Castles or things that go 'Bang!' near Glasgow.

[StayingDavidTennantsGirl]

Some friends of mine are visiting this weekend, with their three dses, aged about 8, 10 and 12. We are keeping our fingers crossed for a nice(ish) day on Monday, so we can take them, and the dog, over to Cumbrae for cycling/exploring/playing on the beach/fish and chips, but if the weather is not good (like it's been all week) I could do with some other suggestions of where to take them.

When asked, their mum said that they like castles and things that go 'Bang'! - so I was wondering if the Wise Mumsnetters of Glasgow have any suggestions.

We did wonder about Culzean Castle, but that might possibly be too stately home and not sufficiently medieval for the lads.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Bothwell Castle is small, ruined, but really fun for children to run around. Lots of staircases to explore.

Science Centre would keep them busy and if you time it to see some of the shows you'll get your "bangs". There's an IMAX cinema there too.

Linlithgow Palace isn't exactly close to Glasgow but probably as close as Culzean (in the other direction) and much older than Culzean, more castle than stately home.

Culzean has a good children's activity for when they're going round though - it's a spot-the-Lego-minifigures treasure hunt in each room. Some of them are really hard! And the gardens are good.

Those sound great, suzikettles - and I suppose Culzean would have the benefit of being all indoors, if the weather is truly awful.

Thank you!

Dean Castle in Kilmarnock is FREEEEEEE, and there's a room where you can try on real armour and chain mail and get your hands on an actual sword. We haven't done the tour itself, but the castle itself isn't that big/impressive. There's a big park with an playground and a wee farm and some mazes, and a river for stone throwing.

Culzean has a lovely beach - ds1's favourite place in the whole world.

I'm sure they'd like the trying on armour and holding a real sword option, midnight!! And I think my friends, dh and I would like the freeeee part - lol!

Another possibility might be the Lake of Menteith, near Aberfoyle. We went over Easter - you can get a wee boat out to Inchmaholme Priory, which is (if you squint a bit) ruined castleish. We combined it with hiring bikes up at Loch Katrine and a picnic. The David Marshall Lodge on the road from Aberfoyle to Loch Katrine is quite good too, though I imagine that as the boys are older (mine are only wee), you might get a bit of pressure to do the whole Go Ape thing, which is probably monstrously expensive if they have three children. We usually just romp about in the woods and play in the river.