KAREN & THE CONSTABLES

Our last big family day out before lockdown was to Newton Farm, a local working farm which runs a variety of tours as well as offering holiday accommodation. During lockdown they’ve done a brilliant job of sharing updates and tours of the farm through Facebook, and you’ll notice if you watch their videos that Farmer Lou dotes on these animals!

They offer a range of experiences which change throughout the year and include feeding frenzies and alpaca walks but they suggested that their farm tour would be best for our little girls who were 3 and 4 at the time and we hadn’t been before. It’s also dog friendly, so the whole family could visit!

As lockdown was due to be announced there were only a few families there but there was plenty of room for social distancing! Farmer Lou met us all and gave us an introduction and a couple of buckets with different foods for different animals.

First of all we headed over to visit Lucy the micropig. Lucy is 6 years old and started life as a little piglet in a flat in Dundee but quickly outgrew the space and moved to the farm. She now lives next door to the alpacas which are very friendly and run to the gate when called for, as most of the animals do as Lou calls their names! I have no idea how she remembers them all!

Next up were the goats, which came into a pen so we could feed them the pellets we’d been given through the fence, and they were the girls favourite, until we went inside and they got to bottle-feed the adorable lambs which were born just a few weeks before.

Then we got to meet the big guys! Eclipse, is a huge, grumpy, 6 year old Aberdeen Angus bull, but Allan’s favourite was Dod, a very friendly 12 year old limousin bull with a very long, slimy tongue! Watching our girls as they gave treats to the cows was hilarious, they got a surprise when their little hands were licked and slivered on!

The final part of the tour was a visit to the burn to feed the hens and ducks. Zoom is a little duck with a big voice but she was silent the day we visited!

It’s safe to say we all loved our visit to Newton Farm, in fact, the girls were teary and refused to get in the car when it was time to leave! “Why can’t we just stay here Mummy?” they said. But we reassured them we’d be back another day, and I know Granny and Granda would love it there too as we’re from a farming background so we’ll bring them too!

The tour was so informative and we really got a lot of information about all the animals, their behaviours, how they’re looked after and what they eat. Since our visit they’ve had more lambs, calves and baby goats which you can see on their Facebook page. They’re also hosting a virtual tour through Go Rural Scotland from 2pm on Monday 8th June.