A day out at Walnut Tree Farm Park
Located in St Brides, Newport, Walnut Tree Farm markets itself very well. The website is professional and shows off the best of what’s to offer.
Sadly on a recent visit, I was left feeling somewhat underwhelmed. That’s not to say that this isn’t a good farm, as I do think I’d return again, I just think there are some areas for improvement. I also feel as though I had my expectations set too high for Walnut Tree Farm Park. Mainly after looking at the website, so perhaps it’s my fault I was a bit underwhelmed.
Open Monday to Sunday, 10am-5pm, Walnut Tree Farm has been a working farm for over 50 years. Like the majority of farms we’ve visited it’s family run.
It was pretty easy to find, although I did take a wrong turn and my friend did get lost, but as long as you trust your sat nav and follow it to the letter, you should be ok! I did think I’d taken a wrong turning as I drove up a narrow lane towards what appeared to be a shop selling sheds and play houses, but it was the right turning and the car park to the farm was located on the left hand side.
Alongside the car park is a field which had a small number of horses in which our twins thought was great. So far so good!
We walked up the path toward the farm and spotted a sign outside which noted that cards weren’t accepted. Thankfully I’d brought some money along with me, but my friend hadn’t. A quick text to her to let her know was in order!
We were the first to arrive at the farm which was quite nice as it meant we got to enjoy some of the facilities on our own for a while! The lady who greeted us at the front desk, advised that they do take cards and that the sign outside was old. Queue another quick text to my friend telling her to ignore my last text!
I paid and was told by the lady at the front desk that we could go into the area where the rabbit was, but not to pick up the rabbit.
When we entered the first part of the farm, which is a barn, there were a number of various animals to see. First up was the rabbit!
You can climb into this area with the rabbit. The girls were unsure at first as the rabbit was pretty lively, so I went in first. The rabbit starting running around and around, and around my leg which the girls thought was hilarious! Eventually the rabbit settled and the girls came in to stroke him.
I think this was their favourite thing to do here as they kept asking to go back in! I do like that the children can go in with the rabbit, instead of having the option to have them on their lap like most other farms we’ve been to.
We then wandered around the rest of the barn and saw some chickens, a turkey and guinea pigs.
The girls spotted a ride on go-kart style bike, but they were a bit too little to go on.
Next up we wandered through the animal enclosures and fed the goats and reindeers. We also saw some cute pigs!
At the very end of the barn there are two play areas. One is a park and the other is a smaller area for younger children with a sandpit, ride on toys, baby swings and a slide.
The girls enjoyed playing in the park while we waited for our friend to arrive. There were also two picnic benches in this area. Great for a rainy day as children can still some animals and have a play in the indoor park areas.
I do think some effort could have been made to ‘dust’ the park area. It sounds bizzare I know, but there were massive thick cobwebs on a lot of the climbing frames which I had to brush off myself before the kids would play on them. Aside from that the girls enjoyed the play area which had a mixture of things to climb, swing on run around in. The only downside is that the bark was very dusty so both girls came away with very dirty faces!
The smaller play area was also great for our twins to play in. They’re four years old. They enjoyed playing on the ride on tractors and in the sand pit too. Although both my friend and I felt the sand pit could have done with a little more sand to make the floor underneath less hard to sit on!
So after the arrival of my friend we ventured outdoors. This was when my friend told me that she’d bought tickets for the tractor ride and also a pony ride at the desk upon her arrival. I was a bit miffed as I wasn’t advised you needed to do this when I arrived.
I returned to the reception desk to buy three tickets for the tractor ride which totalled £3 (£1 per person), and £2 per child for the pony ride. A total of £7 extra on top of what we’d already paid to get in (£13, this included animal feed). This now brought our total to £20. It’s not out of the way by any means, but I would have liked to have been advised at the main desk that I needed to buy tickets when I arrived, as having to return to the entrance with two small children wasn’t ideal.
Anyway, once outside we crossed the road into the farm area and fed some of the ducks. We also saw a number of ponies who were pretty friendly.
We fed some goats and sheep, also saw some alpacas which were rather cute! In this is another children’s play area. There was a ‘pretend boat’ which of course the children loved! They pretended to drive it and pretended to spot dolphins and mermaids!
At the end of this area were some more ponies.
We then crossed another road and wandered into the fields where we saw a pretty big pig and some more ponies.
At the end of this path you could walk further into the fields on a ‘field walk’ or go into yet another park. We opted for the park as it was pretty hard for the children to miss, and like all children, when they see a park they want to go in!
It wasn’t a great park, but the kids seemed to enjoy running around and playing on the swings.
Around the park area were a number of fields with a few sheep in. There were also some picnic benches dotted around.
After a play, we wandered back to the barn so the kids could wash their hands before eating. There was hand gel in the park area, but I’d rather them wash their hands with soap and water, than use the gel. I wish there were more ‘wash stations’ around for people to wash their hands after touching/feeding the animals.
We chose a picnic bench by the first outdoor park with the boat in and had our picnic. After eating, the kids had another play in the park, and I asked a member of staff where we needed to go for the pony ride.
During our visit I spoke to a number of different staff members. They weren’t rude, but I got the impression that none of them wanted to be there. They all seemed a little miserable.
Anyway, after watching their friend have a pony ride, M decided she wanted a go too. This was her first ever pony ride and she really enjoyed it! It only last a minute or two at most, I’m not sure it was really worth the £2 we paid, but M enjoyed herself.
Next up was the tractor ride. Not the best I’ve been on as half of the ride was spent staring at hedges due to the position of the benches on the trailer facing out to the sides inside of being in a forward facing position, but the ride back was good as we saw some animals and the fishing lakes.
After the tractor ride we used up the rest of our animal feed and had another play in the indoor play area. There is a café and soft play area, but we didn’t use these so can’t comment.
The other thing I did like is that there is no gift shop. You can buy the usual toys etc, but they’re all behind the counter on a shelf so thankfully the girls didn’t see them!
Overall, Walnut Tree Farm is a good little farm, but as mentioned in my review I do feel there ae a number of areas that if worked on, would turn this into a great farm.
All views and opinions are 100% my own.
