Itchen Valley Country Park
Children will enjoy the multiple play areas on this walk including a natural play trail, a mud kitchen, a woodland play area and even an indoor play space.
The woodland play trail
The Basics
Time: Our walk took around 40 minutes of walking time, but in reality it took a lot longer as the children wanted to stop and play throughout.
Distance: 2.2km
Terrain: Our walk contained some rough, narrow paths through the woodland as well as some grassy ones and some compacted gravel ones.
Pushchair: Not for the nature trail section of our walk below, but there are plenty of other paths that are suitable, including the play trail.
Dogs: On leads throughout the park apart from High Hill Field where they can run free. Not allowed in play areas.
Refreshments: Woodland Café and lots of picnic benches.
Toilets: Yes
Public Transport: There is no public transport to the country park.
Parking: Plenty of pay and display parking. We paid £4.90 and stayed over four hours. (Postcode: SO30 3HQ - W3W: proof/storm/clocks)
A lesser-known play area hidden in the woodland
Itchen Valley Country Park comprises a range of habitats including meadows, woodland and water meadows. It makes a brilliant location for outdoor loving families with facilities such as a café, Go Ape, picnic field, barbecues for hire, small indoor play, multiple outdoor play areas and community use buildings. The park has recently received a multi-million pound investment which, among other things, will be used to improve the play equipment and picnic area. The new additions to the play trail were revealed in July 2023.
The Route
Our suggested walk takes in most of the play equipment, the café, meadows and woodland but there are also plenty of map boards and marked trails if you want to do your own route.
Here is what we did:
To start the walk from our favoured location, we ignored the first two car parks on the right and opted for the first of a series of three small ones on the right. This gave us a good starting point for the new play trail features. We left the car park through the opposite side to the road and we immediately hit the compacted gravel path of the play trail. The first feature on this section was some wooden tubes to crawl through.
We headed left (with back to car park) to continue the trail. The next feature was a slide coming from a frog’s mouth. We continued onwards to find some climbing poles and a woodpecker tower. After the dragonfly, we left the play trail by crossing the car park. Here we found ourselves at High Hill Field, a huge open space with lots of picnic benches. Beside this was an enclosed play area.
After enjoying this area, we decided to explore the meadows and woodland, so returned towards the car park/play trail and then turned left to walk along a section of the High Hill parking area. At the end of the parking area, we looked out for the brown trail symbols and headed out into the grassy meadow straight ahead.
We crossed the first section of meadow and then entered another. This time, we took the diagonal path across the middle, in the direction of a wooden pole sculpture at the top of a small hill. There were a few benches here. We then took the downhill path heading off to the left. This met the entrance to the woodland in the corner of the meadow.
We went through the metal gate and entered the woodland nature trail. This was easy to follow as it was basically just one path that looped round in an anti-clockwise curve. This was a really peaceful section of the park. Eventually we came to a metal exit gate, which took us back out into the meadows.
We passed another wooden pole sculpture and followed the path as it went along the perimeter of the meadow. When we spotted a gap in the bushes and a boarded path to our right, we turned and walked into the trees. This path led us through woodland with a wooden fence to our left. Shortly we reached a woodland play area and den building site.
From here, we followed the compacted path along the edge of the woods with High Hill Field faintly visible to our left. We passed signs indicating we were at the bluebell woods. After this, the tree type changed to tall pines. We spotted an outdoor ‘classroom’ area to our right and then crossed the pine wood, keeping to the left.
We began to see the apparatus of the Go Ape facility. There is a little trim trail play area to the left of the Go Ape Zip Line. We stayed under the trees and kept to the path, passing left of the climbing net and then right of the axe throwing enclosure.
This path worked its way back to re-join the rest of the play trail. The first item we saw here was a wooden tractor and then a series of little climbing frames. Opposite the last one of these, there was a bird viewing screen on our right and the woodlarks play area (under 6s). Here there was a mud kitchen and role play shop.
Back on the path, we passed a wooden crocodile and arrived at the café. The play area beside the café is currently closed as it undergoes a major transformation. The small indoor play area is suitable for children under six and is in the café building.
There is a mile long multi use trail, suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs that starts near the café. We didn’t explore this, but it looks to be well signposted.
From the café, you can also easily access paths around the water meadows and view the River Itchen from a footbridge.
For all the necessary visitor information including opening times, parking charges and a PDF map, please use this link for the Itchen Valley Country Park website. Families can also find some printable children’s activity sheets on the site for children to complete around the park.
Did you know?
The park is currently undergoing a major £3.3 million transformation with a range of improvements including new community buildings, improved play areas, picnic and barbecue areas and a covered seating area alongside the café.
If you enjoyed this walk…
…try this one at River Hamble Country Park which also has a play area and café and can be easily accessed from the Southampton area.
