Pumpkin Picking at Walby Farm Park, Carlisle

Walby is not a pumpkin field with a farm attached, it is a farm park where the pumpkin patch is folded into a full day ticket. That distinction matters in Cumbria in October, because when the rain comes in off the Solway you can retreat into the Indoor Adventure Play Barn or Milecastle 62, the undercover Roman fort, and carry on. The picking runs across the whole of October, from the 3rd to the 31st, with twelve varieties in the patch in a range of shapes, sizes and colours, and every paying child ticket includes one free pumpkin, which is unusually generous for a day ticket venue. Alongside the patch, your ticket covers the Animal Barn with its daily activity timetable, outdoor play when the weather allows, and photo spots dotted through the patch.

Three things cost extra and are worth budgeting for: toasting s'mores, the pumpkin cannon and the sling shot, plus pumpkin carving on site. Walby also runs two evening formats. On Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 October the park simply stays open until 7pm at no extra charge, with last entry pushed back to 4.30pm, which is the easy option if you want to pick pumpkins at dusk with children. Separately, Pumpkin Picking After Dark is an over 18s only evening at £9.50 a head, 6.30pm to 10pm on six dates, with food, drink and the patch to yourselves.

Two hard facts to plan around. No dogs at all, except assistance dogs, because of the close contact with farm animals, and Walby is explicit that emotional support animals are not accepted. And the pumpkin patch is a field: the farm park is generally fine for wheelchairs and pushchairs and everything is on one level, but Walby says openly that field based events like pumpkin picking are the harder parts of the site to reach. It sells out every year, so book early rather than turning up.