Things to Do in Medway in 2026: Prices & Opening Times

The best things to do in Medway with 2026 prices checked against each venue: the Historic Dockyard, Rochester Castle, Diggerland, free parks and rainy-day picks.

Medway gets underestimated, and it should not be. Within one bus ride you have a Norman castle keep, England’s second oldest cathedral, the most complete sailing-era dockyard in the world, a Napoleonic tunnel fortress and three big free country parks. This guide pulls together the things to do across the five towns and the Hoo fringe, with the opening patterns and prices that actually apply in 2026, each one checked against the venue’s own website so you can plan without surprises at the gate.

Medway attractions at a glance

Top Medway attractions, 2026 adult prices from each venue's own site
Attraction	What it is	Adult price	When
The Historic Dockyard Chatham	Warships, ropery, galleries	£29 online	Daily to 6 Sept, then closed Mon & Tue
Rochester Castle	Norman keep	£9.50	Tue to Sun, 10am to 6pm
Rochester Cathedral	England's second oldest cathedral	Free (donation)	Daily, shorter hours Sun
Royal Engineers Museum	Military engineering, 25 VCs	£17.50 (£15 local)	Tue to Sun, 10am to 5pm
Fort Amherst	Napoleonic fortress	Grounds free	Grounds daily; tunnel tours extra
Diggerland	Drive real diggers	£25.95 pre-booked	Daily in August, then weekends
Guildhall Museum	Local history, Rochester	£5	Tue to Sat, 10am to 5pm
Capstone Farm Country Park	Woodland, lake, play areas	Free (parking £3.50)	Daily, 7.30am to 8pm

The Historic Dockyard Chatham: the big one

Four hundred years of Royal Navy shipbuilding on one 80-acre site: three historic warships to climb through, the quarter-mile Victorian ropery still making rope, and galleries that filmed everything from Call the Midwife onwards. It is comfortably a full day, and the ticket is valid for a whole year, which changes the value calculation entirely.

It is open daily until 6 September 2026, 10am to 5pm, then closes Mondays and Tuesdays through the autumn (except October half term) before its winter break (opening times). An adult ticket is £29 booked online against £32.50 on the door, and the summer offer running to 1 September cuts the online price to £26 (tickets). Book ahead, go early, and treat the ropery tour as unmissable.

Rochester: castle, cathedral and a proper high street

Rochester Castle has one of the best preserved Norman keeps in England, 900 years old and still standing over the river it was built to guard. It is run by English Heritage, open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm (plus bank holiday Mondays), with last entry at 5.15pm; adult entry is £9.50 and English Heritage members go free (English Heritage). The view from the top, across the bridge, the river and the cathedral, is the best in Medway.

Across the green, Rochester Cathedral is England’s second oldest, founded in 604, and it is free to enter, with donations encouraged, the building costs nearly £5,000 a day to keep open. Hours are 10am to 5pm Monday to Friday, to 4pm Saturday, and 12 noon to 4pm Sunday (rochestercathedral.org). Between the two runs one of Kent’s best high streets: independent shops, bookshops and the Dickens connections Rochester never lets you forget. Eastgate House, the Elizabethan townhouse with Dickens’s Swiss writing chalet in its garden, charges £7 for adults; its published days vary between the council and Visit Medway listings, so check before you go. The Guildhall Museum on the high street covers the towns’ history, including the grim Medway prison hulks, for £5 an adult, Tuesday to Saturday (Medway Council).

In December the whole street goes full Dickens: the Rochester Dickensian Christmas Festival runs Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December 2026, 10am to 6pm, free to wander (Visit Medway).

Military Medway: the fort, the sappers and Upnor

Fort Amherst in Chatham is the Napoleonic fortress the French never got to test: ramparts, gun positions and a warren of hand-cut tunnels. The grounds are completely free and open daily, with paid tunnel tours running through the year and a busy events calendar (fortamherst.com). Pair it with the neighbouring Great Lines Heritage Park, the vast free grassland that was Chatham’s defensive field of fire and is now the towns’ best walking and running space (Medway Council).

The Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham is the one visitors keep being surprised by: the UK’s largest military engineering museum, holding 25 Victoria Crosses, the map Wellington used at Waterloo, a Harrier and a V2 rocket. Adults £17.50, or £15 for Medway residents, and tickets last 12 months; open Tuesday to Sunday plus bank holiday Mondays (re-museum.co.uk).

Upnor Castle, the Elizabethan gun fort that failed to stop the Dutch in 1667, changed hands in May 2026 and is now managed by English Heritage. For now access is by guided tour on the last Sunday of the month rather than daily opening, so book ahead (English Heritage); the walk down cobbled Upnor High Street to the river is worth it either way.

Family days out

Diggerland, Strood: children (and adults) drive real JCBs and dumper trucks. £25.95 each pre-booked (anyone over 90cm; under 90cm free), rising steeply on the day, open daily in August then weekends into the autumn (diggerland.com).
The Strand Leisure Park, Gillingham: riverside park with a free splash pad and play areas, plus the heated outdoor Strand Lido, open weekends from May and daily through the school summer holidays, in pre-booked sessions (Medway Council).
Chatham Snowsports Centre: a 200m dry ski slope and what the operator calls the UK’s longest toboggan run, open daily with evening sessions at weekends; pre-book, prices are in the centre’s own price list (jnlchatham.co.uk).
Buckmore Park, Chatham: the outdoor kart circuit where Lewis Hamilton raced as a junior, with bookable sessions for adults and juniors (buckmore.co.uk).
Medway Park, Gillingham: the region’s big sports centre, pool, gym and athletics track, open daily (Medway Council).

Free and outdoors

Medway’s free layer is genuinely good. Capstone Farm Country Park (Chatham) has ancient woodland, a fishing lake and the best play areas, open 7.30am to 8pm daily with all-day parking at £3.50 (Medway Council). Riverside Country Park (Gillingham) is the estuary one, a Green Flag park on the Saxon Shore Way with a cafe and big skies over the mudflats (Medway Council). And Ranscombe Farm Reserve at Cuxton is Plantlife’s largest English reserve, 560 acres of chalk grassland and rare arable flowers, free and open at all times on marked paths (Plantlife).

Chart placing Medway attractions in four groups: free outdoors options such as Capstone Farm, Riverside and Great Lines; free under-cover options such as Rochester Cathedral and the Dockside Outlet; paid outdoors options such as Rochester Castle, Diggerland and the Strand Lido; and paid under-cover options such as the Historic Dockyard, Royal Engineers Museum, Guildhall Museum, Eastgate House and Copper Rivet Distillery — Pick by budget and weather. Chart by Medway Live; adult prices as published August 2026.

Eating, drinking and a wet-day fallback

At Chatham Maritime, the Copper Rivet Distillery makes gin and whisky in a Victorian dockyard pumphouse; its Dockyard Gin Tasting Experience runs Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons at £20 a head, including money off a bottle (copperrivetdistillery.com). Next door, the Dockside Outlet Centre covers the shopping-and-lunch afternoon, 60-plus outlet stores under one roof, open daily (chathamdockside.co.uk).

Getting there and getting around

Every headline attraction here is reachable by bus or on foot from a station: Rochester’s castle and cathedral are five minutes’ walk from Rochester station, and the Historic Dockyard and Fort Amherst sit either side of Chatham. If you are driving in, our parking in Medway guide covers the car parks town by town, and it is worth a glance at current roadworks before a weekend trip. Coming from London or elsewhere in Kent, the high-speed trains put Rochester about 40 minutes from St Pancras.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best things to do in Medway?

The Historic Dockyard Chatham, Rochester Castle and Rochester Cathedral are the big three, backed by the Royal Engineers Museum, Fort Amherst’s free grounds and tunnels, and Diggerland for families. The free layer, Capstone Farm, Riverside Country Park, Great Lines and Ranscombe Farm, is as good as any in Kent.

What can you do in Medway for free?

Rochester Cathedral (donation), Fort Amherst’s grounds, Great Lines Heritage Park, Capstone Farm and Riverside country parks, Ranscombe Farm Reserve, the Strand’s splash pad and play parks, and the Dickensian Christmas Festival in December. Rochester High Street costs nothing to enjoy either.

What is there to do in Medway on a rainy day?

The Historic Dockyard’s ships and galleries, the Royal Engineers Museum, the Guildhall Museum, Eastgate House, a Copper Rivet Distillery tasting, the Dockside Outlet Centre or a swim at Medway Park.

Is Rochester Castle open, and how much is it?

Yes: Tuesday to Sunday (plus bank holiday Mondays), 10am to 6pm, last entry 5.15pm. Adult entry is £9.50, free for English Heritage members (English Heritage).

How much is the Historic Dockyard Chatham?

£29 for adults booked online (£26 on the summer offer to 1 September 2026), £32.50 on the door, and the ticket is valid for a year (thedockyard.co.uk).

Sources

Planning the practical side? See parking in Medway, trains to London and current roadworks. More Medway information is on the Medway Live home page.

Prices and hours are those published by each venue in early August 2026 and can change with the seasons; check the linked page before you set off. Last updated August 2026.