Butterfly House

The Butterfly House in Lancaster is a small indoor attraction where you can walk among free-flying butterflies in a humid, tropical environment. It's the sort of place that works brilliantly for a rainy afternoon - and Lancashire gets plenty of those - when you need the kids out of the house but can't face a moorland trudge.

You'll spend maybe forty minutes here, moving slowly through planted areas watching butterflies land on flowers and occasionally on you. The setup is straightforward: warm, damp rooms with various species fluttering about. It's genuinely peaceful rather than thrilling, which suits some families down to the ground and bores others rigid after thirty minutes.

Children under ten tend to get the most from it, especially if they're into insects or patient enough to wait for a butterfly to settle. Teenagers will likely find it underwhelming unless they're seriously into entomology. Adults often enjoy the calm before the chaos of the gift shop kicks in.

If you're staying at Crook O'Lune Holiday Park, it's barely twenty minutes away - close enough for a convenient filler activity between bigger days out. Bay View Holiday Park, a shade further afield, would need it bundled with other Lancaster attractions to make the journey worthwhile. The town itself has enough going on that you won't feel you've wasted a trip if the Butterfly House disappoints.

Admission details aren't entirely clear online, so ring ahead. Go mid-week if you can; weekends bring school groups and it gets rather crowded for somewhere this size.