Yorkshire is home to loads of brilliant open farms—but which ones really stand out for a top-notch family day out? We’ve rounded up some of our favourite farm parks across the region…

Must-Visit Farm Parks in Yorkshire

Cannon Hall Farm

Where: Cawthorne, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S75 4AT
Prices: £13.95 per adult, £13.95 per child and FREE for under 2s

Located just five miles west of Barnsley, Cannon Hall Farm is a must-visit destination for families. Nestled next to the historic Cannon Hall Museum, this beloved farm park offers a delightful mix of animal encounters and exciting attractions, making it one of the region’s top family spots.

Visitors can meet a variety of friendly farm animals, including sheep, cows, pigs, pygmy goats, llamas, and Shetland ponies. Kids will love getting hands-on with the animals, creating unforgettable memories. In addition to the animal experiences, the farm boasts an impressive outdoor adventure playground and is home to one of the finest farm shops in Yorkshire, offering a wide selection of high-quality, locally sourced produce.

For rainy days or a break from outdoor fun, families can head inside to The Hungry Llama, one of the largest indoor play centres in the North of England. With nine thrilling slides, it’s the perfect way to keep the little ones entertained and active.

Throughout the year, Cannon Hall Farm hosts an exciting lineup of seasonal events, from the magical Santa experience to a popular Halloween celebration. Whether you’re visiting for a day trip or a special occasion, Cannon Hall Farm provides endless fun for the whole family.

Hesketh Farm Park

Where: Bolton Abbey, Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 6HA
Prices: Adults – £8.00, Children – £8.00, Under 2s – £4.00, Under 1s – £1.00

If you’re looking for a family-friendly farm park near Skipton, Hesketh Farm Park is a fantastic option. Just one mile from the stunning Bolton Abbey and five miles from Skipton, this well-loved attraction is packed with hands-on farm activities and outdoor fun for kids of all ages.

Families can enjoy a range of traditional farm experiences, including animal feeding, egg collecting, and pony brushing. There are also both indoor and outdoor play areas, so there’s plenty to keep little ones entertained whatever the weather. The play zones feature climbing frames, slides, mini tractors, and a large sandpit—perfect for active kids who love to explore.

Planning to bring lunch? Hesketh Farm Park has plenty of picnic tables both inside and out, along with lots of open space if you prefer to lay down a blanket. Alternatively, the on-site café offers a delicious selection of sandwiches, light bites, homemade cakes, and locally made ice cream.

With its beautiful setting and variety of activities, Hesketh Farm Park is a top choice for a family day out in North Yorkshire.

Thornton Hall Country Park

Where: Thornton-in-Craven, near Skipton, North Yorkshire, BD23 3TS
Prices: Prices vary depending on the time of year. Online prices for spring 2025 start at £7.95 for children aged 2 to 15 and £5.95 for adults. These are for farm and soft play access only. Prices are different for seasonal events.

Another one in close proximity to Skipton is Thornton Hall Country Park, and it’s absolutely packed with things to do. There’s an adventure playground, a caterpillar ride, quad biking, a giant indoor slide, and plenty of opportunities to meet the animals—including sheep, cows, goats, llamas, ponies and more. Guests can get hands-on experience with animal feeding at various times throughout the day.

Inside, the newly renovated Soft Play now includes The Diner, where you can grab a bite to eat while the little ones let off steam. Throughout the year, the park runs a range of seasonal and themed events like Dino Live and the Magical Christmas Adventure.

During term time, there’s a great offer for toddlers—just £4 per person (T&Cs apply). From April to September, the Secret Garden opens its gates, complete with a stage, full bar, and food truck. It’s the go-to spot for family shows by day and adult-only live music events by night.

Big Sheep Little Cow Farm

Where: Bedale, North Yorkshire, DL8 1AW
Prices: Adults – £12, Children – £12, Concessions – £11.50, Children under 12 months – FREE

Big Sheep Little Cow Farm, just outside Bedale in North Yorkshire, is a fantastic hands-on farm park that’s perfect for a family day out with younger children.

The farm offers fully customisable VIP experiences, designed to suit different ages, interests, and abilities. These interactive sessions give kids the chance to feed, hold, and learn all about the animals in a fun, safe, and engaging environment—an ideal way to spark curiosity and confidence around animals.

After meeting the animals, there’s plenty more to enjoy. The indoor play barn is packed with fun equipment to help little ones burn off some energy, no matter the weather. There’s also an on-site café offering drinks, snacks, and light meals for a mid-visit break.

With its friendly atmosphere and tailored experiences, Big Sheep Little Cow Farm is a must-visit for families looking for things to do with kids in North Yorkshire.

Piglets Adventure Farm

Where: Towthorpe Grange, Towthorpe Moor Lane, York, YO32 9ST
Prices: From £8.95 for adults and £9.95 for adults

Just 15 minutes from the centre of York, Piglets Adventure Farm is one of the top family attractions in North Yorkshire—and it’s easy to spend a whole day here with so much to see and do.

This award-winning farm park is packed with activities for kids, including pedal go-karts, Bouncing Pillows, Crazy Golf, the Olym-Pig Assault Course, the Kidbine Tractor, and the fun-filled Farm Yard Trail, which takes little explorers on an interactive journey around the farm. Animal lovers can meet a wide range of friendly farm animals, but the highlight for many is the Piglet Maternity Ward, where you can see newborn piglets and their mums in a warm, peaceful setting. It’s unbelievably cute and a real crowd-pleaser.

What really sets Piglets Adventure Farm apart, though, is The Beach—a totally unique farm park feature that brings all the fun of the seaside to the countryside. There’s soft, golden sand to play in, climbing boulders, a lifeguard lookout tower, a cliffside slide, and even a beachside café serving drinks, snacks, and ice creams.

Whether you’re looking for an outdoor day of adventure or a hands-on animal experience, Piglets Adventure Farm Park is a must-visit for families planning a day out near York.

Playdale Farm Park

Where: Carr Lane, Cayton, Scarborough YO11 3AT
Prices: From £12 for Adults and £11 for Children aged 2 – 15

Playdale Farm Park, located near Scarborough, is an award-winning farm park offering a fantastic range of activities for the whole family. With an exciting combination of indoor and outdoor attractions, it’s the perfect destination for a memorable day out.

Explore the animal barn and meet a variety of friendly animals, including alpacas, llamas, goats, sheep, ponies, donkeys, and chinchillas. Kids will love the interactive paddocks where they can get hands-on with the animals, feeding and learning about them.

The park also boasts a large indoor play area with soft play zones and plenty of space for active play. For outdoor fun, there’s an expansive playground featuring tunnel slides, zip wires, and a pedal go-kart track—perfect for active children. Additionally, Playdale Farm Park offers a fun Frisbee golf course, ideal for a relaxed game with the family.

When it’s time to take a break, head to the on-site café offering a selection of hot and cold meals. During the warmer months, enjoy snacks and drinks from the outdoor kiosk, making it easy to refuel while soaking up the sunshine.

Whether you’re seeking adventure, learning about animals, or enjoying some outdoor play, Playdale Farm Park is a top choice for families in Yorkshire.

Monk Park Farm

Where: Green Lane, Bagby, Thirsk YO7 2AG
Prices: General admission costs from £9.95 for both adults and children

Monk Park Farm near Thirsk offers an exciting pig racing experience as part of the general admission. These specially trained miniature pigs race around a circular track with jumps and tunnels, and you can place free bets for a chance to win a prize if your pig wins! Races take place up to three times a day, and the times are displayed at the entrance and near the track, just past the pond.

In addition to the races, the farm offers a variety of activities, including feeding calves and lambs, stroking guinea pigs, and enjoying the barrel ride through fields with deer, alpacas, and wallabies. There are also zip wires, go-karts, pedal tractors, and lots of swings and slides. After a fun-filled day, relax at the café or shop for souvenirs. Monk Park Farm is a fantastic place for family fun.

Swithens Farm

Where: Swithen’s Lane, Rothwell, Leeds LS26 0BT
Prices: From £10 per adult and £10 per child for farm park entry

Swithens Farm, a family-run working farm just a short drive from Leeds, offers a fantastic day out for visitors of all ages. The farm is home to a wide variety of animals, including pigs, sheep, goats, cows, chickens, donkeys, llamas, alpacas, emus, turtles, guinea pigs, and even meerkats, which are always a favorite with visitors.

After meeting the animals, head to the indoor play area, perfect for children from toddlers to 10 years old. The play barn is filled with colorful play equipment, ball pools, and soft play fun, ensuring hours of entertainment for the little ones.

For a well-deserved break, visit the farm’s café, where you can enjoy delicious homemade food. The café also features a butcher’s counter offering locally sourced meats, so you can take home some high-quality produce. Whether you’re here to explore the animals or enjoy a tasty meal, Swithens Farm is a wonderful family-friendly destination.

With this in mind, we’ve put together a list of our favourite websites (tried and tested with the help of an enthusiastic 5-year-old) offering FREE home learning resources.

If you’re struggling to find ideas and activities for your homeschooling itinerary, these websites are well worth checking out…

Education.com

Subjects: Reading and Writing, Maths, Science and Social Studies

Education.com is an American website offering educational content for preschool and primary age children. There’s a rather large library of printable worksheets and lesson plans plus, some fun online games and interactive stories.

Our favourite thing about this website is their tool which allows you to create your own worksheets. If you’re currently focusing on a particular theme or topic, you can create things like crosswords, wordsearches, spelling tests, and maths questions to suit. If your child has a particular interest or hobby, you could theme these around that also, to make home learning that little bit more interesting for them.

A premium subscription for this website costs $8 per month, but in light of the recent school closures, they have made some of their premium content available to basic members too. We particularly like the independent study packets and guided lessons.

Twinkl.co.uk

Subjects: All

Twinkl.co.uk is a great website offering an extensive library of 525,000 teacher-created resources. Used by teachers, childminders, homeschoolers and parents across the globe, the quality of the content on here is top notch. They add new content daily so there’s always something new to download or access online.

They’ve pretty much got every subject and curriculum topic covered on Twinkl and there are vast amounts of resources for each. The content is broken up into key stages so click on the relevant one for your child and explore the amazing variety of worksheets and other resources put together by education professionals.

There are a number of different subscription options, starting at £4.99 per month, but there’s also a fair bit of free content available at the moment too. By signing up and creating a FREE account, you will gain access to thousands of free teaching resources. If you’re close to finishing the home learning packs sent home by your child’s school, this is an excellent option as all the content fits in with the current national curriculum.

Oxfordowl.co.uk

Subjects: English, Maths and Reading

This website of home learning resources was created by Oxford University Press – the people behind the Biff, Chip and Kipper books that many of our little ones bring home from school. Experts in helping primary age children to learn to read, this website is a great source of phonics and comprehension activities.

Oxford Owl features educational content for children aged between 5 and 11 years old and offers some useful tips on helping your child to achieve the National Curriculum expectations for their age. There aren’t vast numbers of activities available on here for each year group but, what IS available is bound to be very similar to what they would normally be doing in the classroom. You can download PDF worksheets, access a few online learning games, read through their library of eBooks, print off some recipes and try out some practice activities for the KS2 SATs. We’re particularly fond of the free eBooks and there’s some great info on the website about Oxford reading levels!

White Rose Maths

Subjects: Maths only

Part of the Trinity family of academies, schools and initiatives, White Rose Maths was created by a small group of teachers and mathematicians. Passionate about maths, they provide training courses and resources for teachers but also some great online resources for those teaching their children at home.

Whilst the school closures remain in place, White Rose Maths are uploading 5 lessons each week, for year groups 1 – 8. There are currently 3 weeks’ worth of these available so there’s plenty to keep little minds occupied and appropriately challenged. Each week comprises 5 activities with supporting video lessons. A really good resource – particularly for those of us who would rather leave the maths lessons to those who actually enjoy the subject!

BBC Bitesize

Subjects: All

This site has been a popular choice for years, particularly for secondary school children preparing for examinations. Did you know that they also have some wonderful educational resources on here for primary school children? There are lots of learning guides, a few interactive games and a wide range of fun educational videos available for both KS1 and KS2 children. The phonics guides are really good for children in reception and Year 1.

From Monday 20th April, BBC Bitesize will be publishing daily online lessons for children of all ages. They’ll also be uploading educational videos on YouTube, podcasts on BBC Sounds and launching a brand new TV channel dedicated to home learning.

We’ll update this list regularly and add to it as and when we find and test other great educational websites. If you own a business in Yorkshire and would like to offer some useful advice for parents or share fun educational activities for children, please email news@theyorkshirepress.co.uk

Run by husband and wife team, Chris and Sue, Hesketh Farm Park still operates as a working farm with over 1,000 livestock on-site. Farm parks are immensely popular with families and this gem of a place really is one of the best in the area. There is much to see and do so you could easily spend a whole day there without the little ones getting bored.

At specific times throughout the day, the team at Hesketh Farm Park provide opportunities for you and the kids to get hands-on with the various animals living on the farm. A really wonderful experience for children, especially toddlers and pre-schoolers who seem to have a natural fondness for all things fluffy! There’s calf feeding, donkey feeding, pony brushing, egg collecting, and when the lambs are still young, you can feed them too. The animal encounters do not end here! They’ve also got giant tortoises, pigs and piglets, goats, hens and chicks, ducks, guinea pigs, donkeys, a horse, and beautiful Shetland ponies.

Once you’ve met all the animals of Hesketh Farm Park, you can enjoy your own refreshments at one of their indoor or outdoor picnic areas. They also have a great on-site cafe serving hot and cold drinks, ice-creams, home baking, light bites, and snacks. As regards to playing, they have an excellent outdoor play area where the kids can climb, swing, slide and build sandcastles when the weather allows. Farmer Chris also offers tractor rides which are a great way of teaching the kids about life on a working farm. Once they’ve done all there is to do outside, their inside play area offers more playground equipment plus pedal tractors and a giant maze.

Admission prices for 2019 are £6.00 for adults, £6.50 for children and £3.50 for under 2’s. Babies under the age of 1 can enter for free and the farm is accessible for prams. They also have two baby changing rooms and a microwave is available for heating baby food.

Hesketh Farm Park really does offer a fantastic day out for the whole family, regardless of the weather. If you’re looking for something to do over the weekend or during half-term that won’t break the bank, then head over to their website to plan your visit. You won’t regret it!

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