
Prenton Dell Road is an unlikely address for alpacas, sitting as it does between housing and the golf course. That is the Wirral for you.
Nanny Sharon's is a community interest company and everything runs on booked sessions. The format is a ninety minute block: feeding the alpacas and pygmy goats, a walk round a woodland trail with an animal on a lead rope, then time in one of the heated cabins with a hot drink while everything gets a cuddle.
Look at the pricing before you fall in love with the idea. Adults are £30 and children fifteen and under are £20, with a family ticket at £85 for two and two. That is experience money, not farm park money, and it is charged per head.
Where it earns the money back is attention. Small groups, hands on the whole way through, and staff who explain things instead of herding you along.
Older children have their own options. The meerkat experience is £55 for adults and £50 for children with a minimum age of ten, and takes in tortoises, owls and pygmy hedgehogs as well as the meerkats. The pony and donkey walks are pitched at thirteen and over outside the summer. Everything, without exception, is booked online first.
What it costs: Alpaca and goat walking, 90 minutes: £30 per adult, £20 for ages 15 and under, £85 family ticket for two adults and two children. African meerkat experience, 90 minutes, minimum age 10: £55 adults, £50 children. Pony wellness walks, 90 minutes, from £40 per pony or donkey, aimed at 13 and over with younger children welcome in summer sessions. Parties from £27 per child and £34 per adult, minimum ten people.
Know before you go
- Everybody needs a ticket, adults included. A family of four comes to £85. Price it as an experience.
- The under-five rule is one adult per child on the walk, which quietly doubles the cost for a family with two toddlers. Two older children is the cheaper shape of trip.
- There is no walk-up. Drive over on spec and you will be turned round at the gate.
Worth knowing: Children five and under need one adult each on the alpaca walk. Under-16s must be accompanied.
Looking for more farms & animals near Wirral?