Dino Kingdom

Sarah Gaffney-Lang, Families Editor

Book now

Dino Kingdom

23 July-15 August 2021

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Image courtesy of Manchester City Council
Book now

Calling archaeologists big and small! Dino Kingdom is taking over Wythenshawe Park until 8 August 2021, and what a spectacle awaits. It may have been some 65 million years since their extinction, but with over 70 3D, life-like, moving, and roaring prehistoric creatures, Dino Kingdom transports visitors into a magical kingdom like no other. These humongous creatures tower over even the tallest adults ready to delight kids of all ages – from little ones just beginning to totter to bigger kids who’ll be racing around.

Manchester’s 270-acre Wythenshawe park provides ample space to roam in picturesque surroundings. Featuring ornamental woodland, wild meadows, and a bandstand, the park is worth a visit any time of year but especially now, with these special guests in situ. Highlights include a huge Tyrannosaurus rex and the star of the show: an Apatosaurus, which clocks in at a whopping 18-metres long.

If meandering around the collection of epic creatures isn’t enough, then there are a whole host of other activities for families – including fairground rides (think dodgems) and interactive areas ripe for discovery. Kids can get digging and conduct their own excavations to unearth fossils, eggs, and dinosaur skeletons before trekking through a long fossil tunnel. What’s more, live jesters in costume will be roaming the grounds offering fun facts and ‘insider knowledge’ on what’s happening in the parklands dinosaur community.

Be sure to download the Dino Kingdom app in advance, which enables you to discover hidden dinosaurs from your phone screen adding an extra layer of excitement to your walk.

On site, you’ll find plenty of options for keeping fuel levels topped up with a range of delicious street food outlets and drink vendors dotted around the site. And word on the street is there are plenty of vegan options too.

So then, sensible shoes on! Picnics and snacks at the ready! It’s time to go on a roaring dinosaur hunt.

Please note that pushchairs and buggies are welcome although there is no storage facility. The Dino Kingdom route takes place in a grass field with no hard paths. The ground is flat but may be wet and/or muddy depending on weather conditions.

Where to go near Dino Kingdom

Tangerine
Chapel Street
Restaurant
Tangerine

Manchester’s latest must-visit multipurpose venue, offering top-level food, drinks and live shows.

Bar Posie
City Centre
Bar or Pub
Posie

A new cocktail bar from the crack team behind 10 Tib Lane and Henry C.

Manchester
Food hall
Kargo MKT

Mighty food hall in Salford Quays, with around twenty street food vendors, serving a huge range of cuisines.

Asap Coffee Interior/ Counter
Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
ASAP Coffee

If you’re looking for quality coffee and a decadent brunch in a setting that nails the Northern Quarter brief, you’d struggle to do better than ASAP Coffee.

Interior of George St Chapel
Manchester
Event venue
George Street Chapel

This beautifully restored former Independent Methodist Chapel in the heart of Oldham is as much a creative hub as a heritage landmark.

Chinatown
Restaurant
Pho Cue

Family-run Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown. Prepare to queue for Pho Cue.

Come to Swithens Farm for a great family day out in Leeds. Our farm has plenty to offer whatever age you are!Swithens Farm is a working farm. For many years now Ian and his wife Angela have built a following that they welcome in all year around. We now have a farm shop, café, playbarn and petting farm. When we first opened we only had the usual farm animals – cows, pigs, sheep, chickens and it was free entry. We now have llamas, alpacas, meerkats, rabbits, guinea pigs, donkeys and a pony.On the working farm, we breed our own cows, pigs and sheep and we sell the meat through the farm shop and the café. If you buy a sausage sandwich from the café the sausage will be from the butcher who has made the sausage by hand using our own pork. We also produce our own free-range eggs.
Leeds
Swithens Farm

Swithens Farm is a working farm. For many years now Ian and his wife Angela have built a following that they welcome in all year around.

Peak District
Restaurant
The Chequers Inn

The Chequers Inn is a 16th century, family-run, traditional country inn with an impressive dining space. The Peak District at its best.

What's on: Families

Until
FamiliesCity Centre
Manchester Christmas Markets

The Manchester Christmas Markets are back for 2025, with many dozens of stalls in front of the town hall, and hundreds of traders spread across city-centre squares.

Free entry
Two young visitors looking up at a banner in a case, holding pencils and an activity sheet.
Until
ActivityManchester
2025 Banner Bingo at PHM

Explore the People’s History Museum with your banner bingo card in hand as you navigate their galleries through the lens of craftivism.

Free entry

Culture Guides

Music in the North

From New York’s experimental underground to the most exciting sounds coming from local scenes, we're lining up a noisy autumn of gigs.

Hofesh Shechter - Theatre of Dreams at Lowry
Theatre in the North

Picks this month include bold visual art, wondrous opera and cinematic dance - plus a touch of ghostly storytelling for the Halloween season.

Poet Helen Mort.
Literature Events in the North

One to add to your TBR pile, our latest round-up is a bumper edition and features some amazing events in Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and beyond...

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Cinema in the North

It's busy month across the cinemas of the north as Halloween programming leads into two of the region's biggest film festivals.

A white mattress is burning in a black rocky landscape.
Exhibitions in the North

In galleries around the North this autumn, you'll find tactile sculptures, Treasures with a capital 'T' and plant magic.