Welcoming more than 90,000 visits from children a year, Forestry England’s Westonbirt, The National Arboretum is a much-loved safe space for outdoor play and adventure, with dedicated play areas and family trails to enjoy all year round.
Another brand-new natural play area opened this week in Silk Wood - designed to provide an exciting natural play space, specifically with older children in mind!
With a delightful ‘hide and seek’ theme, the new play area is located in a sheltered hollow in Silk Wood. Its design and play features celebrate the character of raw materials sourced from the arboretum by incorporating Westonbirt’s oak trees. The innovative play structures have been locally milled, also using the Westonbirt oak. Unlike typical playgrounds, where timber is stripped and smoothed, here bark and knots are exposed, allowing a more natural connection to the arboretum.
Tree trunks have also been arranged around and near the striking hide & seek tree house and lookout platform. There are also logs to bounce across, clamber over and hide between. A very popular old tree-trunk slide has also been lovingly restored and retained within its space in the hollow.
This new play area offers families and children a wonderfully layered play experience that is tactile, adventurous and deeply connected to the surrounding landscape.
Designed and installed in collaboration with Pearce+, a design and make studio crafting unique structures for people and place, this new addition to Westonbirt’s dedicated play areas is also the result of more than five years’ work by Westonbirt's team, play focus groups and fundraisers.
Westonbirt Silk Wood Play, 30 March 2026, credit Johnny Hathaway
Neil Seegobin, Project Manager at Westonbirt says:
“We’re passionate about children developing a sense of curiosity, understanding and love for the natural environment around them through discovery and imaginative play. This particular play area provides a bit more physical challenge, designed with slightly older children in mind. It is the latest in an ongoing programme of investment in natural play areas here at Westonbirt Arboretum.”
Westonbirt Arboretum is committed to making the cost of entrance widely accessible. The Friends of Westonbirt Arboretum offers excellent value membership, giving unlimited year-round entry (including entry for up to 4 children), while Forestry England offers Universal Credit admission rates, as well as a community access scheme. To find out more, visit fowa.org.uk
For more information about all the natural play areas at Westonbirt see: forestryengland.uk/westonbirt/play
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