📍 Raglan, Monmouthshire
🚗 Around 40 minutes from The Old Vicarage
👨👩👧👦 Particularly good for younger children
🌧️ Plenty of indoor activities for wet days
🎟️ Check current admission prices before visiting
A couple of weeks ago we spent a few days at The Old Vicarage and were looking for somewhere suitable to meet up with my brother. Between us we have three children aged between three and six, so we decided to give Raglan Farm Park a try.
It's about a 40-minute drive from The Old Vicarage, making it an easy day trip if you're staying with us and looking for something to keep the children entertained.
A farm that has diversified
At first glance, you can immediately see that Raglan Farm Park is a working farm that has diversified into offering a whole range of activities for children.
We've been to places where it's sometimes difficult to see that there was ever a farm there, with purpose-built soft play centres and attractions taking over. That wasn't really the case here. Much of the attraction has been fitted into the existing farm buildings, which gives it a much more authentic feel.
The farm park itself is family-run and has grown considerably since opening to the public in 2016. There is a mixture of indoor and outdoor activities, meaning it works reasonably well whatever the weather.
Plenty to keep the children busy
There is a good range of animals to see, including traditional farm animals alongside some slightly more unusual residents such as llamas and alpacas.
But, with three children between three and six, it was probably the activities that really held their attention!
We spent quite a bit of time inside on the large inflatables. These are fitted into the barns and kept the children entertained for a good hour. I particularly liked the large tractor-themed inflatable — it seemed very appropriate for a farm park.
Outside, we went on the tractor and trailer ride around the grounds. It's a fairly simple trip around the fields rather than a major attraction, but it was a relaxing way to spend 15 minutes — and at £1 each when we visited, it was something of a bargain!
We then moved on to trampolining, zip-lining and tractor pedalling, which gave the children plenty more opportunities to burn off some energy.
The farm park's own website currently describes a wide range of outdoor activities including zip wires, trampolines, slides, ride-on tractors and go-karts, alongside its indoor play areas.
Reasonable prices
One of the things that particularly surprised us was the price.
When we visited, admission was £8 for adults and £7 for children, with under-twos free.
For a family day out, we thought that was very reasonable. You can certainly pay considerably more for some of the larger children's attractions, so it was nice to find somewhere where you didn't feel that the cost of admission was going to dominate the day.
Lunch at the farm
We also stopped for lunch, which was provided by Girly Girls.
I went for the Cheese Stack, essentially a cheeseburger, which was good quality and very reasonably priced at £5.50 when we visited.
There is also a vending machine selling fresh milk by the pint — something we've become rather partial to over the last year!
On the way out we had a look around the farm shop and came away with some black pudding and a couple of other bits and pieces. So, as well as tiring out the children, we managed to take a little bit of the farm home with us.
Our verdict
All in all, we had a really enjoyable and very friendly visit.
Raglan Farm Park perhaps doesn't have quite the bells and whistles of some of the much larger family attractions, but that's actually part of what we liked about it. It still feels like a farm that has developed its offering rather than an attraction that happens to have a few animals.
For children of our three-to-six age range, there was more than enough to keep them occupied for several hours, and the combination of animals, indoor play and outdoor activities means there's plenty to do.
We'd definitely recommend it to families staying at The Old Vicarage who are looking for a relatively easy day out.
And at around 40 minutes from the house, it's an easy addition to a family holiday in the Golden Valley.