Visiting Corfe Castle & Corfe Model Village - Dorset Residents' Week 2017

Once a year in May, lots of brilliant attractions in Dorset take part in Residents' Week which aims to raise the profile of all the fun things to do here and encourage locals to visit all the beautiful places right here on their doorstep.

Over 50 attractions take part and they each offer discounts such as reduced price tickets or buy one get one free. This year Residents' Week runs from 8-14th May.

On Monday, we decided to visit the Corfe Castle Model Village with a group of our friends. I'd never visited the model village before but it sounded perfect for a gaggle of crazy 4 year olds and the weather was shaping up to be a beautiful day!

We decided to make a day of it and explore a bit of Corfe Castle too. The castle wasn't included in the Residents' Week offers but we are all National Trust members so got in for free.

We parked up at the NT carpark and followed the pathway round to the entrance to the castle. There is a more direct route which runs alongside the road but the pathway is so much safer as it takes you off road and round the back of the castle, passing fields and a pretty stream.

We headed up to the Castle and found a perfect spot for our picnic - the kids had plenty of room to run around and we could even see the steam train puffing in the distance. The views at the top of Corfe Castle are just beautiful and it reminded me of how lucky I am to live here.

After lunch we decided to explore a bit more of the castle - it was a bit of a mission pushing a buggy up the hill, definitely burnt a few calories off after I huffed and puffed up!! We were a bit restricted having the buggies so two of the mums took all the big kids up to the top of the castle while another friend and I stayed with the smaller ones.

I mentioned that it was hard work pushing the buggy up...well it was just as hard going down, I was petrified of letting go and Erin ending up in the pub at the bottom!!

We headed over to the model village which is just a minutes walk from the entrance to the castle (Corfe Village isn't very big) and we showed our vouchers to the lady on the till. There were 4 adults, 4 4 year olds and 4 under 3's in our party and the total cost was £12, what a bargain!

The model village is very small (literally!!) but it was perfect for us - the children had loads of fun stomping round the little houses, knocking on miniature doors and pretending they were giants. It was really interesting to see what the castle looked like back in 1646 too.

It was really sunny so we spent ages sat in the garden area - there were giant games for the children to play with, a fairy garden and lots of nooks and crannies to play hide and seek in.

Tiredness was beginning to set in so after the children had eaten their ice creams we walked back to the carpark, with a quick stop at the wooden play area. Elliot was so tired, he was a lot slower on the way back!

It was a really fun day and nice to do something different - the children all seemed to enjoy themselves and I'm sure they all slept well that night. All of the 4 year olds will be off to school in September so it's really nice to go out as a big group and spend some time together while we can - some of the kids will be going to different schools so we want to make the most of their time together!