We went to the Seal Sanctuary at the end of July 2007 with our 3 children. I would advise going early, we got there when it opened at 10.00am, and there were only 2 other families waiting, when we came out, there was a queue as far as up the hill to the car park at least an hour wait to get in, and staff were handing out lollipops to children, the one disadvantage here is that there only seems to be one member of staff taking money when you arrive he then has to hand out leaflets and tell you information, they are currently giving each child a shark top trump card and if your card matches the one in the shop you get a free pack of shark cards, this all takes time hence the queue when we came out.
We used Tesco vouchers which made it very reasonable it would have cost nearly £40.00 but only had to use £10.00 of vouchers, the current prices are as follows:
Adult £10.95 Child £7.95 5 up to 15. OAP £9.95 Family ticket 2 adults, 2 children £31.80.
Children under 5 free.
There is a gift shop on the right as you go in which is quite
good but I would have liked to see more for younger children, I did not notice any pencils or rubbers etc, quite a few ceramic seals and cuddly seals for sale etc. There are pictures of seals and what you can adopt and then as you walk through there are toilets on the right. After these you can walk through to the outside, there is a safari bus, tractor with trailer of rows of wooden seats on which is good for going or coming back on. We walked down as it is sloping downwards and there is woodland on eitherside of the path and informative wooden animal shape signs, ie; one of a badger with facts on badgers and a badger set, there are views of the working boat yard and the Helford river on the right.
The first building you come to is the hospital building which you walk to up a ramp, this was empty when we went, which is good news as they had no new seals or pups, pups are about to be born anytime now so this was the quietest time. Further up the bank was the first pool with 2 seals in and then further up the furtherst right pool is a nursery pool this had one big seal in which was in and out of the water and in a little cave, next to this was the convalescent pool which has seals by coincidence a father and daughter, the father called Magnus originally from Scotland, he was later rescued from somewhere that was going to put him to sleep, he arrived at the Sanctuary in 1990, the daughter was born at Edinburgh Zoo and had lived at WhipsnadeZoo she was lonely after her companion died and the zoo asked the seal sancturary if they would have her, she arrived 2004. The Seal Sanctuary did not realise they were related until they realised they had both been at Edinburgh Zoo, they got the Zoo to look at their history and realised they were father and daughter. the dad is very miserable and groans at everyone including the staff who feed him and his daughter is not much better, there were 2 pups there who had been there since December, they had a long recovery period due to illnesses but were being released early the next day back into the sea, they had little white hat tags on their head so that hopefully they could keep track of them.
We were there at the first feeding time 11.00am which I would recommend, a member of staff gave an interesting talk about the seals there and where they were from and how they had got both father and daughter by coincidence, they then feed them, you could if you wanted to spend all day there follow them round when they feed all the others as well including the otters, there was another feeding time of I think 2.00pm. Further along there were more pools with sea lions in and seals.
There is also another gift shop here and a cafe, also a fast food kiosk which was reasonable for hot dogs and burgers etc, this was one of the cheapest fast food places we had seen on holiday.
Further along is a rock pool with crabs, sea cucumber and anemones in, their was a member of staff there who answered childrens questions, she was very knowledgeable, they also had a mock tidal wave set up in the rock pool about every 2 minutes water gushed down the rocks.
There is a play area and further down a sloping track there are the otters, 2 of them running around in the otter creek, there is also a feeding time here.
When we went there were not a lot of animals which is of course, a good thing, I think if you went later in the year there would be pups, in one way you want to see the pups but of course, if they are there it is because they have been abandoned by their mums or they are injured, this is a sanctuary and they do a lot of good work, it is not a zoo and they are there to care for animals rather than show them, they have posters up saying they would never have dolphins.
When you go here you are helping them raise much needed funds, and the children loved it here especially feeding time, we were lucky enough to see some seals in the sea at Lands End a few days later and I prefered seeing them where they should be in the sea but the seals here are well looked after and they try to release as many as they can back into the sea, some like the father and daughter will be staying there at the sanctuary the father is the oldest seal in captivity in the world, if seals have got to be kept somewhere other than the sea what better place than the Seal Sanctuary being looked after by the caring staff.
Pictures of National Seal Sanctuary, Gweek
Seal sanctuary as you approach
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Advantages: Interesting, informative,lovely seals, refreshments,lovely location, good access for people with mobility problems Disadvantages: Not sure if can access by us/train, maybe a little pricey for families, can get crowded
exceptional by (4%):
very helpful by (91%):
helpful by (4%):
