If you haven’t yet made the trip to Mottisfont, you really should.
Mottisfont is located near Romsey in Hampshire and is in a truly beautiful setting. Mottisfont is an 18th-century house with a medieval priory steeping in history with the house beautifully looked after. The setting has ancient woods, bubbling brooks and rolling lawns. There is an idyllic walk along the River Test which is great for pooh sticks and home to some very friendly ducks and fish!
AD | We have been or could be if you click on a link in this post compensated via a cash payment, gift or something else of value for writing this post. As an Amazon Associate and Stay 22 we earn from qualifying purchases. See our full disclosure policy and privacy policy for more details.
There are plenty of picnic benches but also two cafes (hot food served between 12-2.30), a kiosk and an ice cream van if you are intending to buy lunch out or treat the kids to some Jude’s ice creams (as we did! We tried chocolate, cherry & clotted cream and honeycomb ice creams with cherry and clotted cream being a firm winner).
Mottisfont has one of the best working kitchen gardens I have been too in an National Trust property, as well as a stunning rose garden. Our children love the kitchen garden and you can often pick up some season veg/fruit from there which is always delicious! Sadly we missed out this time as the beans had all gone but previously we picked up some Medlars and made Medlar jelly which we had with our Christmas dinner!! The kitchen garden was rediscovered and restored in 2018 and everything planted is culinary, medicinal or edible, designed to educate and inspire and it really does, in fact we have taken inspiration for our own garden raised beds from Mottisfont!
There is a wild play area near the river walk, that includes three large wooden structures built for climbing, balancing and exploring and our kids loved this area. Best ages for this would probably be 5+ although both our children had a lovely time on it, there is some height on some of the structures. As always National Trust play areas are developed for exploring and using imagination and this one is no exception and in a beautiful setting!
This was our third visit with the children to Mottisfont, and it was fantastic. Currently there is a celebration of children’s author and illustrator John Burningham’s Bedtime stories with an exhibition and activity trail. This exhibition and trail are on from 20 July – 29 September 2024. John Burningham was an English author and illustrator who resided in North London with his illustrator wife Helen Oxenbury. Burningham has won several awards for his books and his illustrations are engaging for little kids and big kids alike!
Dogs are welcome on leads at Mottisfont but not in the house and in some other specific areas (check website for details on this), although on this trip we didn’t bring ours as the weather was very hot!
As always Mottisfont takes its activity trails very seriously and this one did not disappoint (previously we have been for the Janet and Allan Allberg exhibition and trail and the Narnia exhibition and trail). To access the activity trail, you wander through the gardens to different Burningham stories and complete different fun tasks. There are over 150 original illustrations on display, including some of Burninghams best loved characters, Mr Grumpy, Avocado Baby and Oi! Get off our train. The areas are set up with comfy reading zones, colourful blow up scenes for family photos, dressing up areas and even a magic bed!! The games in the grounds of Mottisfont are really fun with our son particularly enjoying ‘Would you rather’ and our daughter loving the ‘circus skills’ area and both loving the pirate ship set up in the ring of trees. Unlike some National Trust properties, Mottisfont is the perfect size with small children, there is loads of space but you never have to travel too far to the next activity or area in the grounds which makes it ideal with small people (ours were 2 and 7 when visiting) and why we have been back a number of times.
We would highly recommend visiting Mottisfont over the summer to explore, relax and play and if you are currently planning what you might do for Christmas you might want to think about ‘A Nutcracker Christmas at Mottisfont’ which is set to be truly spectacular, telling the story through different rooms in the house filled with sparkling trees, decorations, music and lights and including an equally impressive outdoor family trail. This will be on from 23 November 2024 to 5 Jan 2025.
