What To Do in Mount Sterling, Irvine, and Lancaster

The Perfect Day in Mount Sterling:

- Morning: Downtown walk, history museum, candy factory

- Afternoon: Botts Park or Cave Run Lake

- Evening: Judy Drive-In double feature

The Perfect Day in Irvine:

- Morning: Fitchburg Furnace and a picnic in the national forest

- Afternoon: Cottage Furnace walk, or Natural Bridge if you want a bigger hike

- Evening: Dinner in downtown Irvine

The Perfect Day in Lancaster:

- Morning: Camp Nelson National Monument and the Junior Ranger booklet

- Afternoon: Rent a pontoon at Herrington Lake for swimming, fishing and a lakeside lunch

- Evening: Lancaster Square

THE PERFECT STAYS

Big Sky Lakehouse at Irvine, KY — "Your Own Private 5-Acre Lake" (sleeps 30, 5.0★, 21 reviews)

1. Fish, swim, golf, and kayak on your own private 5-acre stocked lake with the "Putt-Putt Island" floating golf hole

2. Climb, hoop, and play at the indoor basketball, pickleball court, and muraled Red River Gorge rock climbing wall

3. Hide out in the secret speakeasy with a full sports bar

4. Battle your family in the indoor Nerf arena 

Big Sky Barnhouse at Mount Sterling, KY — "Bluegrass Barndo with a Private Sports Complex" (sleeps 30, 4.8★, 40 reviews)

1. Ball out at the 5-acre fenced sports complex: basketball, regulation wiffleball field with home run fence and scoreboard, 3v3 soccer, pickleball, flag football

2. Get a few rounds in on the private 2-hole golf course (two 90-yard par 3s)

3. Enjoy a drink at the bourbon bar with arcade, skee-ball, pool table, and darts

4. Relax in both of the two hot tubs plus a pergola firepit

Big Sky Barnhouse at Lancaster, KY — "Bourbon Barndominium Bonanza" (sleeps 20, 4.9★, 60 reviews)

1. Practice your swing at the indoor golf simulator in a separate 1,500 sq ft "party shed"

2. Kick back at the custom sports bar with a 30-foot interactive Bourbon Trail mural map

3. Relax at the bourbon barrel lounge with a hot tub, yard games, and more

4. Look out at panoramic Bluegrass views from the hexagon pergola firepit

Lexington, KY:

The Kentucky Bourbon Trail
The official Kentucky Bourbon Trail now spans dozens of distilleries, from big-name producers with polished 75-minute tours to small craft operations where you might meet the distiller in person. Lexington sits at the heart of Bourbon Country. Downtown distilleries like Town Branch, Barrel House, James E. Pepper, and Fresh Bourbon offer tours a short walk or drive from each other, while the marquee Bourbon Trail stops - Buffalo Trace, Woodford Reserve, Four Roses, Wild Turkey - sit within about 45 minutes. All tastings require guests to be 21+, but most distilleries welcome kids on the tour itself and many have gift shops, lemonade, or snacks for the non-drinking crowd.

Downtown Lexington
Step into horse-country charm with a walkable, modern core in Downtown Lexington: Cheapside Park anchors a strip of restaurants and bars, the Lexington Farmers Market runs seasonally, and murals and public art fill the alleys between Main and Vine. It's an easy add-on before or after a Rupp Arena event, with plenty of parking garages and a growing list of family-friendly patios.

Rupp Arena
Leading the nation in college basketball attendance, the famed University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball teams call Rupp Arena home. Rupp Arena is one of the largest arenas in the country, seating 23,500. It sits right in downtown Lexington as part of the Central Bank Center complex, so a game night pairs naturally with dinner downtown. Rupp Arena also hosts concerts and touring shows throughout the year.

UK Games
The 2026–27 men's team opens its home slate November 3 against Manhattan, with additional non-conference games against James Madison, Northern Arizona, Grambling State, Bryant, Sacred Heart, Gardner-Webb, and App State, plus SEC home matchups against Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Vanderbilt. The women's team tips off its home schedule November 2 against Morehead State, with SEC games including Louisville and Clemson at Rupp Arena. Worth checking UKathletics.com for exact dates, single-game tickets typically go on sale in the fall.

Mount Sterling, KY: The Perfect Charming & Rustic Town

From Lexington: 35 minutes east on I-64

From Irvine: 40 minutes

From Cave Run Lake: 30-40 minutes

From Red River Gorge: 45 minutes

Mount Sterling is known as the gateway between the bluegrass and the mountains and their downtown matches the charm. Paved by red brick streets, century-old storefronts, a courthouse from 1896, and enough coffee, books and candy inside a three-block radius, there’s more than enough to keep the whole family entertained. 

Judy Drive-In Theater

Arguably the best way to watch a film is in a truck bed. Keeping this family-favorite and date-night special alive since 1952, The Judy Drive-In Theater boasts two screens and two movies for one ticket price, on weekends only. Don’t forget to grab burgers, chili dogs and funnel cakes at the concession stand! Pack the car as full as you can because admission is by the carload. 

Cure Your Sweet Tooth - Kentucky Style

Ruth Hunt Candy Company has been making bourbon balls and cream candy in Mount Sterling since 1921, and you can watch the process that’s been passed on for generations. Twenty minute demonstrations and a sample that will have you filling a to-go bag for the car ride home, it is the kind of stop that costs little and gets remembered.

Parks, Playgrounds and a Butterfly Garden

Botts Park hosts walking trails to stretch your legs, a disc golf course, a playground and even a butterfly garden. 

Easy Walker Park is flat, shaded and easy to push a stroller through.

The Mound is the perfect spot for a match of pickleball, if you’re feeling competitive.

More Downtown Stops & Spots

The Montgomery County History Museum sits beside the courthouse and is small enough for even the shortest of attention spans. This is also the starting point for a historic downtown walking tour. The Gateway Regional Arts Center rotates monthly exhibits and puts on musical and theater performances. Get the best of both worlds at Tenth Frame Cinema and Sterling Lanes, which combines a movie theater, bowling and an arcade all under one roof, which is about as large-family-proof as an afternoon gets! 

Don’t Miss Court Days

Every October, Mount Sterling hosts Court Days, a trading event that dates back more than 230 years and fills the streets with antiques, collectibles and handmade crafts. It is Kentucky's longest-running event and an enormous amount of fun. 

Irvine, KY: Home of Mountain Mushroom Festival & State Gem

From Lexington: 50 minutes southeast

From Mount Sterling: 40 minutes

From Daniel Boone National Forest: at the county line

From Natural Bridge and Red River Gorge: 35-40 minutes

Irvine is the seat of Estill County, set on the Kentucky River with its twin town Ravenna next door, and it is the most scenic base of the three. The county sits right on the Pottsville Escarpment, the ridge line that divides the Bluegrass from the mountains, which is why you’ll find that the terrain changes so abruptly as you drive in.

Daniel Boone National Forest

Daniel Boone National Forest sprawls across 21 counties of eastern Kentucky. The National Forest is more than 708,000 acres within a 2.1 million-acre proclamation boundary. You can hike, bike, and walk over 600 miles of trails to two federally recognized wildernesses. Recreation knows no bounds here! Daniel Boone National Forest offers camp grounds, biking roads and trails, rock climbing, caving, fishing, horseback riding trails, permitted hunting and shooting, OHV trails, geocaching, scenic drives, watersports, and more! It wraps around Irvine on the east and reaches north toward Mount Sterling, and it contains the Red River Gorge, Cave Run Lake, and a string of 19th-century iron furnaces you can walk right up to.

The Mountain Mushroom Festival 

The Mountain Mushroom Festival is genuinely a great kids' weekend plan! Held the last full weekend of April, the Mountain Mushroom Festival celebrates morel season, Kentucky agate, Appalachian crafts and the national forest. Admission is free and so are most of the activities. For families specifically: a kids' train that loops downtown for a few dollars a seat, an inflatable zone with a bounce house, slide and obstacle course, a parade, live music at the grandstand all weekend. Don’t miss the famed Fungus 5K and 2K if you have runners. There’s plenty of free parking and a free shuttle run from the local schools, which matters when you are unloading five kids and a stroller.

Hunt for the State Gem

Estill County is the heart of Kentucky agate country. This gorgeous stone newly became Kentucky's official state gem in 2024, and the local red-and-black banded agate is prized by collectors worldwide. The festival weekend includes a rock, gem and mineral show and organized agate hunts. Outside of festival season, creek gravel bars are where people look; ask locally and always get landowner permission first. 

Iron Furnaces in the National Forest

Fitchburg Furnace, about 20 minutes from downtown Irvine inside Daniel Boone National Forest, is the largest charcoal iron furnace in the world. View the massive twin stone stacks rising roughly 80 feet, dry-laid without mortar, built in 1868 and finished in 1869. There is a picnic area, shade and almost no crowd. Kids will marvel at their castle-like similarities!

Mini Hikes

Cottage Furnace, northeast of Irvine, takes about a mile of easy walking to reach and is a good first "real hike" for small legs. Cell service in these hollows is unreliable — download your map before you leave town, and do not trust the GPS pin blindly.

Trains and Railways

Ravenna was a railroad town, and the old rail yard is now home to the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation's restoration of Chesapeake & Ohio locomotive 2716. Train-obsessed kids and grandparents will want to see this! Check ahead, since access depends on scheduled events. Ravenna also holds its own Railroad Festival in late summer that you don’t want to miss.

Lancaster, KY: lake days and a courthouse square

From Lexington: 45 minutes south on US-27

To Camp Nelson National Monument: 20–25 minutes

Herrington Lake: 15 minutes west

Founded in 1797, Lancaster is the seat of Garrard County and sits between the Kentucky River Palisades and Herrington Lake. The Beaux-Arts courthouse anchors a square you can lap in a few minutes, ringed by antique shops, local restaurants and the restored Lancaster Grand Theatre. 

Camp Nelson National Monument

Camp Nelson National Monument is only about 20 to 25 minutes north of Lancaster on US-27 near Nicholasville. Rich in history, this spot was a Union supply depot during the Civil War and the nation’s third-largest recruitment center for United States Colored Troops (USCT) and a major refuge for freed African Americans. Visiting spots like this gives families the opportunity to learn the details of how this country has changed so much since it was founded 250 years ago. 

There is no entrance fee at Camp Nelson National Monument. The visitor center, museum and reconstructed barracks are open Wednesday through Sunday most of the year and daily in summer, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the grounds are open from sunrise to sunset every day.

Pro Tip: 

Camp Nelson's Junior Ranger program is the single best thing here for kids aged roughly 5 to 12. Ask at the desk, work the booklet as you walk the barracks and the trails, and the rangers will swear your child in and reward them a badge. Over five miles of trails cross the grounds with signs explaining the old earthworks, so a booklet turns a history lesson into a scavenger hunt.

Herrington Lake is the reason to stay a day

Herrington Lake is the deepest lake in Kentucky at around 249 feet, and its long, finger-shaped basin is full of quiet coves. Rent a boat or pontoon from the marinas surrounding the lake and visit lakeside restaurants with live music on summer weekends. A pontoon is the single best large-family excursion for a daytrip: one boat holds the whole crew, and keep everyone happy from swimming, fishing, suntanning, and picnicking all from the same deck.

Visit the County Fair

The Garrard County Fair each summer is the classic small-town Kentucky fair experience: rides, livestock, fair food, and tickets that cost a fraction of a theme park. The Garrard County Historical Society Museum covers local history in a single manageable visit, and Lancaster Cemetery has enough local folklore attached to it to entertain teenagers.