This weekend we had some rare and much-needed sunshine, so we decided to make the most of it and took the kids to Salcey Forest for a walk around. To make it fun for the kids we did the Superworm Trail, based on the Julia Donaldson book.
The Superworm trail follows along superworm and you discover the small creatures from the story and learn about the everyday heroic feats of minibeasts in the forest. The trail follows the purple elephant route in Salcey Forest, which is the shortest of their routes, and it’s all self-guided, so you can take it at your own pace. We spent just over an hour doing the walk at a slow pace.
We love books in our house, and Reuben our 11-year-old is very familiar with the Superworm story, and Ivy our 2-year-old has read it a few times, which made the trail fun for them as it’s something they know the story of.
The trail is a circular route where you follow around to find the different animals and creatures in the booklet. There are various points you can check off in the booklet you get in the activity pack, and you can do rubbings of different creatures and plants. At each checkpoint, there’s information and things to try and find.
The Superworm trail is a nice gentle walk around, with a small park with houses and tipis in the middle of it. It was quite muddy during our visit, but my 2-year-old still had great fun running around and playing in the houses. This area was quite small for my 11-year-old, however, there is another play area next to the cafe which has equipment for older children.
We had great fun on the Superworm trail at Salcey Forest. It was great to get out in the sunshine, and let the kids burn off some energy! The activity pack is a great idea too, and has some animal fact cards in, stickers, a mask, and other information on creatures you’d find in the forest. I think we’ll be doing this trail again over the summer, especially as the walk was easy enough for Ivy to do too!
How to Find it
Salcey Forest can be found at Wootton Road, Northampton NN7 2HX – use the map below for directions.
There’s a car park and an overflow car park with pay and display parking.
Good to Know
- The Superworm trail costs £3.50 for an activity pack – which includes the booklet to do the rubbings
- The trail is 1.2km long and aimed at families with children aged 3-9 years old, but can be enjoyed by all ages. My kids were 2 and 11 at the time of writing and we had a great time!
- The route is suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs, with lots of seating along the route
- Salcey Forest is open from 8am – 5pm in the winter, and 8am – 9pm in the summer months
- Car parking costs £6 for all day parking, £4 for 2 hours, and £2 for one hour. It’s pay and display but you can pay online on your phone
- Salcey Forest has toilets and a cafe available
- There are various other walks if you want to try a longer route!
I’ve Enjoyed The Superworm Trail at Salcey Forest, Where Can I Go Next?
Salcey Forest is a lovely place to visit. You can also find a cafe serving food, drinks and snacks, and a play area for older children. There used to be a Tree Top Walkway that was really popular, which had to close as it wasn’t structurally safe. However, on the Forestry England website, it says they are hoping to have funding to fix this very soon!
If you’re looking for a longer walk, Salcey Forest also has a couple of other routes too that you can follow. There’s also a horse-riding route and a cycling trail – and you can even hire bikes at Salcey Forest if you’ve not got one with you.
