Rosliston Forestry Centre

Rosliston Forestry Centre is just on the outskirts of the village and is one of South Derbyshire’s most popular destinations. The car parks are accessed to the south, and a pay and display (£2 all day). This really is the perfect place for children of all ages, there are huge areas of open space, a children’s playground, with a huge owl shaped slide and on the day of our visit a huge pool, where you could get into a huge transparent ball and move around the surface of the water. Adults are equally well catered for, a variety of walks of different distances, through the now well established forests, percolated occasionally with wooden sculptures, monuments to the area’s industrial heritage and a large pond, complete with baby coots and moorhens. There is a recently opened craft shop, specialising in card making, a souveneir type shop and a cafe, to name but a few of the attractions.

The Hub Cafe is fairly large building with a decent amount of both indoor and outdoor seating. Menu wise, a good range of drinks, both hot and cold, alcoholic and non. Food wise, there are hot dishes like burgers, lasagne, pasties etc. There is also a wide variety of ice creams, sandwiches, paninis and a soup of the day. Pretty standard fare overall, but tasty nonetheless, the salad could have done with being fresher though. Cajun fries were a hit, very spicy!

As I said, at any time of the year the Forestry Centre is relentlessly busy, which detracts somewhat from its overall appeal – perhaps I’m just antisocial! Still, if you walk far enough, you can still find peaceful and serene locations, away from the hustle and bustle.

A really well looked-after outdoor centre. perfect for kids - it has a lovely outside play area and various short-ish woodland walks.