What's On For Families in Wells
The Bishop’s Palace is the perfect destination for a family day out, located in the heart of Wells, Somerset. This family-friendly heritage site boasts 14 acres of beautiful RHS partner gardens, an 800-year-old medieval Palace, an on-site café, baby changing facilities, pushchair-friendly paths, and the exciting Dragon’s Lair play area. It’s a place where children can immerse themselves in nature and history while letting their imaginations run wild!
What’s On For Families
February Half Term
We’ve got plenty to keep families entertained during the February Half Term! Plus explore 14 acres of RHS partner gardens, carpeted with snowdrops and discover the history of our 800-year-old Palace in a fun, interactive way with one of our multimedia family tours (included with admission).
Collect a stamp for your Palace Passport during our family friendly activites for a prize at the end of the year. The more stamps you have collected over the course of the year, the better the gift!
Dare you enter the Dragon’s Lair? Young adventurers can step into the legend of Bishop Jocelin’s battle with the fearsome dragon! Afterwards, warm up in the cosy Bishop’s Table café with a warm meal or hot drink. A children’s menu is available, and the café is dog-friendly.
Multi-media tours
Multimedia audio-visual tours of the Palace building. Designed to enhance your visit with stories, music and imagery from across the centuries these tours are designed to provide 45 minutes of rich content.
There’s a choice of an adult version or one tailored for families including quizzes, treasure hunts and taking Bishop portraits!
Here’s some feedback we’ve received from one of our younger visitors who loved their multi-media tour family option:
“History is boring; this WAS NOT boring!”
Click here to see a sneak peak at the new multimedia tours
Crafting Activities
Please check back soon to hear what crafting activities we have lined up during the school holidays.
Our crafting activities are included with general admission to the Palace. You can purchase admission via the link below.
Dragon’s Lair Family Play Area
Explore this magical discovery area in a far corner of the Gardens!
This popular, interactive discovery area is designed around the themes and stories of the Palace, taking inspiration from well pools and water, trees and history. This outdoor natural activity space will exercise both minds and bodies with a pole jungle, tree pods, a waterwheel and sluice gates.
The only question is – dare you enter The Dragon’s Lair?
Inside the Palace
Boots and brolly day – has it started raining again? You’ll still find things to do with the kids at The Bishop’s Palace!
Put up your brolly and visit the well pools – see them bubble with all the water passing underneath them. Walk through the medieval Palace, see portraits of past bishops, and find the green dragons. Visit the Bishop’s private chapel, look up, down, around, and behind everything – there are many amazing details to spot.
The Bishop’s Table café also has a great range of children’s meals and snacks, along with plenty to keep the grown-ups happy.
Planning Your Visit
Entry for all the above activities is included with any standard admission including Day Tickets, the Annual Pass (which includes 12 months of return visits from the date of your first visit and you’re welcome to use it again on any normal sightseeing day), and Friends of the Palace.
To plan your perfect family-friendly day out in Wells, visit our Tickets and Opening page to view ticket information, parking in Wells, closure dates and more.
