Auchingarrich Wildlife Park — Attraction in Great Britain

Yesterday we went to Auchingarrich so my son could have an experience with the lemurs. Despite the weather it was a fantastic day out!

The drive to Auchingarrich had us thinking we were lost but Sat Nav had it right and it was surprisingly easy to find. The car park is large enough but I'd arrive early to ensure you get decent parking spot in busier seasons. The entrance is through a wee gift shop but it's very spacious and the attendant super friendly and very helpful.

We had booked all our entry but bought food for the animals and paid for a lamb cuddling session (£9.99 for 2 people for 30 mins, I thought this was really reasonable).

Quick trip to the toilets (immaculate) then off into the park. There are several huge play areas (inside and out), karting track and football areas but we were there for the animals.

There was a good range of animals (don't expect hundreds of varieties it's just a small wildlife park) from domestic livestock to monkeys, lemurs and wallabies. You were allowed to feed the donkeys, horses, goats and deer which was an added bonus.

The Australia walk through allows an up close experience with the wallabies and emus with one of the emus galloping us around as though it was part of the family. The keeper, Johnny, was a real delight so enthusiastic about the animals and his job, he even told us which wallabies had joeys in their pouches so we could watch out for them.

The 30 minute lemur experience was amazing, watching our son in the enclosure with Kevin telling him what they do and why was great. Kevin was really engaging and our son got to hand feed the lemurs provide enrichment activities and refresh all food and water. He was also made to clean out the enclosure excluding scooping out all the poo. Kevin explained everything really well and answered all questions brilliantly, it seems he loves sharing his animals with visitors. Our boy has been buzzing about ever since. At only £50 for these animal experiences it's a bargain for any animal lovers in your family similar experiences are closer to £200 in England.

We had brought our own picnic so didn't make use of the cafe at lunchtime. But it looked clean, was quite busy and smelled good.

After lunch we had a short session handling 4 day old chicks. This was led by Johnny who was great with the younger kids and really engaging with the adults. He then did a bit of snake handling with willing volunteers but cut this short due to animal welfare, a great decision that shows that the animals are at the centre of all they do.

Then we got our session cuddling lambs. The women running this session is hand rearing 33 orphaned lambs and loves her job, she's really passionate about their care. We got to sit in little hay bale areas and were handed lambs to cuddle. It was fabulous!

We finished of our day with a visit to the Highland cows and look out point at the top of the park. We spent around 5 hours at Auchingarrich, in better weather it could easily be longer.

We will...

Liked: Great park/location for a short stay and a unique experience waking up to flamingos and lemur's saying hello. Camp site was okay and the options for extra although a tad pricey was great service as they bring it too you (Fire extras etc). I loved the addition of the play areas for kids lots of options and is great for a break up between animal watching for little kids.

Disliked: Overall it was a tad pricey for what it was - food was expensive at the restaurant, the extras for camping were expensive we paid for firelighters a firepit and wood and it came out at nearly £20 for about 2/3 hours of fuel. A Map would have been nice for the park in our welcome pack.

A few other issues that were admittedly outwith the staffs control but I feel could have been "handled" better.... The camp site needs some ground rules because unfortunately people don't respect shared spaces. The toilet was overflowing by the morning and people had starting pooing/weeing on or around the lid and outside the toilet it was disgusting. So maybe a secondary toilet and make it male and female or some rules for how to use the toilet. I also felt the toilet itself was extremely basic and could be updated easily (wood around the toilet was stained from urine and uncomfortable at best to sit on especially for females), holes through the shack people could see through and totally bug/midges infected which is fine for adults but I heard more than one child freaking out. I almost felt like the toilet was a false sense of security and would be better if we had none or brought our own solutions. We used the toilet once and then never again. Noise/alcohol issues - it was extremely disappointing considering the sheer number of familys around to see people smoking, drinking and one family/tent decided to play club music on a speaker at full volume for approx 8 hours straight until 12am. Then they proceeded to shout laugh and talk after that for another couple hours. I understand this isn't the parks fault or responsibility but I feel more rules or reminders could be placed for no alcohol or smoking and no loud music etc. Me nor my family got a very good sleep and I felt like my experience was marred by inconsideration of others.

Lastly the electric broke while we were there in the cafe which meant breakfast wasn't available. Again I appreciate this was out of there control, however I feel like they should have shut the park down or tried a bit harder to fix it because we were relying on the cafe for breakfast in order to bring less with us and we had to leave the park much earlier than planned which felt like a waste. The issues happened the day before on the Saturday too which delayed our lunch so I feel there were potentially more options available sooner before the electrics went...

Liked: In the PAST, the wildlife park and café were fantastic. And there is still so much potential for it to be great again.

Disliked: It's clear there are problems at this park, which is a shame because it used to be great (new management?). We visited a little over a year ago and everything about the day was fantastic, really exceeded expectations. BUT... our recent visit where we camped overnight was very different. The park itself felt tired, with many exhibits closed or in poor condition. The café was once a highlight, but the staff didn’t seem to have any structure or leadership. The ordering process was shambolic, and they lost our order twice. Despite all this, we gave the place the benefit of the doubt, because of our previously great experience.

The campsite was basic, but nice. Although all the facilities (including drinking water) is a back into the main park (5 min walk). It was however the loudest and most rowdy campsite we have ever visited. The first night ok, with music stopping around 1030pm. However, on the second night new guests moved in beside our plot and proceeded to get very drunk and obnoxious. At 11pm we very politely asked if they could be a little quieter as we had young children in the tent trying to sleep (they also had young children). But this seemed to insight them to become louder and abusive. Music was turned up; they screamed obscenities into the night and various threats made cause damage to tents around them. I could post audio of them shouting obscenities, but it would be too vulgar to post.

When we heard them talking about letting there fire blow onto our tent, we made the decision at 1am that it was not safe and packed up the tent and left the campsite. The campsite provided us a refund and kicked out the other guests. I understand that a campsite cannot control who stays with them, and I don't hold this against them. But upon reflection I choose to share this review because I felt they could have and should have done more. The management were not engaged or particularly sympathetic when we contacted them. And when we were told we would be refunded they failed to do so, until we reminded them a week later. The campsite manager was much better in all respects, though I feel that the 10pm curfew needs to be enforced. This is after all a campsite at a child’s wildlife park.

We were offered the opportunity to stay again free of charge, but even for free, we’d rather not return. There are too many fundamental issues that need...