Castleview Open Farm — Attraction in The Municipal District of Borris-in-Ossory — Mountmellick

We went here on Sunday with our 9 month old baby and had high expectations for the wonderful Santa experience that was advertised. As we were with a baby I explained we just wanted to see Santa as with the baby being 9 months he is too young for any of the activities on the farm. After being charged 31 euro our expectations were high. Our visit was in total about 15 mins. Half the visit was spent looking for the grotto after 3 members of staff sent us the wrong way. We were directed to the train first which I had said we wouldn't take. The reason for this is the baby is only 9 months and it was a very cold day. Eventually we met a staff member who apologised that we couldn't find Santa and he brought us to the grotto. Mrs Claus was very welcoming. That was the highlight. We took the baby out of his car seat and gave him to Santa. I then thought we would get a picture which the elf offered, but it turns out it was only with my own phone, so I just ended up taking the picture myself. The picture has a very disinterested looking Santa in it, with a torn plastic bag of presents by his side. As we were leaving Mrs Claus asked did we get our present, which the elf replied 'Will I give him one?' I said ' Yes'. At this point I returned to where we payed and asked what exactly we had payed for. The baby was charged €15 and myself and my partner were charged €8 each. I asked the girl 'So you charge an adult €8 to see Santa?' which she replied 'Yes' she also informed me they are much cheaper than anywhere else. I have since looked up the Santa Experience in The Kyle Shopping Centre in Portlaoise. It is €8 per child, which includes a gift, €1 per adult and €14 for a professional framed photo. I looked for some money back as I really thought it was very over priced. The girl eventually gave me €2 back because the baby didn't get the train, which I had advised at the start we wouldn't be taking. I can see how older children would enjoy the experience of taking the train and seeing all the animals on the farm, but really there should be a discount for babies which can't avail of any of the other facilities. We were hugely disappointed with this experience. Portlaoise is a lot nearer to us but we chose to go here instead to make his first visit to Santa a memorable one and to support new businesses. Unfortunately it is the wrong kind of memory...

This was our second visit to Castleview farm. There's lots of new animals to see now and a few other additions also. The farm was busy but there was plenty of parking and only took us a few mins to pay in. There is sanitation stations dotted around the place and lots of signage to remind people to keep their distance. Most people were abiding by the rules. We enjoyed the outdoor maze, zipline, fairy garden and crazy golf. Lots of smaller play area's indoors aswell for smaller kids and cute small animals to see. There is a small shop onsite too and plenty of picnic benches to sit down and watch the kids play. Worth a visit if you're near the area, i paid €24 euro for 1 adult and 2 kids and we spent 90mins there. Will definitely...

As a place to let your kids run free and play it's good, but as an animal farm it was sad. The indoor animals had no daylight and the place smelled so bad we couldn't stop to look at the animals. The sika deer were also kept indoors in a relatively small enclosure. The longhorn cows didn't seem to have any fresh clean water to drink, and their hooves very long which seems like it would stop them from walking comfortably. The website says over a 100 animals to see but if you're expecting to see lots of different species you'll be disappointed, it's mostly sheep, donkeys, rabbits and chickens. Maybe we came on a bad day, but after seeing it so highly praised and recommended, we were left disappointed with the animal aspect...