Hydatid disease in childhood is a serious health problem in Turkey and other places where the parasite is endemic. An 8-year-old girl from a rural area was admitted with headache, recurrent abdominal pain, abdominal distension and hypo-aesthesia and paresis of the right arm. Computerised tomography (CT) scans demonstrated a large intracranial hydatid cyst. A hydatid cyst was detected in the liver also. Her mother had been treated previously for disseminated hydatid disease. The cerebral cyst was removed but only subtotal excision of the hepatic cyst was possible. She was treated with albendazole, has fully recovered and, after 12 months of follow-up, there is no sign of recurrence.