PETER Rabbit fans of all ages should scurry to Bowness on Windermere to visit the World of Beatrix Potter.

You don’t even need a child with you to enjoy wandering around Mr Macgregor’s garden and meeting old favourites like Benjamin Bunny, Jemima Puddleduck and Jeremy Fisher.

If you’ve ever loved the tales of Beatrix Potter herself, or read them to a child, you should find this an utterly charming way to wile away an afternoon.

Our family party included nobody aged under 16, yet we all lost ourselves in the delightful journey into the imagination of the famous Cumbrian woman.

Beatrix Potter loved the Lake District and bought a farm there, in the village of Sawley between Coniston and Windermere, with the proceeds from her first books.

Many of her subsequent stories about animals were set in the farm, its gardens or the surrounding village, and Potter went on to become an influential lady farmer.

The story of Potter’s life and how she came to write the books is told in an engrossing , interactive display at the end of the visit.

But the heart of the attraction is a journey through several rooms with larger-than-life models of all Potter’s characters in lovingly handcrafted settings from the stories.

There’s a wealth of detail in the dioramas, as well as other imaginative models to spot above you or in various nooks and crannies of the walls.

Touchscreens offer a brief rundown of the relevant story, its real-life background and interesting facts about the real-life animals.

Halfway round you can nip outside to wander around Mr MacGregor’s Garden, the inspiration for an award-winning Chelsea Flower Show exhibit.

Although the garden is quite small, we spent 45 minutes out there trying to find all the secret words and hidden objects, including mice in the walls.

We didn’t expect to enjoy our visit so much, and unlike many small museums found it well worth the admission fee.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Beatrix Potter, and the World of Beatrix Potter Attraction is hosting two new stage shows: Where Is Peter Rabbit? which celebrates the stories and Meeting Bea, exploring Potter’s later life as famer and countrywoman.

Visit hop-skip-jump.com for information about the World of Beatrix Potter Attraction.