Scone Palace Family Day Out

Mum I’m bored! Again! Yep the war cry of every 5 – 15 year old was echoing through my house last week and that can only mean one thing, summer holidays.

To be honest when they are 11 and 13 your more offering a taxi, cooking and banking service than anything else but sometimes we all get a twinge of guilt and a yearning for family bonding and that happened last week. So where to go? Criteria – within an hours drive, outside fun (it was one of those sunny days), somewhere to eat and something for all of us. The answer jumped right out of the Live Active holiday programme where they had an advert – Scone Palace!

Now I’m ashamed to say I haven’t been. Ever. And I was brought up less than 5 miles away. However lately I have heard lots of really positive things about the attraction, so off we went!

First of all getting there, really easy, lots of signage, really quick from town and when we arrived there was free parking. Over to the ticket office where we were met by two lovely staff who showed us round the map and pointed out lots of things to do and we were off (they even advised to avoid the palace for a while as two bus loads had just come in.)

There really was a lot to do – a fun outdoor park with a zip wire, slides, climbing wall and the like was our starting point. We then went to the Chapel which is stunning. Even the teenager was impressed! Lots of chat then followed about the Stone of Destiny and the mystery surrounding its story, definitely captured the imaginations!

A good walk later (there are 3 of differing lengths laid out on the map) and we were ready for lunch! Lunch was delicious although going at 12.30 probably wasn’t the best idea, it was very busy! But once we got to the front of the line the staff were really nice and not a bit harassed. Lunch done and a good stroll around the gift and food shop, mum looking at the gin, kids looking at the chocolate and we set off to go round the Palace. If you’re picnicking you’ve got the choice of the whole grounds, so well worth considering.

The Palace is open on the ground floor and is quite breath-taking. There are some beautiful paintings, porcelain collections, furniture and a beautiful bedroom with some stunning dresses. The guides in the Palace are exceptional, very friendly; they seem really proud of their Palace and told us lots of interesting facts about the stunning collections. Well worth going for a tour.

Back in to the coffee shop and this time we were going for a Scone, well you can’t not have a scone in Scone surely? They were delish! Last stop was the Maze. Secretly I was dreading this, I have no sense of direction. The ever competitive younger daughter made it a race as usual and not surprisingly I lost, while Daughter number 1 sat smug at the water fountain in the middle for ages while we wandered around shouting help. I did however get out first, but I couldn’t do it again!

So was it worth it? Yes it absolutely was. And because they are celebrating 50 years this year, they have a brill offer where you can turn your entrance ticket into a season ticket for no extra cost! That gives you unlimited entry and until 31st October and 10% off the gift and Food shop and Coffee shop.

There’s still a couple of weeks left of the holidays, give Scone Palace a whirl.