Box Hill is one of our local National Trust sites – a little more than twelve miles from our house so one we go to frequently.

Box Hill is an area of so many things to discover – and quite recently The National Trust set up some new walkways there, one of which we stumbled across today when we went for a visit – the Natural Play Trail.

The walk is around two miles long, suitable for kids of all ages and buggies, and throughout the walk there are lots of things to do.

We discovered lots of huts – handy for a bear hunt or searching for Gruffalo’s – as well as various play areas made from wood and rope – a swing, a rope swing, some tree trunks to balance on and lots to see and spot.

We kept it simple and kept to balancing on logs. H is pretty good though unsteady (like her mum) so we started holding hands until by the end she was doing it on her own which was good – and there are a lot of logs to practice on.

There were play areas around the walk – one area had a rope to balance or climb on, a swing tied into it (H had a go and enjoyed hanging upside down the most), and a rope swing which we need to work on with H! They were great and suitable for H’s age with supervision. There were older kids but they were respectful of H and her younger age and let her play too which was nice.

All around the woods were dens built from sticks and branches, one of our favourite things when we go for walks like this – an estimate would be twenty or thirty easily and they were all easy to climb into. As well as this were play and balance areas using smaller logs which you could climb on, some with a twisty maze around them and others just enclosed by them.

At the end of the first one was a doorway carved into a tree which H loved!

Box Hill also now have some cute paints on the roadway, from Amazing Views to Tea and Cake – as well as signs welcoming you there.

There are other walks at the site – if next weekend, post Birthday Party is all too much I know we’ll be back again – it’s good for clearing the head! Plus I had no idea the concrete thing we stand on is actually a fort (which is obvious really when you think about it)

Head here to see the other walks on offer.

We have National Trust membership which is paid for by ourselves.