Christmas at Kilnsey Park brings reindeer to the dales!

There's an absolute cracker of a festive family weekend planned on 8 and 9 December as Kilnsey Park launch their first Christmas under the Crag celebration. We are very excited!

A great day out at the best of times (we love the Kilnsey trail and are always partial to the food from the farm shop) this special weekend promises to be a real highlight of all the local Christmas events, with real life reindeers Comet and Blitzen joining in the fun.

Saturday (8 Dec) sees the beautiful setting host the Winter Real Ale Festival and live music, 6pm till late. Kilnsey Park is set to sway to the live sounds of blues prodigy Bluesbeaten Redshaw, who played Glastonbury and Montreux Jazz festivals aged just 19. There will be hot food cooked on the fire and the entire park will be illuminated.  It's absolutely free but donations are welcomed to the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

It sounds like the perfect evening to us and is topped only by what's in store the next day! Sunday (9 Dec) looks like an incredible way to spend a day in the dales with the little ones. We cannot imagine their excitement on hearing that Father Christmas will be in attendance with two real life beautiful reindeer!

Alongside this there will be a special illuminated Christmas Trail with Santa's Grotto, hot food cooked on the fire, Christmas craft workshops, 'make your own snowman' and pony rides (for an extra £2.50). There will be festive food in the (child/baby-friendly) café, mince pies and mulled wine, carols from local schoolchildren, plus stocking and hamper fillers galore available from the Estate’s well-stocked Farm and Gift Shop. All this and a fantastic Christmas market in a marquee. 

Entrance to the Park, Estate Shop and Cafe will be free. Tickets for the special Christmas Trail experience - including the illuminated walk, meeting the reindeers and a visit to Father Christmas including special present - are: Children (under 14) £5, Adults £4 and Family £15. Opening hours are 10am-8pm and there's no need to book just turn up ready to have fun!

We think this sounds like the hot ticket this year and we cannot wait to enjoy Kilnsey Park's first Christmas celebration. With the line-up they've planned, we're already hoping it won't be the last! See you there...

 For more information please visit www.kilnseypark.co.uk

Go nuts at Kilnsey Park and see the new squirrels!

We can think of a hundred reasons to visit the fantastic working fish farm that is Kilnsey Park but at the end of July, we heard there were six more!


This amazing wildlife oasis has been protecting the native and endangered red squirrel since 1998. Three new ones were given to the park in June and in mid-July it seemed the park’s own red squirrels had been doing their bit for the population figures and produced three babies!


They are now all settled and playing happily. These cheeky additions aren’t the only new faces at Kilnsey Park, there are two pygmy goat kids – one black and one brown about 16 inches high!


Our own kids (toddlers of the human variety!) absolutely adore a trip up the dale to Kilnsey Park under the impressive crag and find more than enough to keep them really happily enthralled for hours!


All the details are available on their brilliant website but we’ll outline some of the highlights and hope you get chance to see for yourselves if you haven’t already – or head back to see the new arrivals and tackle the adventure playground again.


As you head along the Kilnsey Trail, you’ll see the ducks, geese, hens and guinea fowl everywhere you go! (Remember to bring some bread for the ducks and geese!)


There are mini diggers to make the most of the sand pit and after a play, the next stop is feeding the giant trout. Moving on you’ll see the goats and just beside them are the red squirrels in the first of their two enclosures.

You’ll pass dry stone walls to the trout raceway then dodge past the hens and guinea fowl over the bridge and up the hill to the second of the red squirrel enclosures. Then a butterfly garden very close to a pond where more giant rainbow trout live. Throw them some food and watch the water boil! Keep on going even further up the hill and you’ll be able to visit pigs and more baby trout before calling in to the honey bees in the special glass-sided hive, all against the beautiful backdrop of the water meadow.


If you need a bite to eat, a cup of tea and a sit down after all the fun then we’ve found the restaurant and coffee shop to be exceptional in catering for children.

There’s a regularly reviewed children's menu and they’re also happy to warm baby food. There are high chairs and baby changing facilities and they also provide colouring sheets and crayons to keep little visitors amused.


There’s so much to see and do at Kilnsey Park for a great family day out – for full details check it out at www.kilnseypark.co.uk or follow them on facebook…we do!