Swanage Steam Railway & Corfe Castle

Monkey loves trains so when we heard about the Swanage Steam Railway down in Dorset we thought it would be a nice thing to do on our holiday. Add to the fact that you can ride the train to an amazing ruined castle and we were sold! (We love a good castle.) It isn’t the cheapest day out to combine the railway and a trip to the castle but being National Trust members thankfully we only had to think about the cost of the train tickets.

The steam railway runs between Swanage and Norden in Dorset, with a couple of stops along the way, one of which being Corfe Castle. We chose to park in Swanage, and take the train from there to Corfe Castle and back. There is a park and ride at Corfe Castle so you could, in theory take the bus to Swanage and the train back to the castle or something, but there is also quite a nice big car park 5-10 minutes walk from the station in Swanage. (There is no car park right at the station in Swanage, just a co-op with a short stay car park)

We took a little picnic to eat on the train journey and Monkey was just so so happy to be on the train. The staff were great with him and so friendly, and he loved getting his ticket stamped. It’s not a very long journey, about 20 minutes, which is probably about right with little ones and the scenery on the way is very pretty.

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Corfe Castle in the village of Corfe, is seriously impressive, perched on top of a hill so you can see it for miles around.

It’s not very suitable for buggies but the National Trust to have some baby carriers available for hire and you can leave your buggy at the gate. We also saw a few people who had taken their buggy up the hill and tried to get it round the site.

As LM is too much of a fidget pants to be happy in a carrier we just carried her about in our arms. As I mentioned, we love a good castle so we very much enjoyed having a good explore of the ruins.

corfe castle

The views from the top of the hill are amazing and I loved seeing the steam train chugging by.

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Afterwards we stopped at a little tea room and decided to have some cream tea in the gardens…. unfortunately we got completely swarmed by wasps which wasn’t fun and sacrificed our jam, moving it onto another table hoping the wasps would surround it instead of us. It worked very well thankfully but I have never seen so many wasps all crammed into a small pot of jam!

We tried to get a nice family selfie with corfe castle in the background and, well, it’s not great but not too terrible either. Not easy getting all 4 of us looking n the right direction!

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Then it was time to have another fun little journey on the train back to Swanage. A lovely little day trip.

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Do your kids love trains, and castles?

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19 thoughts on “Swanage Steam Railway & Corfe Castle

  1. Corfe Castle looks like a great place to stop and explore after a little journey on a steam train, I bet it really felt like you’d gone back in time. It’s great that Monkey enjoyed his ride on the train and having his ticket stamped. The view from the castle with the marquee’s and steam train is spectacular. Thanks for linking up with me on Country Kids.

  2. We love Corfe Castle and headed down a few weeks ago followed by a trip to Studland. Such a beautiful part of the world. We haven’t done the steam train ride but love watching them chug by the castle 🙂

  3. We went to Swanage last October, and I dragged the OH and N on the steam train and round Corfe Castle. It’s a great place to explore and the steam train was lovely if expensive. They loved it – I loved the station at Swanage too.

    Corfe Castle is known as the Broken Castle now to us, thanks to N being enthralled by it being ruins. #countrykids

  4. What a lovely day out. I love Corfe Castle (haven’t been there for years but am now adding it to my list of places to take the girls!) but have never been on the steam railway. Love your family selfie with the castle in the background. Glad the wasps left you alone after you sacrificed your jam!

  5. We’ve been meaning to head down to Corfe Castle for ages. It looks amazing! After reading this post we’ll be sure to visit 🙂 #LetKidsBeKids x

  6. What a lovely day out! I remember visiting Corfe castle as a child, good fun to explore and with the train ride too, makes a fantastic day.
    Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids

  7. I think this would be up there as one of my daughter’s favourite days out – she does enjoy trains and she loves a good castle (I’m training her up young). It looks so beautiful here too. Thanks for linking up to #mondayescapes

  8. Looks like you had a great day out… Corfe is one of my very favourite places, such fond memories! Did you visit the Enid Blyton shop whilst you were there?

  9. Corfe castle looks stunning! My O ours love that journey, a steam train to the castle and back! We do a similar journey on a train to monastery ruins when we were on holiday in Yorkshire last year, but I like the look of Corfe castle better.
    Lovely family photo, at least you got everyone in! I have trouble even getting us all in one spot to even attempt a family photo! Thanks for linking up to #Whatevertheweather 🙂 x

  10. We used to go to ‘coffee’ castle every year as a child and I loved it, so this year I decided to take my 2 there to explore. They loved it and played ”Famous 4 go to Kirrin castle” all day (we don’t have a dog lol).

    The railway was fab too

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  12. Aww this sounds like such a fun day! I LOVE steam trains. I went on one for the first time recently and felt like I was on the Hogwarts Express haha. It looks like you all had such a great time and I adore your family selfie! I think it’s so much better that you’re all looking about because it’s more natural! 😀 T

    hose pesky wasps are always around when there is a cream tea! We had the same thing happen the other day and put some jam on a spoon to deter them. It didn’t work for long. 🙁 Thank you so much for linking to #whatevertheweather x

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