Photo: Jeff Buck (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons
Things to do in Shropshire
Wondering what to do in Shropshire? This guide lists the area's attractions — zoos, museums, theme parks and more — with distances, so you can plan every day of your trip.
🎟️ This weekend near Shropshire
Events from
Skiddle
Fri 13 Nov · 20:00
Karaoke With Ed
The Harp, Bridgnorth · 15.9 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Fri 13 Nov · 12:00
Holborn Audio Tour: Inns of Court, Diamonds and the Viaduct
Gray's Inn Chapel, London · 23.5 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Fri 13 Nov · 12:00
Shrewsbury Audio Tour: Bridges, Belfries & Riverside Reverie...
St Mary's Church, Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury · 4.1 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Fri 13 Nov · 19:30
Dj Tricksta
Pattingham Club, Wolverhampton · 20.7 mi
Tickets on Skiddle ↗
Museums & Galleries
3.8 mi from Shropshire
Coleham Pumping Station
Coleham Pumping Station is a steam and vintage machinery museum in Shrewsbury, run entirely by volunteers from The Shrewsbury Steam Trust. On open days you can explore the Victoria...
3.9 mi from Shropshire
Shrewsbury Museum (The Music Hall)
Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery was founded in 1835 as the Museum of the Shropshire and North Wales Natural History and Antiquarian Society Society in Dogpole, Shrewsbury, Englan... — Wikipedia
4.2 mi from Shropshire
Soldiers of Shropshire Museum
Soldiers of Shropshire Museum tells the story of nearly 300 years of British Army history through the eyes of Shropshire's regiments, from their formation in 1755 to the present da...
✓
✓
4.2 mi from Shropshire
Soldiers of Shropshire Museum
Soldiers of Shropshire Museum tells the story of nearly 300 years of British Army history through the experiences of Shropshire's soldiers, from 1755 to the present day. You'll see...
✓
✓
4.7 mi from Shropshire
Wroxeter Roman Site Museum
Wroxeter Roman City is the site of what was once the fourth largest city in Roman Britain, with excavated remains including a gigantic public bath house complex, a market hall and...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
8.9 mi from Shropshire
Much Wenlock Museum
Much Wenlock Museum sits in the heart of Much Wenlock, Shropshire, and makes for an easy, free visit exploring local geology, the history of the modern Olympic games, and the town'...
✓
10.8 mi from Shropshire
Enginuity
Enginuity is an interactive design and technology centre in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, England. It was opened in 2002 making it the last new museum to be operated by the Ironbridge... — Wikipedia
10.8 mi from Shropshire
Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron
The Museum of Iron tells the story of iron and the Industrial Revolution, with the original blast furnace where Abraham Darby I perfected iron smelting on display nearby at The Old...
10.8 mi from Shropshire
The Darby Houses
The Darby Houses museum is managed by the National Trust and is one of ten museums acquired from the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust in 2026. It is based in Coalbrookdale in Ironbrid... — Wikipedia
10.9 mi from Shropshire
Museum of the Gorge
The Museum of the Gorge occupies the former Severn Warehouse, once used to send goods made in Coalbrookdale out across the country and around the world, telling the story of this p...
11.2 mi from Shropshire
The Iron Bridge Tollhouse
The Iron Bridge Tollhouse sits right at the foot of the world-famous Iron Bridge, the first bridge of its kind, erected over the River Severn in 1779 and a landmark that changed ho...
✓
✓
✓
✓
11.3 mi from Shropshire
Broseley Pipeworks
Broseley Pipeworks is a time-capsule museum in Broseley, Shropshire, part of the Ironbridge Gorge group of sites. It preserves a former clay tobacco pipe factory, untouched for eig...
12.1 mi from Shropshire
Jackfield Tile Museum
Jackfield Tile Museum sits within Ironbridge Gorge at The Gorge, Telford and Wrekin, inside a former tile factory whose products were exported around the world. Open Friday, Saturd...
12.6 mi from Shropshire
Tar Tunnel
The Tar Tunnel is an abandoned tunnel located on the north bank of the River Severn in the Ironbridge Gorge at Coalport, England. It is managed by the National Trust and is one of... — Wikipedia
12.6 mi from Shropshire
Blists Hill Victorian Town
Blists Hill Victorian Town is an open-air museum built on a former industrial complex located in Madeley, Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England. The museum attempts to recreate t... — Wikipedia
12.7 mi from Shropshire
Coalport China Museum
Coalport China Museum sits inside the former Coalport China Works, once among the most successful potteries in the world, with china shipped from its kilns across the globe. Nearby...
✓
Theme Parks
12.4 mi from Shropshire
Jungleland
Jungleland is a giant jungle-themed soft play centre in Telford, with separate age-restricted play areas featuring slides, rollers, rope swings and dizzy disks for children up to 1...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
25.3 mi from Shropshire
Go Ape Wyre
Go Ape Wyre is a treetop adventure course set among towering Douglas firs in Wyre Forest's 'Valley of the Giants', offering high ropes, obstacles and zip wires for ages four and up...
✓
✓
✓
✓
29.6 mi from Shropshire
The Black Country Living Museum
The Black Country Living Museum in Dudley is an open-air living history site where you can explore over 80 reconstructed shops, houses and industrial workshops spanning more than 2...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Zoos & Wildlife
12.8 mi from Shropshire
Exotic Zoo Wildlife Park
Exotic Zoo Wildlife Park sits within Telford Town Park, where you can wander through rainforest, desert, outback, nocturnal and farmyard zones to meet crocodiles, lemurs, capybara...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
13.5 mi from Shropshire
Hoo Zoo & Dinosaur World
Hoo Zoo & Dinosaur World is a Shropshire zoo combining animal encounters with a large dinosaur park. You can explore lands and attractions themed around animals and prehistoric cre...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
26.6 mi from Shropshire
Rodbaston Animal Zone
Rodbaston Animal Zone is a small, licensed zoo collection based at Rodbaston College, home to around 600 animals from over 140 species, from meerkats and monkeys to rabbits and alp...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
27 mi from Shropshire
West Midlands Safari Park
West Midlands Safari Park is a wildlife and theme park in Bewdley, Wyre Forest, combining four miles of drive-through safari with a walk-through Safari Walk and an Adventure Theme...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
29.7 mi from Shropshire
Dudley Zoo & Castle
Dudley Zoo & Castle combines a working zoo, home to over 150 species, with the historic ruins of Dudley Castle on the same site. As a registered charity, it's dedicated to conserva...
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Where to stay near Shropshire
Places to stay within easy reach of these days out.
More around Shropshire
Itineraries
- A weekend in Shropshire: an accessible itinerary · 2 days
- A weekend in Shropshire with the kids · 2 days
- A weekend in Shropshire · 2 days
Haunted Britain
Shropshire rewards people who plan loosely. It is a county of Roman ruins, half-timbered halls, early industry and quiet lanes, and the pleasure of it is stringing two or three places together rather than racing between six. There are 329 places to stay on BritStays across the region, so it is an easy one to turn into a weekend rather than a long drive there and back in a day.
Heritage you can actually walk around
Start with Stokesay Castle if you only do one old building. It is a fortified manor rather than a military fortress, which makes it unusually pleasant to wander — rooms you can picture living in, rather than bare stone. Wattlesborough Castle and Cound Hall give you more of the same story in different registers, and Pitchford Hall is the stately-home end of the scale.
The National Trust has four properties here: Attingham Park, Benthall Hall, Town Walls Tower and Sunnycroft Gardens. Attingham Park is the one to build a day around if you want parkland as well as interiors. Benthall Hall suits a shorter, quieter visit. Town Walls Tower is small and best treated as an add-on rather than a main event — check what days it opens before you set off, as compact Trust properties often have limited access.
Rainy-day options
Shropshire's museums are genuinely good wet-weather cover, and most of them are indoors-plus-outdoors, so a shower won't ruin the day.
- Blists Hill Victorian Town — a recreated Victorian town you walk through; the single best bet with children in tow.
- The Darby Houses — the domestic side of Shropshire's ironworking history.
- Ditherington Flax Mill — an important early industrial building, and a satisfying one if you like architecture and engineering.
- Battle of Shrewsbury Exhibition — a focused, manageable stop that gives context to a lot of the county's medieval sites.
- Tanat Valley Light Railway Museum — small-scale railway interest, good for an hour.
For Roman history there are two separate listings, Wroxeter Roman Site Museum and Wroxeter Roman City Museum. Check which one you are heading for and what the opening arrangements are, as they are listed independently.
Family days out
Blists Hill Victorian Town is the obvious anchor — there is space to roam and enough going on that nobody has to be marched round in silence. Just over the border in Worcestershire, Climbing Frame is a theme-park-style option if you need something more energetic, and Waterworld in Stoke-on-Trent is the one to keep in reserve for a day when the forecast is hopeless and the children have had enough of old buildings.
Outdoors
Attingham Park and Sunnycroft Gardens are the two to aim at for walking, grounds and gardens, and both work as half-days with a picnic. Stokesay Castle and Wattlesborough Castle also suit dry, bright days, when the setting does as much work as the building. If the weather turns, you are rarely stuck — the museums above are the fallback.
How to group it into a sensible day
Two proper stops and one small one is about right. A few combinations that hang together by theme:
- Roman and medieval: Wroxeter Roman City Museum in the morning, Battle of Shrewsbury Exhibition after lunch, Town Walls Tower if the timings work.
- Industry and ingenuity: Blists Hill Victorian Town for the bulk of the day, The Darby Houses alongside it, with Ditherington Flax Mill as a separate outing.
- Houses and gardens: Attingham Park for the morning and grounds, then Benthall Hall or Sunnycroft Gardens.
- Castles: Stokesay Castle as the main stop, Wattlesborough Castle or Cound Hall to round it out.
Where to eat
We don't currently hold verified food hygiene listings for this region, so rather than send you somewhere we can't vouch for, the practical advice is this: take a proper picnic for garden and parkland days, since Attingham Park and Sunnycroft Gardens are made for it. Where a site has its own tea room, ring ahead or check the site's own page for serving times — many close earlier than the grounds. And if you are eating out in the evening, look the place up on the Food Standards Agency's free ratings search first; it takes a minute.
Making it a short break
Two nights is the sweet spot. Give the first full day to one of the big indoor sites — Blists Hill Victorian Town or the Wroxeter museums — and the second to a house and garden such as Attingham Park or Benthall Hall, keeping Stokesay Castle for the morning you travel home. If you are coming with a group that won't agree on anything, book somewhere central and let people split off.
Practical points before you book: confirm opening days directly with each site, as smaller properties such as Town Walls Tower and Benthall Hall often open seasonally; check whether National Trust membership covers what you plan to see, since four of the listed properties are Trust-run; and if a wet day is forecast, have Waterworld or Climbing Frame written down as your back-up rather than deciding in the car.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best rainy-day attraction in Shropshire?
Blists Hill Victorian Town is the strongest all-round wet-weather option, as you walk through a recreated Victorian town with plenty to look at. Other indoor options include The Darby Houses, Ditherington Flax Mill, the Battle of Shrewsbury Exhibition and the Tanat Valley Light Railway Museum. If the forecast is truly bad and you have children with you, Waterworld in Stoke-on-Trent is a good fallback.
Which National Trust properties are in Shropshire?
Four of the listed properties are National Trust: Attingham Park, Benthall Hall, Town Walls Tower and Sunnycroft Gardens. If you are a member it is worth checking what your membership covers before you plan the route, as that may decide which order you visit them in.
Is there much Roman history to see in Shropshire?
Yes. There are two separate listings at Wroxeter: Wroxeter Roman Site Museum and Wroxeter Roman City Museum. Check which one you are heading for and confirm opening arrangements in advance, as they are listed independently.
What should we do with children in Shropshire?
Blists Hill Victorian Town is the easiest family day, because there is room to roam and enough happening to hold attention. Just outside the county, Climbing Frame in Worcestershire offers something more active, and Waterworld in Stoke-on-Trent is useful when you need an indoor day.
Which castles and historic houses are worth a visit?
Stokesay Castle is the standout, being a fortified manor rather than a military fortress and therefore easy to walk around. Wattlesborough Castle and Cound Hall add more of the same period, Pitchford Hall covers the stately home side, and Benthall Hall is a quieter National Trust option.
Where can we eat during a day out in Shropshire?
We don't hold verified food hygiene listings for this region, so we'd suggest packing a picnic for days at Attingham Park or Sunnycroft Gardens, checking each site's own page for tea room serving times, and looking up any evening restaurant on the Food Standards Agency's free hygiene ratings search before you book.
More ways to explore
Not booked yet? See the best places to stay in Shropshire.