The Bishop's Palace and Gardens in Wells has announced its revised summer family activity programme to keep families entertained during the school holidays.

Due to the current pandemic, the palace has had to cancel its public events programme, but has released its plans to help families to enjoy the site in a safe and socially distanced way.

The palace will be launching weekly family trails from Saturday (July 25), based on different weekly themes.

The themes will include Colour, Dragons, Water, Gardening and Animals at the Palace, and the trails will be available as a download from the palace website, or visitors can collect a print-out from the shop on site.

The trails will lead families around the palace and gardens and, when completed, children will be able to collect a small prize on the way out.

The palace will also run a Photography Competition for children over the summer holidays. Children are invited to submit their best photo on the theme of My Summer at the Palace.

The photos must be taken within the grounds or buildings of the palace, and there will be three separate age categories for entries - one to four years, five to 10 years and 11 to 15 years.

The winners and runners up will have their work featured in an exhibition to be held in the Stable Yard Room at the palace at the end of the holidays, and the winners from each category will also be featured on the palace website.

To enter, families can post/tag the image to the palace Facebook or Instagram account with the hashtag #MySummer, or email it to [email protected].

Children who are familiar with the palace gardens will be delighted to hear that the Dragon's Lair play area in the arboretum has now re-opened. The lair explores the themes of the palace in a fun way with climbing, sliding and pumping water.

Since the palace gardens re-opened at the end of May, a new People's Ticket has been on offer costing £15 for adults and £7.50 for children (aged five to 17), which allows the holder to enter for one day and return for the following 12 months.

The Bishop's Table café will be open daily for takeaways with outdoor seating, and offers brunch, lunch, creams teas, cake, ice cream, snacks, and hot and cold drinks.