13 coolest days out
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School’s out. The October holidays have begun, and already, in households across the land, the pressure is on to find something new and different, something to lure the young away from their screens or cries of boredom. For those who have already done Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, the National Museum of Scotland, and all the obvious places, the question is now what? Well, here’s the answer – our guide to 13 of the coolest days out and activities in Scotland 1 Learn to be a wizard
IF ever there were a location that seems made to host a few lessons in wizardry, it’s Charles Rennie Macintosh’s Scotland Street School. The museum, dedicated to the history of education, seems almost a ready-made set for a Harry Potter-style adventure or Worst Witch enactment. Built in the early years of last century, it was a working school right up until the 1970s, and, for many older adults, it’s a step back into their school days. But for the kids, it’s a step into a world of magic. So if your children are potty about Potter, the free Wizard School, running from Tuesday to Friday, is just the ticket. Attractions include Professor Grumblesnore’s classroom experience, owls, magic sessions, rune writing and pixie parachutes
Scotland Street School Museum, Glasgow, glasgowlife.org.uk/museums
2 Stand on the deck of an ocean liner
THE closest thing you’ll get to the golden days of the ocean liners is the magnificent exhibition at the new V&A Dundee. There they can stride the beautiful, specially-constructed open deck, and look out over a moving image of the sea. There are also more than 250 objects including a door from the Titanic and a child’s seat from the Normandie. Plus there’s the educational value in learning about the magnificent ships, many of them built on the Clyde, which revolutionised travel from the mid-19th century onwards. Throughout the holiday the museum is running workshops, which allow children to design an ocean liner, play deck games, create a glamorous evening outfit and star in their own movie trailers.
Ocean Liners: Speed And Style, V&A Dundee, www.vam.ac.uk/dundee
3 Unleash your digital demon
DIGIFEST, the two-week festival of digital innovation at Stirling’s Engine Shed, has plenty to thrill the kids, from Minecraft workshops to a talk by Maxine Durand, the historian who keeps Assassin’s Creed authentic. For those fanatical about robots there’s Code-a-pillar, a workshop in which children can take control of a robot and learn basic programming; Robot Race, a chance to compete at getting a robot round an obstacle course; and Sphero, a scavenger hunt using robots. Budding animators can learn stop-motion skills or attend a workshop teaching how to animate Lego. You can even, in one workshop, scan your own head.
The Engine Shed, Stirling, engineshed.scot
4 Pick your own pumpkin
THE supermarkets may be rolling in them but there’s something so much more satisfying about carving a pumpkin that you’ve picked yourself. At Craigie’s farm, not only can you pick from a range of pumpkin colours and sizes – including mammoth yellow ones and white “showmen” – you can also fill up at its excellent café or visit some of the pygmy goats, hens, pigs and sheep. Cairinie Fruit Farm in Fife is also a prime spot for pumpkin picking – and you can head there not just to pick your squash, but also to get lost in its Mega Maze which is made out of maize or play in the fun park. Cairnie Fruit Farm, Cupar, cairniefruitfarm.co.uk; West Craigie Farm, Queensferry, craigies.co.uk
5 Play Fortnite-themed Laser Quest
A few years back, Kash Nav and his cousin had the feeling they weren’t getting out enough with their kids and started a fortnightly walk in the hills. What started out as a family leisure pursuit began to draw in more and more people, mainly from the Muslim community, and they set up Boots And Beards, which in 2016 was turned into a charity. They didn’t just stop at hillwalking, though – soon they were doing boot camps, indoor climbing, badminton, Tough Mudder, and other pursuits. This holiday they have hit on the idea of using the draw of the video game Fortnite to lure families out for actual physical activity. Thus Fortnite Laser Quest was created. Two sessions will run on October 17.
Laser Quest, Glasgow, lqglasgow.co.uk
6 Go on a family-friendly ghost tour
WITH Halloween just around the corner, a guided ghost trip could be just the trick or treat to put the kids in the guising mood. Among the best, and most child-friendly, is Gory Stories – The Kids Ghost Tour, run by Mercat Tours in Edinburgh. It’s a daytime trip for kids aged five and above that takes in creepy haunts including Blair Street Underground vaults. With all its historical detail, it also ticks the educational box – and tells eye-opening tales of what it was like to live in 19th-century Edinburgh. The tour runs daily throughout the school holidays, but on weekends through the rest of the year. Meanwhile, if it’s the creepy side of Glasgow you fancy, a
Ghoulish Glasgow audio tour is available through City Sightseeing bus tours.
Gory Stories, run by Mercat Tours, Edinburgh, mercattours.com or Ghoulish Glasgow Family
Tour by City Sightseeing, citysightseeingglasgow.co.uk
7 See the red deer rut
THE rutting season starts around now and, according to Twitter, the stags at Highland Safaris and Red Deer Centre in Perthshire are bellowing. The rut is one of nature’s greatest fighting displays in which stags and bucks lock horns as they compete for mates, and Scotland has plenty of places to see it. At Beecraigs, you get up close to the herd on platforms and walkways. Or go to Galloway Forest Park, where you might spot them on the Red Deer Range.
Highland Safaris Red Deer Centre, Aberfeldy, highlandsafaris.net or Beecraigs Country Park, Linlithgow, westlothian.gov.uk/beecraigs
8 See eye to eye with a minke whale
HERE’S a show not for the squeamish. However, if your kids can take the odd dead eyeball, then Sea Creatures: Life Beneath The Ocean is a real treat. This exhibition gives insight into the anatomy of some of the world’s most fascinating sea animals. Now in its last week at the Royal Highland Centre at Ingliston – it finishes on October 18 – the show has on display 50 “ethically sourced” preserved marine creatures. Smaller exhibits also include the eyeball and lung of a minke whale, the egg of a king penguin and a sea lion’s heart.
Sea Creatures: Life Beneath The Ocean, Royal Highland Centre, seacreaturestour.com
9 Create your own Halloween costume
IT’S easy just to buy another piece of cheap costume tat from the supermarket. But that’s hardly in the true spirit of Halloween. Bring back the days when you made your own costume out of your mum’s old tights with this creative workshop run by Edinburgh Remakery. Here, though, it will be the kids, not parents who do the making. No previous skills are needed but participants are encouraged to bring along outgrown or discarded clothing from home. Halloween workshops for age three and up are on October 16, and for age six and up, October 20. Edinburgh Remakery, edinburghremakery.org.uk
10 Climb the space net at Drumlanrig
IT’S hard to pick just one reason to go to Drumlanrig Castle. That six-metrehigh climbing net in the adventure playground? The gorgeous walking routes, where it’s sometimes possible to spot red squirrels? The fun of hiring a bike? Drumlanrig represents a day out that really has something for everyone in the family. And, if something educational is what you’re after, there are Junior Rangers workshops which this Wednesday will get you creating autumn lanterns from found leaves. Plus, if the weather’s rotten, there’s always the castle – all 120 rooms, 17 turrets, four towers, a Rembrandt and a few Gainsboroughs of it.
Drumlanrig castle, Dumfries & Galloway, drumlanrigcastle.co.uk
11 Go on an aerial adventure
FOR a kid with a head for heights, there’s not anything much cooler than a tree-top aerial adventure. This is where they get to test their monkey legs while you either join in or hang out on the ground, trying not to worry. Among the best are the routes run by Go Ape – and that’s partly because of their locations. Whether it’s beautiful Glentress Forest, where the Tree Top Adventure features the firm’s highest zip wire in the country, spectacular Aberfoyle, with not one but two dizzying zip wires across a wooded valley, or Crathes Castle, whose surreal, topiaried grounds are well worth a visit anyway, you’ll get close to nature. But if it’s the longest zip wire you want, then head to Laggan Outdoor Activity Centre in Gatehouse of Fleet and for something rope-free, try Foxlake Adventures where it’s possible to do an aerial adventure, without a harness, over water – finishing off with a zip ride that drops you in the drink below.
Go Ape, various locations in Scotland, goape.co.uk, Laggan Outdoor Activity Centre, Gatehouse of Fleet, lagganoutdoor.co.uk or Foxlake Adventures, Dunbar, foxlakeadventures.co.uk
12 Discover the secrets of gases
GLASGOW Science Centre always comes up trumps with workshops and events for the holidays – most of them included in the entry price. This October holiday kids of all ages can be wowed by the spectacular demonstrations in a show called The Secret Life Of Gases, learn how to code, or find out, through a Black History Month event, how Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells were used to create the HeLa cell line, one of the most important cell lines in medical research.
Glasgow Science Centre, glasgowsciencecentre.org
13 Go on an imaginary polar expedition
THERE’S not much in the world of museums that brings visitors closer to an understanding of what it must have been like to go on a polar adventure back in the old days when people died trying than a wander round RRS Discovery’s interactive museum. Not only can you get on board the original boat on which Captain Scott explored the Antarctic, but the audio-visual displays tell a story of extreme human endurance and hardship. This is one both for budding adventurers and those of us who are quite glad to go back home at the end of the day, and not live as the crew did on pemmican, a mixture of dried beef and lard.
RRS Discovery, Dundee, rrsdiscovery.com