I’ve just started a new job which allows me a lot more flexibility and time off with my two-year-old Ivy – which I am absolutely loving. It means we now have afternoons, and one day a week together, and I’m making the most of this time together and dedicating it to adventures and exploring. And that’s exactly what we did with my day off this week, the sun was out, so we set out to go and explore a new park and found ourselves at Brooklands Meadow Park.
Brooklands Meadow Park has been mentioned to me a few times as a favourite for toddlers, with lots of things to climb on and little wooden animal statues. The park is semi-enclosed, meaning there are a few small fences, but it’s far enough away from the road with lots of green space that I wasn’t worried.
The first thing we both loved about this park is all the animals. Ivy adores animals and loved pointing out all the different ones she could see. There were wooden animals everywhere, fishes carved into benches, an owl overlooking the park, and a small bee over by the tunnel – they were amazing. It’s a great park to bring children to and see how many they could find.
My next favourite thing about this park was how much there was to climb. I joke that Ivy is part mountain goat, as the kid just loves to climb! There’s a large wooden boat that rocks, a climbing platform, and two climbing frames at this park – all of which are adventurous toddler-friendly sized.
One of the climbing frames is better for less confident climbers as it’s easy to navigate up it either by the steps or by the climbing rope, with a small slide. The other climbing frame is a lot larger for more confident climbers with a rope to help pull yourself up, and a very large fast slide which Ivy had great fun with! The climbing platform felt a little random, Ivy had fun climbing up it but then was confused that there was no slide or anything on there – but I imagine it’s a nice place for slightly older children to sit up there.
There are also a couple of swings in this park – one baby swing, and one bucket swing. If your child is really into swings it’s probably not the best park to visit, and I imagine when it’s busy these are quite in demand – but they make a nice addition.
There’s some other really cool additions to this park, there’s a tunnel, some animal-shaped rockers, a spinning seat you can sit in and roll around, and lots of these coloured balls which were great fun to climb on and jump off! There’s also a wooden seating area, so in the summer you could spend a while here and bring some food with you too.
We had such a great time at this park, I really loved all the wooden animals, and Ivy had such a great time climbing absolutely everything! I think this is now our new favourite!
How to Find it
Brooklands Meadow Park can be found in Brooklands, using the postcode MK10 7FQ. There isn’t parking, but there were some spaces around the park – but please note it’s in a residential area so park considerately.
I’ve Enjoyed Brooklands Meadow Park, Where Can I Go Next?
If you’ve enjoyed Brooklands Meadow Park and want to carry on exploring, there are some other lovely parks in the Brooklands area. A short walk away is another park that’s an extension of this one, aimed at older children with a zip wire and sports equipment. There are a couple of other parks in Brooklands to explore, as a few great places to get food – my favourites are Olevo for pizza, and Kuku for great coffee and cakes. Brooklands is also the home to my favourite stationary and gift shop, Shrimp and Doodle – which has some amazing items.
If you’re looking at doing something else close to the area, Brooklands isn’t too far away from the Kingston area, where there are a couple of shops and restaurants and a climbing centre. There’s also Willen Lake where you could go for a walk around, grab a coffee, and visit the recently added park. There’s quite a lot to do in this area of Milton Keynes, so you could easily spend a good few hours here!
