Dalby Forest - North Yorkshire

Last weekend the Bruton family decamped from Bruton mansions, travelled through Yorkshire and ended up in Thornton-le-Dale for lunch before heading to Dalby Forest for the afternoon:

The Dalby Forest Visitor's Centre

"The Visitors Centre was designed to maximise natural ventilation and lighting to make it as energy efficient as possible. Renewable technologies such as the wind turbine, photovoltaics, rainwater harvesting and on site waste treatment have been incorporated to help reduce the impact the building has on local resources, whilst educating visitors." From Turner & Townsend website.

Which explains why the entire visitor centre has a very off-putting smell. At first we thought it was just an excess of nappies in the bins, but we soon began to harbour thoughts that it wasn't something in the building that was causing the smell but the building itself. It seems the on-site waste management isn't particularly efffective at reducing the rather pungent odour comingup through the floors.
Of course, it does succeed in getting you back out into the fresh air very well.

And what a wonderful place it is. A huge expanse of open air, walking, bike trails, nature and a hell of a lot of it. We were only there for a few hours but I can definitely see us returning and spending whole days lost in nature.

It's also got the magnificent Go-Ape high wire forest adventure site tucked away in the trees; an aerial assault course that Molly and I are gagging to try - just have to wait for her to hit 10 though.