Dean Castle Country Park – Deer, a Play Park and a Castle

Dean Castle Country Park

Dean Castle Country Park is on Dean Road on the north-east edge of Kilmarnock, with the main car park by the visitor centre and disabled parking behind the castle. The park and grounds are open all year, and the park, the animals and the castle are all free. Start at the Rural Life Centre, home to fallow deer, Eriskay ponies, Bagot goats, Manx Loaghtan sheep and Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, with fully accessible toilets and baby changing. The play park beside it is colour-coded by age, from a cradle swing and a hedgehog slide for little ones to a pod swing and rope swing for older children. The kiosk there (cards only) opens at weekends from 11am to 3pm and every day in the school holidays. Lunch is at the Treehouse Café in the visitor centre, open every day from 9.30am to 3.30pm for soup, toasties and ice cream, cards only. Then it's a flat 400 metres from the car park, with benches on the way, to Dean Castle. It opens daily from 10am, until 5pm Tuesday to Thursday and 6pm on other days. Ramps reach the ground floors of the Keep and the Palace, where a video flies you through the rooms above; the Great Hall and the armour upstairs are up stone stairs, so ring 01563 554734 if that matters. The visitor centre is fully accessible, with a Changing Places toilet; out on the trails, the paths have a few stiff climbs and some steps.

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