Four Andover days out cost nothing, the Museum of the Iron Age is £5 and the Hawk Conservancy £21.36. Nine things to do, every price checked this week.

Andover’s best days out are unusually cheap, and the reason is archaeology. The town sits below Danebury, one of the most studied Iron Age hillforts in Europe, and the museum that holds what came out of it is in the middle of Andover and costs five pounds. Add two nature reserves the borough council looks after, a free town museum next door to the Iron Age one, and a bird of prey centre four miles up the A303, and you have most of a week.

Every price and opening time below was checked against the venue’s own website on 9 August 2026. Where an operator prices per event rather than publishing a fixed tariff, we say so instead of guessing.

What an Andover day out costs one adult Chart of adult prices for days out in and around Andover. Andover Museum, Anton Lakes, Rooksbury Mill and Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort are all free. The Museum of the Iron Age is £5. Sir Harold Hillier Gardens is £16.59 without a Gift Aid donation or £18.25 with one. The Hawk Conservancy Trust is £21.36 without a Gift Aid donation or £23.50 with one. What an Andover day out costs one adult Standard adult admission, checked against each venue's own site on 9 August 2026. Free Andover Museum Anton Lakes Local Nature Reserve Rooksbury Mill Local Nature Reserve Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort, near Stockbridge Paid Museum of the Iron Age £5.00 Sir Harold Hillier Gardens £16.59 the same, with Gift Aid £18.25 Hawk Conservancy Trust £21.36 the same, with Gift Aid £23.50 The headline price both charities advertise is the higher one, which includes a 10% voluntary Gift Aid donation. You can pay the lower one. Children go free at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens for the whole of August 2026. The Museum of the Iron Age ticket is an annual pass: pay once, come back all year.
Four of these cost nothing, and the dearest ticket in the area is £23.50.

Free, and in the town

Andover Museum

6 Church Close, SP10 1DP. Admission free. Run by Hampshire Cultural Trust in a Grade II listed Georgian townhouse with an 1880s Victorian brick extension, it opened in 1981 and tells the story of the town and the country around it from the Neolithic to the twentieth century.

The four things it is actually good on are local geology, the 1846 Andover workhouse scandal, the Weyhill Fair livestock market and the Tasker engineering works. The workhouse case is the one to read the panels for: it was a national scandal in its day and it happened here.

Currently open Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 16:00, closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Anton Lakes Local Nature Reserve

Just north of the town centre, 33.1 hectares, or 82 acres, designated a Local Nature Reserve in 1996. It is owned by Test Valley Borough Council and managed with the Anton River Conservation Association.

The River Anton rises from springs inside the reserve and runs through a series of old watercress beds, which is what makes the habitat unusual for a site this close to a town centre: wet fen meadow with southern marsh orchids, chalk grassland with marbled white and gatekeeper butterflies, and the locally rare long-stalked yellow sedge. The gravel-pit history is why the lakes are there at all.

Rooksbury Mill Local Nature Reserve

Barlows Lane, SP10 2HA, just off the A303 south of the town centre and next to Watermills Park. There is a car park, and it takes coaches by prior arrangement with a countryside officer.

Two lakes dug from gravel workings just after the Second World War, fed by the River Anton, with wet woodland, chalk grassland, ponds and a stretch of the river itself. The council bought the site in 2001 from a private trout fishery, designated it a Local Nature Reserve in 2008, and it has held Green Flag status since 2009.

You can fish it, but not on a whim: you need a national fishing rod licence and a day or season ticket bought in advance. Tickets are not sold on the bank.

Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort

Near Stockbridge, about twenty minutes south west, run by the Hampshire Countryside Service and free to visit. This is one of the most studied Iron Age hillforts in Europe and a Scheduled Ancient Monument, built around 2,500 years ago and occupied for nearly 500 years.

What you actually see is a ring of high ramparts in downland, fringed by large beech trees that make it visible for miles, with a once-hidden gateway and earthworks around the entrance that show how the defences worked. The ground rises to a high point in the centre, which was the focus for religious gatherings and important meetings, and the subtle dips around it are where the grain stores were. There is a story trail around the site.

Do this one and the Museum of the Iron Age on the same weekend, in either order. They are the same site, one of them just has a roof.

Paid, in the town

Museum of the Iron Age

6 Church Close, SP10 1DP, in the same building as Andover Museum but ticketed separately. It opened in 1986 to hold what came out of Danebury during the excavations between 1969 and 1988.

  • Adults £5.00
  • Children 5 to 15: £3.50, under 5s free
  • Concessions £4.00
  • Family, up to five people with a maximum of two adults: £16.50

The ticket is a pay once, visit all year pass, which for £5 makes it one of the better value museum tickets in Hampshire. It does not include Andover Museum next door, but Andover Museum is free anyway.

Inside there is a replica roundhouse with genuine Iron Age finds, the Fullerton Mosaic from a Romano-British villa with Mars on it, reconstructions of the grain storage pits you can see the dips of up at Danebury, and replica quern stones. Open Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 16:00.

The Lights

Andover’s theatre and arts centre, box office 01264 368368, open Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm and Saturdays 10am to 2pm. Tickets are priced per show rather than on a fixed tariff, so there is no single figure to quote.

What is booked for the autumn 2026 season gives a fair sense of the range: Club 80’s on Saturday 19 September, the Andover Comedy Club with Marcus Brigstocke on Friday 9 October, Sound of the Lioness on Saturday 17 October, Dom Joly’s Trigger Happy TV 25th anniversary tour on Tuesday 20 October and a Marillion tribute, Marquee Square Heroes, on Friday 20 November.

Parking for it is free after 4pm, which covers every evening performance. See our parking page for which car parks to use.

Within half an hour

Hawk Conservancy Trust

Weyhill, SP11 8DY, four miles west of Andover just off the A303 and signposted from it. A conservation charity rather than a zoo, and the reason to go is that the flying displays are the point of the day, not an add-on.

Admission, with the 10% voluntary Gift Aid donation the Trust advertises, then the price without it:

  • Adults £23.50, or £21.36 without the donation
  • Children 4 to 15: £17.65, or £16.05. Under 4s free
  • Seniors 60+: £22.45, or £20.41
  • Students £21.50, or £19.55

The summer season runs Saturday 28 March to Sunday 1 November 2026, open 10:00 to 17:30 with last admission at 16:30. The restaurant and shop open earlier, at 9:00 and 9:30. Booking is not required but is recommended, because capacity is capped.

The daily summer timetable is worth planning around, because three of the four things you came for happen at fixed times:

  • 11:00 Good Morning with the Vultures, a talk
  • 11:30 Wings of Africa, a flying display
  • 12:30 Nifty Nest Builders, a talk and activity
  • 14:00 Masters of the Sky, a flying display
  • 14:45 tractor rides
  • 15:45 Woodland Wonders, a flying display
  • 16:30 Species Spotlight talk, and the Meet the Burrowers encounter

Arrive after 14:00 and you have missed half of it. Note the Trust closes completely from 16 November to 11 December 2026, and again from 5 January to 12 February 2027.

Sir Harold Hillier Gardens

180 acres of gardens and arboretum near Romsey, run by Hampshire County Council. No pre-booking needed. Dogs are not allowed except registered support dogs.

  • Adults £18.25 with the Gift Aid donation, £16.59 without
  • Children 5 to 16: £5.50, or £5.00. Under 5s free
  • Concessions £17.00, or £15.45, for visitors with a disability, students and over 65s
  • Family, two adults and two children: £43.00, or £39.09

Two things make August and the rest of 2026 unusual here. All children get in free from 1 to 31 August 2026. And ticket prices are reduced from 25 June to 1 September 2026, passing on the temporary reduction in VAT on admission tickets. Prices otherwise hold from April 2026 to March 2027.

If you expect to come more than twice, membership starts at £52 a person and includes free entry.

Frequently asked questions

What is there to do in Andover for free?

Andover Museum, Anton Lakes Local Nature Reserve and Rooksbury Mill Local Nature Reserve all cost nothing, and so does Danebury Iron Age Hill Fort near Stockbridge. Between them that is a museum, two lakeside reserves and a scheduled ancient monument without paying anything.

How much is the Museum of the Iron Age in Andover?

£5.00 for adults, £3.50 for children aged 5 to 15 and £4.00 concessions, with a family ticket at £16.50 and under 5s free. The ticket is an annual pass, so it covers unlimited visits for a year.

What is the best thing to do near Andover with children?

The Hawk Conservancy Trust at Weyhill if you can time the arrival for the 11:30 flying display, at £17.65 a child. For a free day, Anton Lakes or Rooksbury Mill. Through August 2026, Sir Harold Hillier Gardens is also free for children.

Is Danebury hillfort worth visiting?

Yes, and it costs nothing. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and one of the most studied Iron Age hillforts in Europe, built around 2,500 years ago. The ramparts, the hidden gateway and the dips left by the grain stores are all visible, and there is a story trail. Pair it with the Museum of the Iron Age in Andover, which holds the finds from it.

How much is the Hawk Conservancy Trust?

£23.50 for adults including the 10% voluntary donation, or £21.36 without it. Children aged 4 to 15 are £17.65 or £16.05, seniors £22.45 or £20.41, and under 4s go free. The summer season runs to 1 November 2026, with last admission at 16:30.

Can you fish at Rooksbury Mill?

Yes, on the permitted lake, but you need a national fishing rod licence and a day or season ticket bought in advance from the council. Tickets are not sold on the bank.

Related

Sources

Prices and opening times change, and several of these are seasonal. Check the venue’s own site before you set off.