Vurlands Animal Farm — Attraction in Swyre

Best children’s birthday party venue, best soft play, most diverse animal park of its kind, most welcoming staff, best value annual passes, with the best coffee and takeaway food in the area - hands down.

Do not be put off by a negative review. I have been bringing my children to Vurlands, for over three years now come rain or shine with our annual family pass, it’s usually their first request on a schedule-free day, and I have watched the owners continually develop the farm into a place that all the children and parents we know, love. The ongoing creation of new ideas, areas and equipment has been lovely to see, and I can safely say that the soft play is clean, tidy and safe and I have never once thought otherwise. It is located in a large barn with lots of seating for everyone, and you can bring your own food and drinks as well as buy beverages and snacks in-house and order food from the cafe next door, which for someone who is used to a certain soft play venue down the road, with its small structure, minimal seating, overpriced coffee and a decree that you cannot consume even your own water on site, might be a bit of a shift in mindset, but I love the fact that you can bring your own and there is no judgement whatsoever.

The animal and bird enclosures are always clean and tidy and the animals are consistently well cared for. My children always make a beeline for the meerkat enclosure which resembles the kind of terrain you would find meerkats living in out in the wild. The pens for all the different animals and birds are spacious and this is a big site so the enclosures for the larger animals like donkeys, goats and rheas are huge, with paths trailing through and around the whole park.

We held our daughter’s 7th birthday party here just over a week ago, and 14 children and their families had a great time. Vurlands provided impressive lunches for the children, reserved a whole area for us, and we could bring our own cake, decorate the area as we liked and had the run of the place for the whole day. It was excellent value and the fact that you can go and hold an owl right next to the barn at Sharandys Birds of Prey, who have recently made Vurlands their home, was the cherry on top. We had a brilliant time. I’m genuinely amazed more people don’t know about this place and I would highly recommend it to anyone with children. We have visited countless times over the years and it never,...

This place would be ok if we had no experience towards animal care but unfortunately we noticed a few things that needed to be sorted and not left The fencing, donkeys have chewed the gate to point it looks like a repair would be a good idea. The two shetlands (I do understand shetlands are escape artists and will do anything for extra grass) but they were practically pushing a section of wooden posts over when reaching for the grass on the track. As you can see the dear had barbed wire on its head, honestly not the best look for an animal farm. Ragwort was in the donkeys (its poisonous) an adult plant at that. When reported "the maintentance man will strim it", please look into how to get rid of it properly and correctly as strimming will make it worse and spread it. Kids were stuffing loads of grass in with the guinea pigs but I saw no worker watching to make sure it was ok or even checking the fact it was just grass. (Yes parents should of also been watching their own children too). There was some birds in with the guinea pigs that clearly had the feathers ripped out all along their backs, I just really hope it hasn't happened under your care but there was no one around to ask.

In general the whole place needs a bit of TLC. Would love to visit again to see how all the animals are in the future.

Also to parents if you take your kids, please also supervise them. We saw loads of kids without adults around the animals despite there being signs saying they need to be supervised. One kid was evening walking around barefoot on the track where you ride the little carts around and no one was moving him off the track as he stood in the...

This place is one of those hidden gems in Dorset!!

Right from the off Vurlands Animal Farm gives an excellent first impression...the staff are all super friendly and the entry prices are very reasonable for the experience.

They have a wide variety of different animals from those you'd expect (goats, chickens, rabbits, Shetland ponies, pigs, ducks) to those you wouldn't expect (including chipmunks, meerkats and wallabies).

We always allow a good hour or more to walk round all the animals and feed them (bags of animal food are on sale as you go in for £1 per bag).

After we've walked round the animals, followed the enchanted woodland walk and had a play in the outdoor park We always head back into the main barn where there is a decent sized soft play complete with smaller area set aside for younger children. Also in the barn area is the inflatable assault course which is a big hit.

Food and drinks are available to purchase in the main barn and there is ample space outside for a picnic should the weather permit.

Next door is the Egg Cup Team Room which serves up a selection of hot meals and sandwiches all of which are decent portions for the price.

There is soo much to see and do here, coupled with the fact that the family who own it having big plans for the future, which helped us to decide on purchasing a season ticket at the end of our...