Wiltshire

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You know those days…energy is running high in the house but you swear the squash was additive-free. Your options are to start fire-breathing and become angry dragon mother from hell – or accept defeat, pack them in the car/drop them on the back of the bike and ferry them to the park. But if your local rec won’t do – and to make it a bit more exciting for you too – I recommend you take a trip to Bowood House &amp; Gardens near Calne. We&#8217;re wondering if it&#8217;s best adventure playgrounds in Wiltshire.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="744" src="https://wilts.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Screenshot-2021-12-22-104640.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-27511" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Screenshot-2021-12-22-104640.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Screenshot-2021-12-22-104640-800x397.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Screenshot-2021-12-22-104640-1000x496.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Screenshot-2021-12-22-104640-768x381.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Screenshot-2021-12-22-104640-900x446.jpg 900w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>



For a start, as soon as you enter the playground where dreams are made, the price of which is included in a day ticket to Bowood House &amp; Gardens, you’ll be blown away by its sheer epic size. It’s a large, grassy outdoor space in the gardens with a variety of climbing frames covered with scramble nets, aerial walkways, slides and a large wooden pirate ship, all of which send kids under 12 scrambling, darting, climbing and laughing all over the place, despite parents (like our commercial manager Olivia) trying to deep breathe through a mini cardiac arrest as they watch their progeny go all Bear Grylls.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="2000" src="https://wilts.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Olivias-sons.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-27465" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Olivias-sons.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Olivias-sons-600x800.jpg 600w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Olivias-sons-750x1000.jpg 750w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Olivias-sons-768x1024.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Olivias-sons-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Olivias-sons-394x525.jpg 394w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption>Olivia&#8217;s sons</figcaption></figure>



To be honest, I totally sympathise with Olivia, who recently took her two boys, aged 6 and 4, recently. I took my niece and nephew when they were about the same age and spent the whole time hyperventilating as they walked along rope bridges with confidence and threw themselves down the slides. There is one indoor slide I nicknamed “the death slide” because it&#8217;s a 19 foot vertical drop, but every single child who tried it a) survived b) thrived. 



Olivia’s favourite part of the playground was the Pirate Galleon, a large wooden ship with plenty of places for kids to run around, hide in, climb up. It was made by Cornish playground experts <a href="https://alastairguy.co.uk/projects/bowood-pirate-galleon/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alistair Guy</a> over 30 years ago and is still inspiring creative play, which gives parents and nervous Aunties/Grandparents a chance for a breather while children re-enact scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean or even better – make their own stories up.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1000" src="https://wilts.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Bowood-Galleon-5-1200x800-1.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-27457" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Bowood-Galleon-5-1200x800-1.jpeg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Bowood-Galleon-5-1200x800-1-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Bowood-Galleon-5-1200x800-1-1000x667.jpeg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Bowood-Galleon-5-1200x800-1-768x512.jpeg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Bowood-Galleon-5-1200x800-1-788x525.jpeg 788w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /><figcaption>Pic credit Alistair Guy</figcaption></figure>



Another favourite activity is the&nbsp;jumping pillow which Olivia says “was so fun &#8211;&nbsp;the&nbsp;boys bounced across it immediately,&nbsp;giggling away.” It’s like a huge trampoline on the ground. Her sons didn&#8217;t try out The Flying Fox though &#8211; although as soon as they are 130cm tall they will. It&#8217;s a zip wire that traverses the whole of the park!



Of course, play equals a demand for food at some point, and luckily visitors are allowed to bring in their own food and have a choice of lovely places to sit, like under cherry trees facing the house. But if you don’t want to spend an hour chopping up carrot sticks and blending your own haricot bean dip before you go, the on site Tree House Café and Stables Restaurant serve baguettes, paninis quiches, cakes, cream teas and delicious local Rowdey Cow Ice Cream.



Energy levels topped up and there’s still plenty more to do for kids for the day at Bowood. For the under 7s there’s a dedicated play area called the Partridge Play Pen. It’s just behind the adventure playground with a range of boat swings, a Wendy House, and ball pit along with a new, smaller jumping pillow.



There are often other activities planned for families which change seasonally – when Olivia visited (August 2022), Bowood were running a detective search game with a woodland map&nbsp;that took them around&nbsp;the&nbsp;grounds to&nbsp;the&nbsp;Doric Temple,&nbsp;the&nbsp;Grotto and&nbsp;the&nbsp;Cascade. Says Olivia “running through&nbsp;the&nbsp;caves in&nbsp;the&nbsp;dark was another highlight for&nbsp;the&nbsp;boys &#8211; luckily I found&nbsp;the&nbsp;torch on my iPhone! We rounded&nbsp;the&nbsp;day off with a quick scale of&nbsp;the&nbsp;Tree Climb climbing wall and a trip on&nbsp;the&nbsp;John Deere bike tractors which are just by the entrance/exit.”



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="1500" height="1125" src="https://wilts.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Climbing-wall-bowood.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-27463" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Climbing-wall-bowood.jpg 1500w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Climbing-wall-bowood-800x600.jpg 800w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Climbing-wall-bowood-1000x750.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Climbing-wall-bowood-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wilts/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/08/Climbing-wall-bowood-700x525.jpg 700w" sizes="(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px" /></figure>

Have we found Wiltshire’s ultimate adventure playground?

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