lake and, at its heart, a proper hedge maze that has been baffling and delighting families for generations. It's the sort of place you can return to again and again without ever quite exhausting wh

Visit Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art Housed in a magnificent former flour mill on the Gateshead bank of the Tyne, Baltic is one of the largest galleries of its kind in the world, and it welcomes every visitor entirely free of charge. Its ever changing programme of contemporary art, spread across four floors, ranges from the thought provoking to the genuinely playful, and there's rarely a dull visit. For families, the real draw might well be the viewing platforms on Levels

Visit Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books Tucked into a handsome converted warehouse in the Ouseburn Valley, Seven Stories is one of Newcastle's genuine cultural treasures, and it happens to be entirely free. This is the National Centre for Children's Books, home to original manuscripts and artwork from some of the nation's best loved children's authors, spread across several floors of galleries designed to be explored rather than simply looked at. It's th

Visit Bolam Lake Country Park Bolam Lake is proper Northumberland countryside — a broad, still lake ringed by woodland, about nine miles west of Morpeth, with a flat, fully accessible path running the whole way round. It's the kind of place where a wild child can genuinely stretch their legs, keep an eye out for red squirrels and roe deer, and generally exist at full volume without troubling a soul. The full loop is only around a mile, manageable even for smaller legs, with w

Visit Ouseburn Farm Ouseburn Farm is one of Newcastle's genuinely lovely surprises — a working city farm tucked beneath three bridges in the Ouseburn Valley, run largely by volunteers, and home to more than enough animals to keep a wild child thoroughly entertained. Sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks, rabbits, guinea pigs and the odd tortoise are all in residence, and with a bag of feed from the farm shop, your little ones can get properly involved rather than simply peering

Visit the Durham Riverside Walk For something a little further afield, with plenty of room to let small legs run ahead, the Durham Riverside Walk is a genuine treat. It's a gentle three-mile loop that follows the River Wear right round Durham's peninsula, taking in the castle, the cathedral, several handsome old bridges, and more green space than most wild children will know what to do with. It's flat, largely traffic-free, and there's enough to spot along the way — weirs, ro

Visit Peter Rabbit: Tales on the Tyne This one's rather special if you've a small person who loves a good hunt. Peter Rabbit™: Tales on the Tyne is a free sculpture trail winding its way through Newcastle and North Tyneside this summer — 43 beautifully decorated Peter Rabbit sculptures and 53 smaller "fluffles" tucked into parks, streets and public buildings, waiting to be found. It's raising money for St Oswald's Hospice as it goes, which makes it feel like a genuinely good

Visit Jesmond Dene and Pets' Corner There's something rather lovely about the fact that a proper wooded valley, complete with waterfalls and an old water mill, sits just a few minutes from the middle of the city. Jesmond Dene is exactly that kind of surprise — a genuine escape where a wild child can charge ahead along the paths, clamber over rocks by the river, and get pleasantly muddy without a single raised eyebrow. At its heart is Pets' Corner, a free little farm that's be

Visit Tiny Toon, Old Eldon Square If your wild child has ever announced, apropos of nothing, that they'd like to drive a train or run a bakery, Tiny Toon is where that particular dream gets to come true. Every summer, Old Eldon Square is transformed into a miniature Newcastle — a scaled-down Metro train and platform, a little Tyne Bridge, tiny versions of local favourites like Pink Lane Bakery and the Tyneside Cinema: all built at exactly the right height for small, ambitious

FREE event that is back for Summer 2026 and genuinley one of my favourite events of the year. Great for under 7's, right in the middle of Newcastle City Centre so super easy to get to. Old Eldon Square. Find it with screen on the green, a new stay and play in partnership with Go-North East. No booking required. What's there: Mini Tyne Bridge Tyne and Wear Metro Train Mini Eldon Square Tyneside Cinema Newcastle Building Society Pink Lane Bakery Dakwala Bombay Canteen Mon, Wed,

30 Lime Street, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 2PQ Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 10am-5pm (check sevenstories.org.uk for seasonal variations and event times) Ouseburn street parking or Lime Street car park nearby 10 minutes from Newcastle city centre Adult: approx. £6.95 / Child: approx. £6.95 / Under 2s: Free / Family tickets available Suitable from birth upwards. Most content designed for under 12s. The UK’s only museum dedicated to children’s books and literature. Seven floors