A trip to Gibside and the amazing fort

Armed with our new National Trust passes we headed to Gibside in Gateshead. Even though it is just about five minutes off the A1 I'd never been before. And what a beautiful place. We got there just after opening at around 10am and it was pretty quiet. There is a small slide just by the entrance, so it was about 10 minutes before we were even able to get inside. There was a nice cafe area too with outdoor seating. Once we were finally through the main gate, the site opens up and we walked down a beautiful alleyway of trees. Again that took about half an hour, stopping to pick up leaves, conkers and acorns along the way. The whole place is pushchair friendly, and you need one, or a backpack, as it is a vast estate and was too far for Charlotte to walk everywhere. There is a craft centre and indoor fort at the stables and another cafe too. The new play area is about a five minutes pushchair walk from the entrance, and is, even from an adults point of view, pretty impressive. The fort in the middle has steps and slides and there are smaller slides around the outside, surrounded by a picnic area. It was a sunny Saturday and by the time we were leaving at about 1pm, the car park was full and people were being sent to park in the village, so , get there early. A very relaxing day out!

More information can be found on the national trust website.