The visitor centre is usually the starting point for anyone making a visit to the park. The building itself is a Victorian station house dating from the 1850’s and has been refurbished several times, most recently in 2004. It is home to the Gift Shop, Farm Shop and Tea Rooms and is the site base for the countryside rangers.

The area adjacent to the visitor centre contains the car park, bus stop, planetarium, observatory, railway carriage schoolroom and public toilet block. There are two play areas, a BBQ area and many picnic benches distributed around the immediate vicinity of the car park.

The visitor centre being an old station building is sited on a platform that provides pleasant and unusual seating amenities, with the area directly outside of the tearooms fenced off for patrons to enjoy the ‘al fresco’ dining experience.