Hillside Shire Horse Sanctuary — Local services in North Norfolk

This is an absolute top class place to visit and certainly one of the best animal sanctuaries in the East Anglia Region. The sanctuary focuses rescuing mainly farm animals that have been living in appalling conditions and have had an horrendous quality of life and giving them a second chance of life and have a better of quality of life. The place delivers on that in such exemplary and impeccably brilliant fashion as the animals are kept in fantastic conditions with spacious, clean and tidy enclosures and pens showing that their welfare is very much well catered for and that the animals are very well looked after and are very well loved. There are range of animals and these include Horses, Goats, Sheep, Pigs, Cows, Rabbits, Exotic Birds, Chickens, Donkeys and Geese, which are all very friendly and are amazing. Near the cafe and shop you can catch a great glimpse of the horses right up close in their pens and even pet them, which is a great experience and also the horses loving and gentile side showing how friendly and loving they are. There are some information displays outside their pens telling you their names and stories giving you a clear of their hardships and how well they are looked after and seeing the horses in their pens gives you a clear idea of their living conditions and how well they are looked after. The site is free to enter but there are opportunities to leave a donation and in the shop you can even opt to adopt an animal of your choice and offer a great contribution to look after the animals they have. There are some displays of farm machinery in one of the big barns giving you an idea of rural life and also further artefacts to see in some of the other buildings giving an interesting dynamic to this place. There is a cafe on site selling a nice range of food and drink at very reasonable prices and a gift shop selling a lovely range of souvenirs at very reasonable prices. Overall this is such a fabulous and very welcoming and enjoyable place to visit and makes for a very heartwarming, heartening and lovely day out. Well worth a visit whilst in the Cromer and Sheringham...

We came for a family morning visit. It is a working farm so expect mud! There were some horses to pet in stalls at the entrance to the complex, all very friendly, which meant the little one was even brave enough to stroke them. As you walk round the barn the field opens out to reveal lots of different paddocks and pens housing a menagerie of animals! Horses, donkeys, rabbits, ducks, geese, swans, pigs, highland cattle, llamas and alpacas, I’m sure I’ve probably missed a few! There’s an information board for each animal, explaining its back story and how the sanctuary has been treating it since its arrival. It’s quite heart breaking how some of the animals were treated before they came to the sanctuary. But now they are well looked after and well fed, in clean and neat paddocks and pens. Although when we were there, a couple of the llamas decided they didn’t want to be in their enclosure and vaulted the fence to the walkway, to then hurdle the fence into the horse enclosure! The handlers weren’t that worried, they weren’t going to get any further, and it seems they do it all the time. A real llama drama! Just added to the entertainment for the little one!

Aside from the animals at Hillside, the amenities are a cafe, a gift shop as you arrive, there’s a bric-a-brac shop, from which the proceeds help run the sanctuary and there’s also a kids play area near the small animal enclosure.

All this without an entrance fee, the sanctuary relies solely on donations. There are signs all around with QR codes to help donate online especially with food and hay. So it’s well...

We live in Surrey but regularly a travel to hillside. It has a really lovely place for rescued animals which u can walk around and see them. Yesterday we took some donations head collars salt blocks carrots and grooming set for the equines. They have many many animals to look after and are solely funded by the public so o really recommend anyone that likes horses or animals go along have a great time and donate whatever you can. They also have an adoption scheme where you can adopt one of their residents yesterday we adopted a beautiful ex race horse that was saved from slaughter and he is the most friendliest horse. They also have quite a few shires some of which they put in the stables for you to meet. They have some shetlands donkeys loads of goats alpacas and lamas sheep and cows as well as many rabbits and a nice little Avery. They have a beautiful gift shop where you can buy many things a children’s play area and a little animal free cafe. I can’t wait to go back to meet the horses again and highly recommend to anyone young or old that likes animals. Hillside has done a fantastic job not just saving animals but exposing what goes on with big chain names when it comes to mistreating animals. If anyone can give anything to help these guys it would be amazing as they deserve everything they can get. Keep up the good...