The Travel Nut

As a family, we love going to Margam Park. It’s about ten minutes away from home in the car, and always a firm favourite (hence the silly faces!)

There is no charge to enter the park, but car park charges do apply.

As we live locally, we take advantage of the ‘Residents Parking Permit’ – which was £23 last year. This allows us unlimited parking and entry into the Park (except when they have special events on, usually on Bank Holidays). For us, this is a great saving. Normally the car park costs £5.40 for cars  – so use the ticket more than five times in a whole year (starting 1st March) and you’ve already made a saving. This is easily done by us, as we love attending, even through the winter months. Permits are available for Non-Residents of Neath Port Talbot too, at a slighty higher price, but still a huge saving if you plan on visiting a lot.

The park is open all year round – but please check their website for opening times, as these do vary throughout the seasons, and dependent if they have any events scheduled. The website can be viewed here.

The park is set in 850 acres of land, and is full of things to do and see.

A prominent feature of the park is the 19th Century Tudor Gothic Castle, that is Grade 1 listed. Lots of activities still take place in the Castle, and they often use it as a pop up art gallery.  They even had the ‘EPIC’ sign in the park last year (I’ve included a photo).

There is also Margam Orangery, which is another beautiful building. This can be hired as a wedding venue, as well as for conferences and events.

For the children, where to start?!

Down the lower end of the park, near the Orangery, there is a Fairytale village. This consists of a series of houses, themed to different Disney stories. There is also a big castle of their own that they can conquer, and two play parks. They are spoilt for choice.

Further on in the park, there are two ponds where you can feed the ducks. The larger pond is also used for activities such as stand up paddle boarding and kayaking in the summer months. (These events are chargeable and need to be booked in advance).

Just past the Castle, there is another Adventure Park, complete with big wooden structures. This is my boys favourite area. They love the variety that the park offers – and on windy days, it’s relatively empty, and they’ve even had the entire play park to themselves! (p.s – even suitable for big kid hubbys!!)

There is a train that operates in the park during the summer months, and takes you on a from the lower part of the park (near the entrance) up to the Castle.

There is also a Farm Trail within the park grounds that you can see, with animals such as donkeys, pigs, chickens, and sheep.

There are toilets located in different areas of the park, and are all accessible. Near the Castle there is also a gift shop, and a shop where you can buy snacks and ice cream if you want a little pit stop. We have only ever had snacks here once, as we usually take a picnic if we are heading out for the day, or take our own drinks and snacks if heading out for an hour or two. There are benches dotted all over the park, and vast areas of grass, so in the drier months we like to take a blanket and bask in the sun on the grass whilst enjoying our lunch.

There is so much to discover in the park and the surrounding area’s – we’ve still not completed all the walks that take you out of the park and into the surrounding fields. The boys even simply love climbing the trees and following the path that has ‘giant mushrooms’ and instruments made out of wood. The photo’s I’ve included are a mix of images taken over various visits to the park. No doubt I’ll have more to add again soon 🙂

We also love that the park is pushchair and wheelchair friendly within the grounds, and that dogs are also allowed. We love taking our little beauty Bobbi with us on our walks – but she does get a bit disappointed that she can’t join the boys in the play parks!

Please Note: Please refer to the Park’s website for accurate opening times and car parking charges, as these may change. Price’s correct at time of writing.

Here you can follow a link to view or download a Park Map; margam_park_visitors_map_2016

Have you been to Margam Park? If so, what did you think? Feel free to leave your comments 🙂