William’s Den Pumpkin Party

A half term pumpkin party sounded like just the thing to start off the holidays. I’ve been promising to take the kids to William’s Den for years. So long in fact I thought my eldest might be too old for it. Just under an hour away from Bradford, William’s Den is located at North Cave, just off the M62. We woke up to a crisp Autumn day after all the rain the day before. A snap decision was made, and I booked the tickets online. I was told by friends, if nothing else my eldest would love the pizzas!

Outside William's Den Wooden play area inside the Den Hip2trek family stood with pin the smile on the pumpkin board

For Halloween there’s a Pumpkin Party theme, with pin the smile on the pumpkin, a pumpkin for each child, carving station and a little trail to follow with clues. This was along with all the climbing and fun you can have inside and out. We were told when we arrived that adults are encouraged to get involved playing too.

Hip2trek stood on a tyre swing

“For a moment I forgot I was a 40-year Mum of two, recovered from hip surgery,

and flung myself down the zip wire”

Our first stop was the den inside and we lost the kids for a while as they went exploring. It’s a great inside play space and I loved the wooden structure, like the kids are playing in a massive tree house. Once we dragged them outside, we had a play on the swings and zip wires. For a moment I forgot I was a 40-year Mum of two, recovered from hip surgery, and flung myself down the zip wire. I did get a little bit stuck getting off and needed to be rescued by the slightly embarrassed eldest! After that there was no stopping me and I helped the youngest on the big tyre swing. To think I’d been worried that my eldest was too old for this! He was loving it, especially the den building. Both kids commented how much they loved that lots of wood had been used for the play equipment and it wasn’t all plastic.

We had a slightly soggy walk around the Halloween trail, but given the amount of rain the day before we were pleasantly surprised that the ground hadn’t seemed to suffer too much. The pumpkin carving station area was quite muddy, the youngest brought wet boots so was just in trainers, but we managed to get in and out. All the staff had wonderful Halloween costumes and there was pumpkin soup on the menu if you fancied it. The kids also visited the tepee to see Agatha the witch for her ice scream creations.

Giant calzone on a plate Spooky halloween house pumpkins in a field and spooky scarecrow Pumpkin carving table

Lunch in the Kitchen Table restaurant was delicious. The pizzas were lovely as promised and the adults had the best calzones we’ve had for a long time. It was a great day and I’m so glad we went. I’m only sorry we haven’t visited before!

Top tips!

If you book online there’s a small discount on the ticket price. Take your wellies or walking boots – checking first they’re not soaked from the last time you wore them. Yes, Little legs, I’m talking to you!

We received no incentive for this post but just wanted to share our day with you. Have you visited William’s Den for any events? Or is there somewhere similar we should visit? Let me know in the comments.

If you liked this post why not check out how we got on last year at Castle Howard’s Zombie themed Halloween trail.

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