Heads of Ayr Park Farm is located in Ayrshire, Scotland on the A719. As the name suggests there are animals at the park, but there’s more to it than just animals.
Opening Hours and Admission
The park is open from Easter to October, from 10am to 5 pm. It costs £8 for an adult, £6.20 for a child or £30 for a family ticket (5 people).
Facilities
There are lots of different things to do at the Farm; firstly there are the animals which include; camels, Shetland ponies, wallabies, otters, skunks, lemurs and emus, plus a few more. After sedately walking around and looking at the wildlife, it’s time to liven things up a bit.
The park has plenty of different activities for children; there are trampolines, jumping pillows (which are huge cushions of air, similar to bouncy castles but without the walls), a huge sandpit, climbing frames, a zip slide, a ringo slide (where you slide down whilst sitting in a giant rubber ring), normal slides, quad bikes for adults and children, barrel rides and a tunnel and activity tower. There is plenty of space for picnics, and an area with picnic tables.
These are all outside, there are also a few indoor activities, including rope swings, a stable, reptiles, guinea pig area and aviary, indoor play area, and animal handling area (at set times). There is an indoor snack bar, and a gift shop.
There are no dogs allowed on the farm, except for guide dogs.
My Thoughts
The day we went started off dull, and turned to rain not long after we arrived. As usual the kids didn’t let the weather get them down, and still spent a lot of time playing outside on the jumping pillows and trampolines, although they did have to give up on the trampolines after a while as the water started to settle on the surface and they weren’t safe to use. Because of the shape of the jumping pillows, the water just ran off these and they were still able to use them. They weren’t able to use the zip slide as it was closed due to the weather, and the quad bikes were also closed because of the rain, but the ringo slide was still useable, and they thoroughly enjoyed it, although they weren’t so keen on dragging the ring back up to the top of the slide again.
They didn’t spend the entire day out in the rain though, they did use the indoor facilities as well, although they spent most of the time on the rope swings, which are located in a barn, and are basically two platforms over bales of hay, with a couple of ropes tied to the ceiling. It reminded me of the rope swings we used to make ourselves as children! The indoor play area was only really suitable for younger children (probably under 6’s), and they had a quick look in there and played on the slides for a bit, but then decided against it. For the smaller children there’s a ball pit and padded play area. They did enjoy the animal handling, which were mainly small rodents, rabbits, guinea pigs, etc.
The snack bar reminds me of a school canteen, with tables and chairs that are fixed to the floor, and the food we bought wasn’t really anything special. I would definitely recommend taking a picnic, rather than buying food in the Farm.
The animals are all housed in plain fields, there’s no effort been made to adjust the surroundings to the animals individual needs, apart from a couple of the smaller animals such as the Meerkats, which have their own burrows. The animals all looked in good condition and well fed, but they didn’t look particularly happy.
The farm is a reasonable day out, if a little expensive, but not if you’re an animal lover and want to go for the animals, it’s more a day out at a large playground for kids.
Pictures of Heads Of Ayr Farm, Scotland
Heads Of Ayr Farm, Scotland
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