For all things wild, wet and wonderful, you’ll want Weardale Adventures. Pick from day activities that include paddleboarding, rock climbing, gorge walking, high ropes, caving, mine exploration and archery. Or stay dry knocking down the pins or blitzing the adventure golf course at Planet Leisure in Aycliffe.
Book a trek that’s totally tailored to you with Teesdale Alpacas. Watch music, dance and Friday-night film at Mickleton Community Centre. Climb the walls at Teesdale Leisure Centre. Discover what life looked like in the 1840s at Darlington Railway Museum, the home of Stephenson’s rocket with its terrifying 15mph top speed.
Visit Beamish Museum, a huge recreation of a town through the ages from the 1820s to the 1950s. Get a beehive hairdo and find out what a ‘netty’ was. Check out an impressive programme of events at Raby Castle and say hi to the free-roaming deer. Or meet falcons and owls at Walworth Birds of Prey.
Catch the latest big-screen entertainment at Vue Cinemas in Darlington and live action at Darlington Hippodrome. Stick around to get stuck into arts and crafts at Create and Paint. Walk the river path to Broken Scar Picnic Area. Or pet and feed goats, chinchillas, llamas, donkeys, and a Shetland pony at Little Cow Farm.
Love a wild waterfall? At High Force, you’ve got options to watch the 70-metre falls from above or below. Tack on a stop at the Bowlees Visitor Centre for cake and coffee and a stroll past the gentler Low Force. Continue to Cauldron Snout and make it a waterfalls hat trick. Or organise a guided tour from the High Force Hotel.
Skies are super-dark here and there’s nowhere better to take in the glittering canopy or the Northern Lights than Grassholme Observatory. Whistle Crag is another good vantage point, but come back during daytime for a lovely view. Or walk the Weardale Way, the old Teesdale railway path, or along colour-marked trails in Hamsterley Forest.
Discover an incredible collection of art at The Bowes Museum. Drive up to Durham to tour the cathedral and discover how the Prince Bishops were a sort of northern Royal Family. Head out to Teesdale Gun Club to shoot clay and take on a smart parklands course at Barnard Castle Golf Club.
Stick around in ‘Barnie’ to have your photo taken outside Specsavers (thanks, Dominic Cummings) and to wander the antique shops and tearooms. Be in The Lake District or Northumberland within 40 minutes and the north-east coast in not much longer. Or chill the pace with Karen from Skin Therapy and her calming aromatic oils.
