Thinking of visiting Lacock with the kids?
This pretty village, abbey and estate in Wiltshire, just outside of the southeastern border of the Cotswolds is a great day out.
Lacock is fun for families with kids of all ages from toddlers to teens. Read our village guide to find out what we loved about Lacock.
Visiting Lacock with kids
Where is Lacock?
Lacock is a village in Wiltshire, approximately 13 miles east of Bath, innthe heart of Wiltshire. It’s not technically within the boundary of the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but it’s so close, and is so lovely, that we have included it here in our Cotswold Village Guides.
How to get to Lacock?
The best way to get to Lacock is to drive. The village is rural, with no train station – I’d travelling by train the nearest stations would be either Bath, Somerset, or Chippenham, Wiltshire. You could then travel to Lacock by bus or taxi.
There is a large car park operated by the National Trust ( pay and display – but free for members), located on the outskirts of the village. It is a short walk (less than 5 minjtes) in to the abbey and village from the car park.
We do not reccomend driving or parking in the village itself as the tiny streets and lack of parking spaces for non residents make it difficult.
There are coach trips that come to Lacock but we don’t travel this way with kids as we like to set our own schedule and arrive and depart when we like.
Best things to do in Lacock
Visit the Abbey
Great for: Older primary age/teens who are in to Harry Potter
The stunning historic Abbey, with courtyards, cloisters and beautifully ornate stonework, ceilings and rooms is the main attraction of Lacock in our eyes.
After leaving the car park, a short walk will bring you to the edge of the village and the entrance to the Abbey, which is operated by the National Trust. The village of Lacock is free to visit but the Abbey has an entrance fee (free to National Trust members).
The grounds of the Abbey have beautiful flowers, plants, and trees surrounding it, as well as woodlands for walking, large open grassy meadows for playing, running, jumping, and exploring. The National Trust regularly has childrens’ trails and activities on, especially during the school holidays. When we visited at Easter, the kids enjoyed the Easter trail with different activites at each zone (such as welly wanging, planting seeds in pots to take home, hula hooping, bean bag target throwing and tug of war.) This combined with the woodland with logs, boulders, and paths to run and jump along meant we spent the majority of our visit to the Abbey outside- the kids loved it, it burnt off there energy and they had a great time. The gardens were full of magnolia, blossom and wild garlic and was just beautiful. We stopped to each lunch in the grounds before making our way inside the historic abbey.
The kids were impressed with the inside of the Abbey for all of five minutes, whilst me and James loved it – the architecture really is gorgeous. Lacock village and the Abbey were used for several Harry Potter films as locations for classrooms and corrodes of Hogwarts, so that was pretty cool to see as we are fans of the films, and good for teens who are interested int he Harry Potter franchise- we also saw lots of Potter fans dressed up, filming socials content and taking pictures whilst there!
The staff were very good with the children and gave them a sheet with a challenge to find clocks and other artifacts within the rooms of the Abbey which helped keep them entertained as we had a quick walk around.
Visit the Cafe and Playground
Great for: Toddlers to primary age kids
Just outside of the Abbey entrance and at the start of the village you will find a lovely cafe run by the National Trust, which backs on to a large playground for the kids with swings, slides and other toys, as well as a large play feild, perfect for ball games and picnics. It’s a pretty place to let the kids run off steam – when we visited in April there were lots of blossom trees in bloom and an orchard at the back now the cafe area with lots of outdoor seating.
Visit Lacock Bakery
This cute little bakery in the heart of the village is a must stop spot for breads, cakes and pastries – we enjoyed stopping here for delicious pastries which we took with us on the Lacock pleasure garden walk .
Go for a walk
There are some great short walks around Lacock, perfect for stretching little legs. The pleasure gardens trail is 1.6 k ( 1 mile long) and follows feilds and the river Avon in the Abbey grounds giving great views of Lacock house and the medival cloisters.
Lacock Lovers Walk is slightly longer, 2k ( 1.25 miles) and takes in the village, including picturesque cottages, the historic church as well as a ford and feilds surrounding the village.
Harry Potter at Lacock
Its not only the famous medival cloisters of Lacock Abbey House that were used as filming locations in the Harry Potter films.
If you have any Harry Potter fans in the family, they might be interested in seeing The Potters House (The Philosophers Stone), Slughorns House (The Half Blood Prince) and the Babbington Arms (The Deathly Hallows Part One). All thse locations can be found on a short stroll around the pretty village centre.
Go to the Pub
This one might be for the parents! On a sunny day, who doesn’t love a drink in the pub, and Lacock has some great options: The Red Lion, The George Inn and The Rising Sun.
All three pubs look really nice, with outdoor seating, nice menu’s and historic charm (they date back to the 14th century!) We chose the Red Lion as it had a large outdoor seating area and was right next to the village playground so it was easier to escape with the kids to let them run free for 5 minutes if we needed to!
Cotswold Little Explorers 
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