Visitor Centre
About the Visitor Centre
The Visitor Centre is a unique award winning venue of striking design both inside and out, with lots to see and do. It boasts very impressive green credentials, including rain water harvesting for toilet flushing, ground source heat pump from the lake for underfloor heating, solar roof panels and a sedum roof. The centre is a low carbon building and aims to enhance, not detract from, its beautiful setting.
A giant globe shows the flight paths that the over-wintering birds take to reach Stanwick Lakes.
The Visitor Centre and Heritage Museum is open 9.30am – 5pm.
The café kitchen closes at 3pm on weekdays, 4pm during weekends and holidays.
Facilities
Facilities in the Visitor Centre include;
Café
Food
Reception
Shop
Take out
Toilets
Baby Change
Disabled facilities
WiFi
Rooms to Hire
For health and safety reasons, and due to space constraints, we cannot allow bikes, scooters or ride-on toys to be brought into the Visitor Centre. These should be left in the designated cycle parking area, just outside the main entrance. Please do not leave them in the lobby areas or outside the entrance doors.
Lakeside Terrace
In addition to the indoor café space, you can also enjoy outside seating and alfresco dining on the adjoining terrace, overlooking the lake. Accessed through the cafe, as well as externally via a gate on the grassy seating area outside.
Open 9.30am – 4.30pm.
The Mezzanine (Heritage Museum)
The mezzanine area above the café has gently transformed into The Heritage Museum. Why not digest a fact or two over lunch, by viewing the historic artifacts found on site over the years and discover the story of the past settlers on this site over the last 10,000 years.
Open year round: 9.30am – 5pm.
Gift Shop
A gift shop is situated within the visitor centre and stocks a wide range of products including cards, books, decorative items for the home, ethically produced products and a selection of children’s toys. It is also possible to purchase honey from the Stanwick Lakes bee hives when it is available.
We also stock a selection of ice creams and annual membership can be purchased at reception.
The gift shop is part of a social enterprise and all profits are re-invested back into the charity that looks after the nature reserve.
Open 9.30am – 5pm all year round.
The Walkers Rest
Ice creams, hot and cold drinks and snacks are sold outside in the refreshment kiosk which has its own outside seating area.
For health and safety reasons, and due to space constraints, we cannot allow bikes, scooters or ride-on toys to be brought into the Visitor Centre. These should be left in the designated cycle parking area, just outside the main entrance. Please do not leave them in the lobby areas or outside the entrance doors.
On “good-weather weekends” and during school holidays, The Walker’s Rest is open 10am – 5pm. These hours may be adjusted in adverse weather conditions.
The Hide
Adjacent to our main play area, The Hide is open for the Easter holidays and during summer months. The Hide is a hop, skip and a jump away from our play tower, so you can keep hydrated and enjoy snacks such as ice cream to top up energy levels without interrupting your play!
