Pickaquoy Centre – Jungle World Soft Play and the Phoenix
A few hours.
The route
The Pickaquoy Centre in Kirkwall has a whole wet day for young children under one roof.
Jungle World, its soft play for children up to five, sits right beside the Picky Café, and the Phoenix Cinema is in the same building, so an hour of play can run straight into a film. It suits young children best, and the cinema has a cheap family showing once a month.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
None of ours is close by: the nearest is House of the Northern Gate, 28 miles away. Sleeps 18.
Book Phoenix Cinema tickets at the Pickaquoy Centre online, by phone on 01856 879900 or at reception, for a showing after the soft play: films change each week, children's tickets are £6 before 5pm on weekdays, and tickets can't be refunded.
The day
Kirkwall
An hour in the ball pool and down the log slide, a bite in the café through the netted wall, then a film at the Phoenix.
About three hours
The Pickaquoy Centre
The Pickaquoy Centre is on Muddisdale Road, on the west side of Kirkwall, with plenty of parking beside it. Jungle World, its soft play for children up to five, has a ball pool, a log slide, big stacking cubes, musical instruments and a separate toddler corner. It opens Monday to Friday from 9am to 8pm and at weekends from 9am to 6pm, and costs £5.15 a child for an hour at the time of writing. It sometimes shuts for private parties, so check the centre's programme changes page first. A netted wall runs between the soft play and the Picky Café, so you can watch with a coffee, soup or a panini. The Phoenix Cinema is in the same building, and its children's tickets are £6 before 5pm on weekdays and £7.50 otherwise, with babies under two free on a lap. Once a month there's a family film at £3.50 a ticket. The cinema's wheelchair spaces are in the back row as you come in, with no stairs, and a disabled toilet with baby changing is opposite its doors.
If it rains
It's all indoors.
Lynnfield Hotel, a restaurant in Kirkwall.
Make it a weekend
More days out on Orkney.
Photograph by The Pickaquoy Centre via Google