Free Things To Do In Turriff This Summer

Find The Flowerpots

You might have already seen some of the local Flowerpot People, a fun summer project organised by the Formartine Partnership for local businesses, schools and community projects. The Turriff area is currently home to a family of 40 flowerpot people across 29 hosts, with even more across the Formartine area and ‘hosts’ still getting involved meaning even more flowerpot characters popping up before the end of July! The Formartine Partnership are encouraging people to get involved with finding all the characters, taking selfies with them and sharing the fun with their family and friends. If you’re inspired by the flowerpot people around town, why not make your own for your garden, or if you don’t have any spare flower pots lying around why not make an indoor friend from egg boxes, yoghurt pots or whatever else you have lying around?

Go Geocaching

Have you ever been geocaching? Geocaching is like a modern day orienteering treasure hunt, and there’s at least one ‘cache’ in Turriff! All you need to do is download the Geocaching app, or sign up on the Geocaching website (www.geocaching.com), to get started! As you can see from the map there is plenty of these points round about Turriff if you’re out and about, and you can find them all over the country and even overseas if the geocaching bug bites you!

Enter Turriff Show

The closing date for entries is the 9^th of July (Saturday!) so you’ll have to be quick, but why not enter something into the industrial tent of this year’s Turriff Show? With categories ranging from pre-school to adult, and covering every craft – baking, photography, junk modelling, woodcraft, sewing, painting and so much more, there’s something for everybody! Get your entry in tonight and spend the next few weeks working on your masterpiece, and who knows, you might find yourself a winner! (Turriff Show Schedule and Prize List)

Try a New Hobby

The summer is the perfect time for trying out new hobbies, so why not ask yourself what’s something you’ve always fancied doing? Why not go one step further and try something you hadn’t considered before? Turriff Bowling Club are running a Fun Day on the 30^th of July (3pm onwards), with free have a go sessions and a barbecue for all ages. Generally misinterpreted as a ‘retired person’ sport, Turriff Bowling Club has seen a surge in junior members, as well as adults of all ages, over the last couple of years, many of whom have competed successfully at local, regional and national level.  Why not go along to see what it’s all about, and who knows maybe you’ll surprise yourself!

Visit the Library

A visit to the library is free all year round, but they have lots of exciting things happening over the summer! They will be holding rhyme time sessions for babies and toddlers, and craft sessions (booking advised) for primary school aged children. Aberdeenshire Library & Information Services is also running it’s annual reading challenge, where children can earn stickers for every book they read and even collect prizes. Did you know the library has more than just books?  They also stock jigsaws, CDs, DVDs, and ALIS now also offers online services for ebooks, audiobooks and music downloads. For more information and to sign up, just pop into the library opening times and further information here.

Visit the Museum

Turriff is home to two museums – The Auld Post Office Museum and The Cottage Museum- and both are free to enter (although donations are always very gratefully received if you can spare a little!). The Auld Post Office Museum will be open from 10am-12pm every Friday and Saturday in July and August, and possibly other days depending on volunteer availability, and to access to the cottage simply pop in during these hours and ask, somebody will be happy to take you along the road and show you around! Learn more about the history of Turriff councillors, how people in the area used to live, the Turra Coo and even Turriff itself! Why not extend your visit and pop into the old cemetery on the corner of Castlehill and Castle Street and see what interesting characters you can find?

Go for a Walk

It’s hard to believe that it’s summer when you see the weather we’ve been having, but on the summery days we do get there’s nothing better than getting out the house for a while! Be it a walk down the street to see the flowerpot people, or through Stanley’s Way or along the Old Railway Line to Wrae Lake, a walk is the perfect way to pass some time.

Have a picnic

Not quite free, but always good fun with friends or family and fairly inexpensive. Why not finish your walk along the Old Railway Line with a picnic at Wrae Lake, or just pop down the den and have one there while the kids play in the park?