Stormont Play Park

Gosh, it seems like only yesterday this place was built, and I was a mad, boisterous little thing desperate to try out the coolest play park in town. How time flies, yet so much remains the same…
This was the park of parks. I mean, you really couldn’t get much better than Stormont play park. It always reminded me of the really cool park up in Portrush that cost a couple of pounds to get into, except Stormont is free (parents can breathe a sigh of relief at this point…), and superior.
The setting is a beautiful one — the park is nestled in amongst the trees at the edge of the estate, yet at the same time it’s safely separate from the forest… so no missing little ones! As the two previous reviewers commented, there are a huge variety of different activities to keep the kids entertained for hours, plus a number of benches dotted around the place for mum and dad to chill.
My favourite aspect of Stormont play park is the ever popular zip-​line, which had a never-​ending queue and was always surrounded by those cheeky wee louts who kept stealing everyone else’s turn. Once you got on, you didn’t want to get off, but unfortunately that had to be the way of it. Climbing ropes, swings, slides, frames and the rest are all there. And they’re all so well maintained, which is lovely to see.
If I was ten years younger, I’d be back in an instant…

We centred our visit on the Mo Mowlam Memorial Play Park, because we were visiting with a small group of pupils that I teach. We called in on a whim after we had brought them bowling and the weather was particularly good — and we couldn’t in all conscience drive past without calling in to let them have a few goes on the swing or a play on the slides. This park is fantastic — it’s well tended and looked after, clean and safe, and you can see where the kids are at all times. There are some great slides and climbing frames, swings, see saws and even an electronic game (that we couldn’t quite make sense of). The kids loved it, and we were comfortable on one of the many available benches. There is a good amount of bins too which is a good sign and one of the reasons the park is so clean. Really worth a visit if you want to take the kids somewhere on a good day.

If you don’t have children you may be baffled by my enthusiasm here, but if you do have children, you’ll understand.
If your kids are anything like mine, there aren’t that many places you can go for more than half an hour without the brattish distress call of ‘I’m BORED’. I love them dearly really. But Stormont Park is one of those places and then some. It’s a massive children’s play park with the added advantage of being slap bang in the middle of Stormont grounds which you can also explore.
This is a well equipped and well maintained park. The super efficient park wardens see to that. ‘Jobsworth’ is a very cruel term, they just take their responsibilities seriously. There is something to amuse and tire out every age of child from toddlers right up to teens. Slides, monkey bars, tyre swings, zip line, large and small climbing frames and more. There are also picnic tables and portable BBQ stands so that you can ‘make a day of it’ as they say in Norn Iron. There are toilets too, not always clean at the busy times in summer, but any port in a storm. Just take your tissues and hand sanitiser and you’ll be good.
Even if you have to travel a few miles, Stormont Park is well worth a visit.