Activities & Leisure
all you need for relocation to scotland: edinburgh
Edinburgh Children Activites & Family Fun
Scotland is a country where you'll often hear about original and simple ideas that appeal to everyone in equal measure.
Craigie's Farm
Craigies Farm is a brilliant and simple idea and it is in Edinburgh, only 15 min drive from the city, going west towards the airport.
Craigies is very much a working farm. It is a 260 acre arable farm (they have no livestock) where they grow cereals, vegetables, fallow and…soft fruits for you to pick or buy ready picked.
Pick your own fruits
For Edinburgh children activities, the kids will love it, granny and granddad will love it and you’ll love it too. In short, you take (free) baskets from the shop/restaurant, you walk 2 minutes to the fields, you pick your fruit, then weigh it and pay. Brilliant!
Even when the place is very busy in summer, you’ll still get baskets full of raspberries strawberries, gooseberries and other berries, all at a price that simply cannot be beaten (when you pick them up yourself).
It is a genuinely great and fun thing to do as a family, on your own or with friends and you’ll be surprised to realise that you’ve spent half a day in the open air without realising it.
There is an excellent restaurant and a wee shop where you can buy very fresh meat, home-made sausages and of course fresh vegetables and fruits in season.
In a nutshell it's all about (re)discovering good local food and fresh produce. In short, Scotland at its best. Make it one of your next Edinburgh children activities!
Address
G & G SinclairWest Craigie FarmSouth QueensferryEdinburgh EH30 9TRScotland
Telephone: (0044) (0)131 319 1048
Email:john@craigies.co.uk
Location map
Opening times
7 days a week from 09.00 until 17.00 (last food orders taken at 16.00) and they are now serving breakfast every morning from 09.00 to 11.30.
Edinburgh Butterfly & Insect World
This is another of the Edinburgh children activities that the kids and the family will love...although maybe not for the same reasons!
The butterfly & insect world offers plenty to see and plenty to do and is around 25 minutes drive from the city centre using the bypass eastbound.
As it names suggests, it's all about crawlies (big and small) and it is genuinely a great experience for children (and adults) handling, touching animals and smelling the strong scent of exotic flowers.
The “crawlies” handling sessions are always the kids favourites where live tarantulas, snakes and giant milipedes are passed from hand to hand (only if you and the children want to). The animal handling session is everyday at 12 noon and 15.00.
The animal feeding sessions are also very popular with children when they can see ginormous snakes play with their…dinner! “Lunch” is served at 14.00 daily.
Back to the tropical area where 100s of colorful butterflies (some are extraordinarily big) fly around you, land on your hands, dance a mesmerizing ballet in the air.
There are also scorpions that glow in the dark (honest!), marching leaf cutter ants that parade on a rope above your head, hopping poison frogs, chameleons (that is, if you can spot them!), working honey bee hives and fish feeding (daily at 11.00 and 16.00).
There is a shop where you can buy snakes and spiders (plastic ones!).
Practical info!
There is a free car park and once you bought your tickets the shop assistant will stamp your hand so that you can go in, out and back in again.
Address
Edinburgh Butterfly & Insect WorldDobbies Garden WorldMelville NurseryLasswadeEH18 1AZScotland
Telephone: (0044) (0)131 663 4932
Email: info@edinburgh-butterfly-world.co.uk
Opening Times
Open all year round, seven days a week (except 25th and 26th December and 1st January)
Summer: 09.30 until 17.30
Winter: 10.00 until 17.00
(Last admission/re-admission 30 mins before closing).
Admission Prices (2014)
Adults: £7.50
Concessions: £6.50
Children (3 – 15 years old) £5.50
Children (Under 3 years old) Free
Families from £24.95
Getting there
By bus
Lothian Buses runs service 3, 3A and 29 (direction Gorebridge (Birkenside) when coming from town). Simply ask the driver to give you a shout at the Dobbies Garden World bus stop.
By car
Directly from the city centre follow the A7 - North Bridge, South Bridge, Nicolson Street, Clerk Street -, continue onto the A701 - Newington Road, Minto Street, Mayfield Gardens, Craigmillar park -, turn left onto the A 772 - Gilmerton Road- and at the 3rd roundabout take the first exit still onto Gilmerton until you arrive at the Buterfly & Insect World (Dobbies Gardening Centre).
Alternatively, take the City of Edinburgh By-pass A720 going Eastbound (Musselburgh, North Berwick, Berwick Upon Tweed) and at the Gilmerton roundabout follow the signs for Dobbies Gardening Centre and Edinburgh Buterfly & Insect World.
See also:
Activities & Leisure
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