Category: Visitors

Good afternoon. So after listening to the update from the first minister, we have taken the difficult decision to close the Farm for the time being. This will be effective from today and will be reviewed weekly. Travelling outside your area is not advisable and we feel we would not be able to guarantee anyone’s safety., as we have many visitors from outside the Renfrewshire area. We don’t have the capacity to enforce ID checks as we have animals to look after and vital work that needs done daily. The numbers in certain areas are seeing a sharp increase and we feel the risk of areas mixing at the farm increases the risk to not only the volunteers but to other visitors. In recent weeks we have seen a rise in people verbally abusing our volunteers with regards to the current guidelines and we feel this could be made worse by excluding areas outside Renfrewshire from visiting. This is not a decision we have taken lightly, but feel it’s the safest one at this time. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Please stay safe and we hope to welcome everyone back soon. Thank you all so much for your support.

The new restrictions announced by the Scottish Government earlier this week don’t overly affect the Farm. However, we have amended some of our guidelines from today to help keep everyone safe. We hope everyone understands the need for these changes and continues to support the farm as we all deal with the continuing pandemic. Full details can be seen at our “Visit Us” tab.

We have looked at the guidelines we currently have in place and, in order to make things as safe as we can, we have made some changes that will be effective immediately:

• Masks must be worn in the reptile room unless visitors are under 12 or they have an exemptIon card.🦎🐍🐢🥽
• We are lowering our capacity from 40 to 30 visitors within the Farm premises at any one time. We don’t expect there to be that many visitors In at once, as we are now starting to experience cold and wet weather. 💨💦❄️☔️
• On Fridays we will now be opening slightly reduced hours from 11.15am to 3pm. There with no animal handling available that day. However, everyone is still very welcome to come in to the Farm to have a wander around and see what there is to see. 😀👀👁👣

We understand these changes are hard to get used to. Just know that we struggle too, but we feel they are important to allow the Farm to remain open safely for all our visitors. This year has been the hardest any of us have faced, but if it’s taught us one thing it’s that we are stronger if we stick together. We hope everyone continues to stay safe. We look forward to being able to welcome everyone back properly and, of course, being able to have an open day full of fun and laughter. Take care everyone.

The entrance to Barrhill Road, which leads to us from Old Greenock Road, is currently closed due to the operation of a partial one-way system. Heading towards Bishopton, follow the diversion signs for the Recycling Centre and take the next road on the right into Craigends Drive. Follow these signs down towards the bend at the bottom of the hill and turn left into Barrhill Road to reach us. (Please note that you are still able to EXIT onto Old Greenock Road, so do not need to divert via Craigends Drive on the way home.)

The Farm will be closed today (2/9/2020) to allow wee Harry the sheep to be taken on his final journey to Rainbow Bridge 🐑🌈. Unfortunately, we don’t have an exact time for this, so we have decided to keep the Farm closed to allow this to happen peacefully. Thank you all for your support and understanding.

The Farm will be closed this Saturday (22nd August 2020) for 1 day only, to allow for boiler servicing. Unfortunately, this means the hot water must be turned off and we are unsure as to exactly at what time or how long for. We will reopen as normal on Sunday 23rd 😀
Thanks for your patience and we are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

We’ve had a fabulous couple of weeks being open 😀 and we want to thank everyone who has visited. It has been great to chat to you all. Thank you all very much for understanding all the guidelines we have in place.

We have revised our opening hours and are pleased to announce that we are now only closed on Mondays for deep cleaning.

We are open from 10.30am-3pm the remaining 6 days, Tuesday to Sunday. Please be advised that we recommend coming along no later than 2.30pm as we have been very busy. Some days there has been a queue and we hate to turn people away.

There is no need to book, just pop along. There is someone monitoring the gate, so there may be a need to queue if we are busy. At the moment we are operating with a maximum capacity of 40 visitors in the farm at one time, so please understand that when we ask you to queue it’s to enable the farm to run safely. The queues do go down pretty quickly.

During your visit we are happy to get animals out for children to handle, so please do not lift the animals yourself. This is for their safety and yours.

When visiting, please remember that refusal to sign the contact and trace book will lead to refusal of entry. Contents of the book will be destroyed as soon as possible and we thank everyone who has signed the book without hesitation. This book is just a precaution, but we feel it’s one worth taking.

At present the first road up to us is closed due to queueing for the recycling centre, however there are diversion signs for the next turning if you follow these.

As always, thank you all so much for the amazing support and encouraging words. We really do appreciate all of them 😀

We are extremely pleased to announce that the Farm will reopen to visitors on Saturday 4th July 2020. Our new opening hours from that date will be –

Monday – closed

Tuesday – 10.30am to 3pm

Wednesday – 10.30am to 3pm

Thursday – closed

Friday – 10.30am to 3pm

Saturday – 10.30am to 3pm

Sunday – 10.30am to 3pm

Initially, we will only be open to the public for 5 days per week and will be completing regular cleaning of the Farm throughout those days. Our new opening hours will allow us to undertake thorough deep cleans during the two days that we are closed.

Please bear in mind that a visit to the Farm will be a very different experience from what visitors have previously been used to. We have introduced guidelines for each area of the Farm, including a new one way system. During your visit please take time to familiarise yourself with these changes. Unfortunately, we will not be offering any tours at present, but we are still very happy to point out where everything is. These precautions are necessary for the safety of our visitors and volunteers alike and we are grateful for your cooperation and understanding.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for all the support and kind wishes that we have received during the recent closure and look forward to seeing you all very soon.

After much consideration we have made the very difficult decision that the Farm will not be reopening over the next few weeks. We are working hard on plans to be able to adhere to the guidelines and to put social distancing measures in place. We’re sure you appreciate this will take a bit of time. We can assure you plans are well under way and our intention is to re open when it’s safer to do so, and when we can keep everyone from visitors to volunteers safe 😄

Thank you all so very much for your support.

After careful consideration of the Government’s advice, we have had to make the tough decision this morning to close the Farm to the public. Although we do not have large crowds in at any given time, and no-one associated with the farm is showing any symptoms, we feel that it’s the best decision for the time being.

We have to ensure everyone’s safety. The less risks we take the better, as we won’t be any use to the animals if we end up ill. Please be assured that we will still be in taking care of the animals.

This decision has not been taken lightly, as we had hoped to remain open for as long as possible. We will endeavour to keep everyone updated on the animals adventures via Facebook and are still happy to chat on the phone and offer any help we can.