Avon Heath Country Park — Attraction in St. Leonards and St. Ives

Avon Heath has recently been revamped, and is a fantastic value day out for families, dog walkers, and those who love the countryside. Parking is free the first 15 minutes, £1.50 thereafter, however if you are a regular visitor/intend to be, if you pay £30 to become a "Friend of Avon Heath" for a year, you get unlimited parking included in several car parks, & 10% discount in the cafe and visitor centre.

Play Area - includes both woodland and play equipment play. Zip wire, artificial-turfed hillside (not horrifically muddy now they've done that in poorer weather), slides, swings (includinga lie-down one), sensory equipment, climbing web frame, small ground trampoline, tunnels, wooden sloped play "fortress". Ground is a mix of gravel and softened play matting material, so no more knee-deep mud. Toilets are clean.

Cafe has eco coffee (delicious), and Dorset tea, as well as kids packed lunch food. Cakes are home made. TIP - If you bring your own hot drink container they take off about 10p/20p too.

The surrounding walks are easy and scenic - there has been an increased drive to get dog owners to pick up all poo left by their dogs, especially when they leave the poo along the verges, as a recent survey of wheelchair users highlighted a lack of desire to return due to the amount of dog poo going on their wheels, which they then in turn have to touch. As such, there seems to have been a marked improvement.

The Discovery centre is small but an interesting brief...

I hope that the park rangers and Dorset County Council are proud of themselves. Avon Heath Country Park has been completely ruined. It used to be a place you could go during rainy weather and it was never muddy. Since the mass destruction by the vandals with chainsaws chopping down every tree in sight (when other councils are planting trees) the few trees left are so isolated and unprotected that they are now falling down. The trucks and machinery have churned up all the footpaths and the whole park is now just a muddy bog!! Perhaps it is your plan to destroy the once beautiful park into a place that nobody wishes to visit and then you will be free to build houses on it? At a time when everyone recommends planting trees you are cutting them down and what was once a beautiful place to walk in any weather is now impassable for huge muddy boggy pools. This used to be a place I enjoyed walking every day. My local walk. Residents were not consulted as to whether we wanted our park destroyed like this. You have cut down mature trees which even if planted replacements else where will take years to grow and you need to plant thousands to replace the thousands you have cut down!! Shame on you. Unless people just want to visit the children’s play area or cafe, don’t bother visiting as it is impossible to enjoy any kind of walk here now! Maybe it should be...

Large amount of interesting play areas outdoors for children of varying ages. Informative outdoor exhibitions on wildlife and heathland for children and adults. At sunny times during the summer sand lizards can be seen in an enclosure outside (unheated) near the car park. Heathland walks start from the car park and play areas. It takes only a few minutes walk to see some heathland and have a flavour of the area. You can walk for a few miles but there is not much variety and the lakes were dried up when I was there a few weeks ago although that may have changed now with the torrential rains across Britain. Large car park. You pay at a pay station before leaving based on number plate recognition. There is no parking ticket. There is no admission fee and the parking is only a pound or two for an hour or two. The pay station takes cash and cards. The receipt printing never seems to work but is not required for exit only if you need it for accounting purposes. There are ample toilets but sometimes most of the cubicles are closed. Overall a good place to take children and a convenient place to stop if passing as it is a couple of minutes drive from a roundabout on the A31 to Ringwood from Wimborne and...