Ribblesdale Lodges - Fun Days Out

Pleasure Beach Resort, long known as Blackpool Pleasure Beach, is an amusement park on Blackpool's South Shore. It was founded in 1896 and sits right along the promenade. Rollercoasters are the main draw, with ten to ride. The Big One was once the tallest and steepest in the world, and is still the longest in Europe. The park also has the largest collection of wooden coasters in the UK, including Big Dipper, Blue Flyer, Grand National and Nickelodeon Streak.

There's plenty beyond the big coasters. Sir Hiram Maxim's Captive Flying Machine, which opened in 1904, is the oldest amusement ride in Europe, and there's a well-known water ride too. Younger children can head to Nickelodeon Land, a themed area where they can meet favourite characters. Non-riders can buy park entry without rides to watch the shows, eat and enjoy the atmosphere. It suits thrill seekers, families with young children and anyone who likes a bit of fairground history.

Tip: Check the official calendar for opening days and times before you go, and book eTickets online ahead of your visit.

Gawthorpe Hall is a Grade I listed Elizabethan house on the banks of the River Calder, remodelled in the 19th century by Charles Barry, architect of the Houses of Parliament. Inside, the rooms are filled with Victorian Gothic furnishings and show how the Kay-Shuttleworth family lived. Families can follow a trail around the house or dress up in the nursery.

Outside, the estate has over 40 acres of woodland, a formal terraced garden with views over the river, a walled garden and a natural play area with materials for den building. Look out for woodland birds such as nuthatches and woodpeckers, and roe deer. A circular walk takes in the parkland, and the estate is a trailhead on the Brontë Way. It suits families, walkers and anyone who likes a historic house with plenty of outdoor space. Dogs on leads are welcome in the grounds, though only assistance dogs can go in the Hall.

Tip: The Hall isn't suitable for pushchairs, baby backpacks or large bags, so travel light. The access drive is narrow, with passing places.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum is the former family home of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë in Haworth, West Yorkshire. Built in the late 1770s and now Grade I listed, it is where the sisters spent most of their lives and wrote their famous novels, including Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

You can walk through the rooms where they lived and worked, and see items from a collection designated as Outstanding. That includes the mahogany desk where Charlotte wrote her novels. Changing exhibitions and events run through the year, and a free digital guide adds more of the story. It suits book lovers and anyone curious about Yorkshire's literary history. Families will find it a good way to bring real history to life for children, and the moorland setting is part of the story.

Tip: Download the free Bloomberg Connects digital guide to get more of the Brontë story before and during your visit.

Blackpool Zoo is a 32-acre zoo set beside Stanley Park, about two miles inland from the Golden Mile. It cares for over 1,000 animals from around the world, and opened in 1972 on the site of the old Stanley Park Aerodrome.

Highlights include Project Elephant Base Camp, with the largest indoor elephant house in the UK, and Giraffe Heights, where visitors can book encounters to hand-feed the giraffes. You can also see gorillas, orangutans, lions and Amur tigers in the Big Cat Habitat, and watch California sea lions in the 250-seat arena at Active Oceans. Walk-through areas such as Lemur Wood and Amazonia put you close to the animals, and the Dinosaur Safari trail features life-size dinosaur models. There is also a Playbarn.

Tip: Tickets can be bought in advance online. Follow the brown elephant signs if driving, and use sat nav postcode FY3 8PP.

Clitheroe Castle is a ruined early medieval castle in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire. Its earliest history is debated, but it is thought to be of Norman origin, probably built in the twelfth century. The castle stands on a steep limestone outcrop that rises 39 metres above the surrounding land and gives extensive views over the area. Its keep is the second smallest surviving stone-built keep in England.

The buildings on the site are home to Clitheroe Castle Museum, so there is more to see than the ruins alone. The castle's story takes in the de Lacy family, the Civil War and the Duchy of Lancaster. In 1920 the site was sold to the people of Clitheroe to create a war memorial. It suits anyone who likes castle history and a look at a small, characterful keep.

Malham Cove is a large curved limestone cliff about a kilometre north of Malham village, in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It was shaped by a waterfall carrying glacial meltwater at the end of the last Ice Age. The cliff is 80 metres high and more than 300 metres wide, and a large limestone pavement lies above it.

About 400 irregular stone steps on the west side, part of the Pennine Way, lead up to the pavement. The cliff is also popular with climbers, who tackle both traditional and sport routes, and Malham Beck emerges from a cave at its foot. The cove has appeared in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) and in the BBC series Seven Natural Wonders. It suits walkers, nature lovers and film fans.

Tip: To reach the limestone pavement on top, take the roughly 400 uneven stone steps on the west side of the cliff.

Cliffe Castle Museum is a local heritage museum in Keighley, housed in a Grade II listed Victorian neo-Gothic house. It began life as Cliffe Hall in 1828 and was renamed Cliffe Castle in 1878 by Henry Isaac Butterfield, who decorated it with a griffin motif. It opened as a museum in 1959.

Inside, a series of galleries covers local heritage and the house itself. The Working Landscapes gallery looks at local crafts and trades, including a video of clog-making. The Airedale gallery explains how the River Aire was formed, and the Archaeology Area features the Silsden Roman treasure. The Natural History gallery, once the Butterfields' ballroom, holds mounted animals and birds. The Molecules to Minerals gallery explains how minerals differ from rocks, covering colour, hardness, magnetism and fluorescence.

It will suit anyone curious about Airedale's past, and the building's Gothic Revival staircase and vestibule are worth a look too.

Bolton Abbey is a large estate in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, with moorland, woodland and riverside pasture to explore. Its best-known landmark is Bolton Priory, a Grade I listed church where worship has continued since 1154. Most of the priory buildings were lost in the Dissolution, but the western half of the nave was kept as the parish church. You can still see the west front and the unfinished tower begun in 1520.

Over 80 miles of footpaths cover the estate, and there are cycle routes and family walking trails too. The year-round programme includes bat walks, curlew safaris, fungal foraging and outdoor theatre. It suits anyone who enjoys a long walk, a bit of medieval history or a day by the river.

Tip: Buy a car park ticket for Bolton Abbey Village, Riverside or Strid Wood and you can move between all three car parks that day.