Cockington Country Park — Attraction in Great Britain

Once there, this is a lovely place to visit. The grounds are pleasant to walk around and the craft shops both in the grounds and just outside make for a delightful experience. It seemed to be a very dog friendly area as by the manor house, there was an area where water and dog bowl was available for your furry friends. The grounds lent themselves as a free running area for dogs off leads.

The manor house didn't offer much in the way of looking around but there was a gallery which was nice to have a quick look around and a place which sold refreshments.

The nearby old school house offered an array of refreshments, including cream teas and a selection of other food at reasonable prices. The staff were friendly and helpful.

Parking was eventful as we were first time visitors. We were looking for disabled parking and the website described where this free parking was but we went on a car park with few spaces and ended up turning right out of it in error and ended up driving up a long single track road with a handful of passing places. If you're a nervous driver, please take care to avoid that. If you do end up on it, it takes you a good 10 minutes to loop back, especially if you want to avoid the single track back.

We didn't find the disabled parking so ended up in the village car park. As getting to the country park from there is quite a climb, it would be a struggle for anyone with limited mobility unless they were in a wheel chair. My parents looked at the shops near the school house while I explored the grounds (as they couldn't manage the steep hills. I did eventually find the half dozen disabled spaces while on foot but these would be better if they were signposted as such.

Over all, I had an enjoyable couple of hours, but I expect unless you have a picnic planned and maybe some games (if they are allowed there), you would only need a...

Cockington is a lovely quiet place, that's off the beaten track and is a very different feeling to almost everywhere else in Torbay.

The scenery is beautiful as well the quaint old buildings being a view into the past. There are numerous craft based businesses (glass blowing, metal foundry, bespoke lights, gin makers).

There is a nice cafe within the historic building, with internal and external seating so on sunny days you can get a drink or meal and enjoy it whilst looking towards the cricket pitch and pavillion and some absolutely huge pine trees.

There is plenty of parking, but we walked from the seafront via the countryside path, which was easy going and flat, but does take half an hour or so to get to the village of Cockington. On route we spotted various insect wildlife, having a stream running parallel to the path, means plentyful numbers of dragonfly and similar species, plus various species of butterfly.

I would say this is a place aimed mainly at adults and older children, although they are trying to cater for younger children with a temporary dinosaur trail. The playground was somewhat dull and with many items not working or out of use.

The walled rose garden smells devine and is well maintained, unfortunately whilst we were there a wedding party came in to have their photos, so we moved out of the way so they could do that in peace. I image it would be a nice place to sit in the quiet for a while otherwise.

Cockington is a full day out, and other than buying a drink or ice-cream is free, it's well...

If you can......walk through the water meadow to get there, it is mostly boardwalk but abit rough for wheelchairs in places( you can take the road which is wide and tarmaced and easier for wheelchair user) it is really pretty with it's meadow streams, wildlife, plants and flowers (it's about a mile maybe less) the main part of the park is paved and in the midst of a quaint village with tearooms, gift shop, ice cream and the beautiful large Drum Inn with loads of outdoor seating for drinks / food. There are no WC's in the village unless you use the pub (unless they have reopened the carpark ones) there is plenty of parking in the car parks in the village. Take a walk to the park and follow signs to the ponds it is all paved so wheelchair access, the ponds are full of ducks, fish, dragonflies, tadpoles, ducklings, birdsong and colourful planting, then take the path up to the Manour house tea rooms where public toilets can be found, they are clean. Across the way is an old church where you can go in and look around (it is quite beauful) then across the way to the pretty walled rose garden and through the arch to the stableyard where you will find a glass blower shop, blacksmith, gin maker and jewelry maker (worth a look!!) There are also other craft units...chocolatier, mosaic shop etc. There are also woodland walks. All in all this a super place to visit which will heighten your senses...