Yesterday, the first day of Hubby's two week holiday (yippee!) we decided to take a family trip to Almond Valley Heritage Centre, which I had heard mentioned on the Scotland Outdoors podcast.
It was excellent. There was soooooo much to see and do. It was really inexpensive, especially as under 3's were free, and since there's so much to do you could stay there all day. We looked at and stroked the animals - there were pigs, calves (you could help bottle feed them), chickens, geese, a horse, ducks, goats (with lots of fun things to climb), as well as plenty of rabbits and guinea pigs.
There were museum type bits, with a water wheel, an old forge, old farm equipment and more. There are tractor rides and a narrow gauge railway (summer weekends), river side walks, undercover picnic area as well as loads of picnic space outdoors, a tea-room (a little over-priced for what you get, next time we'll take a picnic).
There were mini-ride-on-tractors to play with... 
...for both of them
There were swings, slides, indoor and outdoor play areas, picnic benches, a simulated archaelogical dig (big undercover sandpit with clay pots and bones and things to discover), trampolines (she loved it!), a wooden train (we couldn't get him off it!), a bouncy castle.
All in all this was an excellent day out for a young family. We will definitely be returning again in the future (and again and again probably!). It's about 45 minutes to an hour away from us in Livingston. If you're in Central Scotland with a young family and haven't been yet, then it's time to give this place a try!
Oh we used to have a family membership ticket for there - so good and lots of seasonal events too. Agree about the cafe, but there are plenty good picnic spots. J loved the tractors xx
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