🎃 October half term is creeping up! See what’s on across the Peak District.
Review by Alice Wyatt
Disclaimer: Peak District Kids was provided with a free bouldering and lunch at Substation Macclesfield for the purposes of this review. As always, these are all my own words and opinions, and I say it how it is.
The Peak District National Park offers lots of opportunities for kids to scramble and climb boulders in the natural environment, with favourite family walks for this being Robin Hood’s Stride, Birchen Edge, and Higger Tor. But if you want to hone their techniques, and are perhaps looking for a rainy day activity, how about visiting Substation Macclesfield?
Substation Macclesfield is just an 8 minute drive from the western boundary of the Peak District National Park, and offers superb indoor bouldering tuition for all ages. Bouldering is a form of free climbing with no ropes or harnesses.
Over weekends, they offer family climbing sessions where the whole family can learn bouldering under expert tuition. There is also a range of discounted family climbing passes available, as well as some exciting new kids clubs for children from 5 years old, supporting all ages and levels. More information can be found here.
The Peak District Kids team went to check it out.
Family climbing sessions at Substation Macclesfield
The family climbing sessions are ideal for families looking for a little extra introduction to the world of bouldering. A 30-minute private lesson with a coach will leave you confident to conquer any of the climbing walls at Substation Macclesfield.
There is a £50 fixed price for up to 6 people. This includes a 30 minute lesson, climbing day pass for each person, climbing shoes, and chalk bag hire. All participants under the age of 18 need to be supervised by an adult; 1 adult per 2 children. There is no age restriction!
Arriving to Substation Macclesfield
There’s plentiful parking outside Substation Macclesfield and it’s free.
At reception, you sign in and a parent needs to sign a waiver form (there are online forms to sign before you arrive too).
The kids were then handed climbing shoes to put on. There’s a cloakroom area to leave any bags and coats etc (no lockers). This is where you’ll find the unisex toilets too.
The climbing lesson
Daf, our instructor, led us upstairs for our climbing tuition. This is a designated area for lessons and to practise different bouldering skills.
First there was a safety briefing, including how to get safely down from the wall, where to go on the mats to be safe, and how to behave appropriately in the climbing area. This is provided in a really fun way, with asking the kids questions and engaging them.
Then after a quick warm up (getting bottoms on as many blue holds as possible!), it’s time to get climbing.
Bouldering involves no ropes at all, and the holds on the climbing wall are coloured to indicate different levels (purple / green and black being for beginners). Daf was fantastic in instructing and encouraging our children (aged 4 and 7); really supporting our youngest who was a little less confident to begin with, as well as encouraging our eldest who was very keen and took on board all the tips and support.
Before long, they were both excitedly finding different routes up the walls. We all loved Daf’s idea of climbing up to ‘rescue’ a small toy animal – a perfect way to encourage younger or less confident climbers.
After the climbing lesson
After the 30 mins tuition, it’s downstairs to the main climbing area. There’s another quick safety briefing here too as some of the walls are at an angle and overhanging, plus there are much bigger people down here (adults and pro climbers), so little ones need to be mindful.
You are left to climb here for as long as you want. Kids under 14 need to be supervised by an adult (one adult to two kids). The idea is to use only the one colour to reach the top; although do note that the colour codes down here in the main area are different to upstairs.
Our children spent a good while climbing in this main area, as well as popping back upstairs whenever it suited, so that they could practise a little more and try out different techniques. Once the kids built their confidence in climbing, us adults also got to do a bit of bouldering (one at a time), making it a really lovely family activity.
We spent a couple of hours at Substation, which was enough for our younger children. Older children would likely love spending the day here, stopping for a lunch break halfway through!
The onsite café
After two hours of continuous climbing, the kids were ‘starving’.
The café is open during all climbing sessions, and offers a great selection of light bites, including toasties, woodfired pizzas, and homemade cakes. There are also teas, coffees, and a selection of local beers, gin, and wine.
Click here for the menu.
The dining area is modern, yet cosy, and the food tasted fantastically fresh and delicious. We ordered wraps, a toastie and cheesy chips which were the perfect re-fuel after our energetic morning. We also enjoyed our coffees whilst watching the impressive climbers through the windows of the café.
There’s also free and decent WIFI in the café.
Do I need to pre-book
Yes you do. Click here to book online. You will then be asked to complete an online waiver document (for each member of the family) before your arrival.
Substation Macclesfield is open 9am to 7pm on Saturdays and Sundays, and 10am to 10pm on weekdays (which is when some of the kid’s clubs and coaching are).
Final thoughts on Substation Macclesfield
Substation Macclesfield makes a good value option for an outdoorsy rainy day activity. After your 30 minute instruction session, families can stay as long as they want, and the onsite café is reasonably priced and serves excellent food. Plus the staff are so kind and friendly.
Substation Macclesfield gets a huge thumbs up from us, we had a brilliant time, and will definitely be back again.
You may also like to read:
Rainy Day Peak District: things to do
Days out in the Peak District
Shining Tor walk