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Come and explore the Kilnsey Park!  It’s great fun with lots to see and do!

The first thing you will notice is all of the wildlife wandering freely around the Park.  You’ll see the ducks, geese, hens and guinea fowl  everywhere you go!  Remember to bring some bread with you for the ducks and geese!

Don’t forget to pick up the special trail leaflets for kids. There are two - the first is to find the different objects hidden around the Park and this changes every few months. The second is the Kilnsey Park detective trail with lots of questions that need answering from clues around the Park.

 When you set off on the Kilnsey Trail the first thing you’ll see are the mini diggers and sand pit.  Adults are definitely not allowed!

Next stop is the giant trout.   You’ll have been given a bag of fish food and this is a fun place to feed them and watch them jump about in the water.

Moving on you’ll see the goats Bonnie and Clyde up high on their skyway which is their own adventure playground!  And just beside them are the red squirrels in the first of their two enclosures.  Next door to the red squirrels you’ll find lambs during the spring time.

Stop and take a look at the Yorkshire stone walls.  Do you know what a smoot is? 

You’ll go past the trout raceway - so have a look and see how many fish you can see! Then as you dodge past the hens  and guinea fowl cross the bridge to take a look at how we make our own green electricity. 

Running up the hill you’ll soon reach the second of the red squirrel enclosures.  Then a butterfly garden very close to a pond where more giant rainbow trout live. Throw them some food and watch the water boil!  Keep on going even further up the hill and you’ll be able to visit Tiggy and Wiggy, our kune kune pigs.  

  At the very top you’ll see the source of the spring where the water gushes out of the hillside - and see where the cave divers having been going into explore the caves behind Kilnsey Park.

On the way back down, look at the baby trout in the top raceways.  How many fingerlings in this section?   Then you can explore the Kilnsey Park water meadow which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), famous for its rare orchids and other flowers.

On the way back down the hill, don't forget to call into the honey bee observation house!  There are lots of leaflet and pictures explaining about bees.  And, we have a special glass sided hive so you can see inside the hive! Try and spot the queen bee!

Kilnsey Park is a working fish farm.  Take a look a look below and some amazing fishy facts about Kilnsey Park!  

Finally make sure you answer all of the questions on your quiz sheet and take to it to the shop to claim your prize!  Then don’t forget a visit to the adventure playground!

Amazing fishy facts about Kilnsey Park!

• 35 tonnes of trout, that's 157,000 ten inch trout, are produced every year

• It takes 9-14 months to grow a ten inch or 12 oz trout

• All of the water for the fish comes out of the spring at the dam

• The water temperature varies between 6.5 and 9 degrees, ideal for producing quality trout.

• The spring water is 100% saturated with oxygen but during the summer when there isn't so much water we need to add oygen - the fish need this to be able to  breathe.  Oxygen is added when the water splashes down the hill side and we add it with air pumps.  In summer you'll often see the water bubbling in the lakes and fun fishing pond.

• The raceways are cleaned every two weeks to prevent disease. The fish waste is collected into a vacuum tanker and spread onto the land as it makes an excellent fertilizer.

• The trout are fed 2-3 times per day or by the self feeders.  If you watch carefully you'll see them bob their heads up above the water to make the food drop down!

• The trout arrive as fingerlings and are put into the raceways at the top of the site in batches of 5,000. As they grow they need more space and so are spread  into the next raceways.

• There are about 20,000 trout in the bottom raceway which is beside the fish processing unit. Most of the fish are used for food and others go to restock fishing lakes or other fisheries.

• You can enjoy  Kilnsey trout in the Kilnsey Park restaurant and you can buy it in the farm shop to take home for tea!