Farm parks in the UK

Family farm days with animals, hands-on activities and plenty of space to explore.

A farm park gives children something to do with their hands, and these working farms go well beyond a fence to look over. Croxteth Park Farm keeps rare breeds of livestock, one of the biggest rare-breed collections in the country, and builds the day around contact: pony and rabbit grooming, guinea pig handling, meeting the poultry, and feeding the lambs and Highland calves, with a bucket of carrots and turnips to buy. Staff take time to talk about the animals. There is a role-play vet, cafe and barn afterwards, ride-on tractors, and a miniature railway around the surrounding park. Huntington Hall Farm is a Cheshire self-service milk bar built around a 72-point rotary milking parlour, where a live television feed shows the milking before you walk out to see the cows, with fresh milk, milkshakes, ice cream and a small indoor play area to follow. Park Farm Milkshake Shack charges no entrance fee at all and lets children pet the animals, climb the tractors and try a life-size milking cow. Others are seasonal. Delamere Farm Shop runs pick-your-own strawberries and sunflowers next to Delamere Forest, and Great Budworth Real Dairy Ice Cream Farm and Tea Room pairs an ice cream farm with a sunflower maze, farm animals and a play area. Caft Charity Farm and Lancaster Park Animal Farm are listed here too.