Tam O'Shanter Urban Farm
A free community farm under Bidston Hill: pigs, goats, alpacas and hens, a woodland on the doorstep, and a café doing proper bacon butties. One of Merseyside's best zero-cost mornings.
Farms & animals Wirral
Farms & animals in Wirral
Working farms, animal parks and safaris. Usually the bit they actually remember.
4 in Wirral1 free4 suit under-5s
Two of these four are farms where you turn up and see animals. Tam O'Shanter under Bidston Hill is free and has pigs, goats, alpacas and hens, and Church Farm at Thurstaston is the paid one, with animal handling most days and a maize maze in late summer.
Claremont Farm has no animals: it is a pick your own strawberry field above Bebington at £6 an adult and £4 a child with the punnet included in the price, and the season runs June and July only, so it is finished for 2026. Nanny Sharon's near Prenton sells booked experiences and not gate entry, the main one a ninety minute alpaca and goat walk at £30 adults, £20 children or £85 for a family.
Farms & animals in Wirral
Church Farm
A small, friendly Wirral farm park with animal handling most days, a maize maze in late summer, and Thurstaston Common and the beach five minutes away for a two-stop day.
Claremont Farm
A working farm on the ridge above Bebington where the strawberry field is the whole attraction: you pay at the gate, walk into the rows, and the price includes the punnet you fill. June and July only.
Nanny Sharon's Alpaca Farm
A small community interest farm on the edge of Prenton where the main event is a ninety minute alpaca and goat walk: feeding, a lead rope round a woodland trail, then a log fire and a cup of tea in a cabin.
Farms & animals elsewhere in the North West
Apple Jacks Adventure Farm
Farm animals, outdoor play and indoor barns, so a wet forecast doesn't cancel the day. Well matched to the 3-8 age range.
Knowsley Safari
Drive through the reserve from the car, then the sea lion and birds of prey shows. Reviews are split on value, and several warn that families expect a full zoo and find fewer headline animals, so set expectations first.
Chester Zoo
Excellent, but it is a lot of walking. Reviews rate 5 to 10 as the ideal age and still recommend a pushchair at four. Climbing frames, water play and sand pits break up the distance.
Smithills Open Farm
A proper hands-on farm day: bottle feeding, donkey rides, a tractor trailer tour and small animal handling, with enough under cover to survive drizzle. Built for the under-9s.
Blackpool Zoo
Elephants, gorillas, giraffes and sea lions in 37 acres that are actually walkable with primary-age legs - big enough to feel like a full day, small enough that nobody ends up carried.
WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre
Otters at feeding time, flamingos, pond dipping and a canoe safari through the reeds in season. One of those places that quietly turns a nature-indifferent child into a nature child.
What’s on near you, every Friday
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.