Wynyard Woodland Park — Attraction in Grindon and Thorpe Thewles

I love taking my daughter and her friends here. We can spend practically the whole day here when its a warm sunny summers day. But have also visited wrapped up for a couple of hours during other seasons! The play park here is excellent for younger and older kids alike, having a large climing frame structure for the older kids which goes high off ground, a net walkway, a huge metal tunnel slide, climbing wall and other slides. Aswell as roundabouts, swings for both older and younger, a large wooden log climbing frame, an assault course, see saws, sand pit, basket swing and a climbing frame with slides, walkways etc for the younger kids. Theres a large area to play games on, or lay picnic blankets down, which is what we usually do. There is a wonderful little cafe that do sandwiches, panninis, pie, sausage rolls, cakes and sweet slices aswell as hot and cold drinks. The cafe also do lovely flavoured ice-creams. The staff are very helpful and friendly. There are toilet blocks there. Which unfortunately have been hitty missy with there cleanliness however that would be my only gripe and has never put us off going there. There is also a lovely long walk / cycle path which used to be the railway track, it does head off into the woods if you wanted to take that path or just continue along the line and back again. Very enjoyable days spent here and the...

Wynyard Woodland Park offers great facilities to walkers, dog owners, families, couples and cyclists alike.

The former railway track provides free parking, a cafe , Observatory and playground to those willing to travel to it and I must add it is definitely worth the visit.

The old station house is well presented and the surrounding garden areas are well-stocked and easy on the eye. There is also a notable lack of graffiti, which is quite often a problem for facilities similar to this. Here however, the efforts of those who maintain the premises marry well with the desire of those visiting to keep it looking beautiful.

A friendly smile can often be seen or a polite “hello“ can be heard from passers-by as they too travel along the many miles of relatively flat ground. With some even daring to branch off down one of the many smaller tracks during their own mini adventure.

For cyclists in particular, the track links beautifully with other popular trails such as Hart to Haswell. It is quite easy to ride into double figure mileage if that’s your intention.

For anyone using the walkway however, try to experience a sunset at Hurworth Burn Reservoir if you can. There are picnic benches there so you could even plan a little snack stop if you...

Lovely place to walk with your dog's & children which we do regularly. Please be aware that dogs are no longer allowed inside the cafe, which was very disappointing after we had been allowed on a previous visit. When we asked the reason for this we were told by a staff member it had only been a trial and was stopped because people were allowing their dogs to pee up the chair legs! Her words. As a responsible dog owner I find this really hard to believe but I'm sure there will always be the exception to the rule that spoils it for the majority but as the majority of people who were using the cafe the day we visited had dogs, which meant sitting outside to eat on a very cold day, I think a compromise needs to be found. Also a bit more clarity as to food serving times would be good as on a previous visit we asked for soup at 2.10pm with a closing time of 3pm, to be told I've washed everything up now, was a bit off putting, the member of staff did go on to serve us the soup begrudgingly but the attitude to both of the above isn't very welcoming which is a shame when this facility is provided in a country park were people visit with children, dogs & muddy feet...