Morpeth and area holiday ideas please

[canuckup]

We're heading up to Cresswell Towers soon for a few days and wondered if there are any activities that people could suggest? Kids are 9 and 12 and like the outdoors.

We're already planning on visiting the Harry Potter castle and poison garden.

Any restaurant recommendations would be appreciated too

Holy Island aka Lindisfarne.

Lots of the beaches, Whitney Bay, Craster has a great restaurant with views towards Dunstanburgh Castle, great for the kids. Woodhorn mining museum. Depends on how far you want to travel, but Beamish is brilliant for the whole family, for a whole day. Fish n chips and the real bakery, yum!

Kielder Water and Forest Park is well worth a visit. It's a beautiful place, great for walking and a whole host of other activities to keep the kids busy.

https://www.kielderwaterside.com/activities/

There’s a fantastic pirate-themed crazy golf course and football golf at Morpeth Family Golf Club.
Go Ape at Matfen
There’s bike hire and cycle trail at Wallington (National Trust), plus an adventure playground, cafe, book shop etc….

The Star Inn in Harbottle does incredible pizzas and has a big choice of board games to play while you wait.

Cragside (national trust) is great
Lindesfarne if the tide times work out right
The Barn at Beal is good, there is an owl sanctuary there too
Alnwick steam railway is cute

If you get time, Jedburgh is lovely, the Gaol is fun, Mary Queen of Scots house is nice, don't bother with Kelso or Coldstream as not worth the miles.

Depending on when you are there Edinburgh Fringe is good fun, the train from Berwick is really easy and parking at the station is cheap enough

These are right up our street, amazing!

Woodhorn museum as mentioned earlier is only 10 mins from cresswell & it used to be free not sure about now, it’s quite small but good for a couple of hours activities

Billy Shiels boat trips from Seahouses
Cuthberts cave
Chillingham castle
Heatherslaw railway
Belsay

druridge bay is 10 mins in other direction and a lush beach & country park
there are also woods around the caravan park
that are good for exploring

Little tip for Cresswell towers is to bring indoor and outdoor shoes prob some floor wipes too. It's a lovely little site but a lot of the vans are nowhere near a path and it gets very muddy if it rains heavily. Onsite shop is extortionate so get your snacks and whatnot at lidl or there's a coop in ellington. Drift cafe worth a visit and amble Sunday Market if you like a good old mooch through people's old shit 🤣

I grew up just north of Morpeth. Cragside is beautiful. If you like walking Thrunton Woods and Simonside have some lovely Forestry Commission guided walks