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Tale Tales - Fun Local Story Walks for Children and the Young At Heart

Reviewed by What To Do With The Kids

Tale trails are a new series of fun story walks for children, based around the Penrith and Ullswater area. They have been created by Lakes District teacher and mountain leader Anja Phoenix, who has drawn on her experiences to create this series of walks which are safe and achievable with children and will encourage families to explore the outdoors together.

The Tale Trails are written and designed especially for 'children and the young at heart'. Each walk is based around a fairy tale and includes a hand-drawn map and a variety of challenges and activities along the way - a combination which will definitely ignite kids imagination and turn a day of walking into a day of adventure!

We looked at two of the Tale Trails - Pip The Impossible of Lowther and Hetti the Carvetii of Pooley Bridge.

Pip the Impossible of Lowther is 4cm-tall bat who longs to be an owl. In this walk through the well sign-posted Lowther Estate, we follow the story of Pip and his training to try to change his natural bat behaviours and become more like his feathered friend Bee the Owl. 

Hetti The Carvetii of Pooley Bridge is a 4-foot tall, 7 year old girl from Iron Age Cumbria who wants to be a warrior. We are taken on an adventure with Hetti on her quest to prove herself as a warrior, passing various spots and sights to look out for along the way and presenting us with little tasks and challenges throughout the story, such as creating a design for your own shield and tunic. This tale does a great job of setting the scene of Iron Age existence and encourages kids to imagine life 2000 years ago.

We love the design of the Tale Trails - the layout is clean and simple, the illustrations are colourful and bring the characters to life. The story folds out into a hand-drawn map, which can be carried round the trail by your little ones while you follow a more detailed OS map. The map is laminated, so even if it gets dropped or ends up covered in sticky prints, it can still be wiped clean and used as a bedroom wall souvenir poster until the next trip.

At the end of the story there is even a section for grown-ups which gives inforation about the walk, things to look out for, and details of a snack stop. There is also an option of a long walk and a shorter walk in each booklet, so you can decide on the day how far you and the kids want to walk.

We highly recommend Tale Trails. We think they're a great way to get kids interested in walking in the country, to get them engaged in the nature around them, and, if taking one of the longer walks, to maintain interest throughout the walk and avoid the dreaded sentence 'Are we nearly there...my legs are aching...'. 

We have often improvised maps and stories when walking with kids, and the Tale Trails take all the hard work out of turning a walk into an adventure, but do not take away any of the fun!

We would recommend getting the kids to read the story and to think about the activities in advance of doing the walk - this way you can build excitement for the trip, build engagement with the characters, and give an opportunity for the kids to memorise the sights to look out for along the way.

At £3.95 each or £20.95 for the full set, the Tale Trails are reasonably priced and will provide hours of fun. We can't wait to read the others!

You can buy any of the Tale Trails listed below online at www.taletrails.co.uk, through UK stockists and in shops around the area such as the Ullswater Steamer Shops and Penrith and Glenridding TIC.

Tale Trails Titles include:

• Hetti the Carvetii of Pooley Bridge         1.5km and 6km 
• The Nozomi Bird of Aira Force               3km and 7km
• The Marsh Kelpie of Askham Fell            5km and 10km 
• The Glenridding Griffin of Lantys' tarn     3km 
• The Grumbletrog of Cliburn Moss           1km
• Pip the Impossible of Lowther               4.5km and 5.5km
• Eric the Curious of Hallin Fell                 3km and 7km