Wildwood Trust

“Home to over 200 native animals, past and present and set in 40 acres of beautiful ancient woodland where visitors can see bears, wolves, bison, deer, owls, foxes, red squirrels, wild boar, lynx, wild horses, badgers, and beavers plus many more.”

Our family absolutely love Wildwood. It’s in a beautiful setting, the staff are lovely and the animals you are able to see are incredible; it’s amazing to be able to see the beautiful animals and know that the money from your admission is going towards the incredible conservation work that they do there.

The staff are really friendly, the path you walk on is buggy friendly, there are stalls dotted around if you wish to get food and drink (not many options on the vegan front though), and they have lots of lovely benches throughout for families to sit at and enjoy picnics. Our favourite picnic benches are near the deer and moose or the ones near the wild horses – lunch with a view! 

They have bunnies and hens at the end of the route, which our toddlers absolutely adore to watch and talk to, and a very big play park. There is a smaller section for toddlers and then big swings, slides and climbing frames for older children. 

Wildwood isn’t set up like a zoo, you can see the animals but they aren’t on ‘display’ so you are unlikely to see all the animals on your trip and many you may see from a distance. We have never seen the badgers and have only ever seen the wallabies from far away as they like the back end of their enclosure best.

We’ve had a few trips where we’ve not seen much but that doesn’t bother us as it’s a beautiful walk with the children and is a wonderful opportunity to teach the children that nature and animals are not there for them and their entertainment but because they are a part of this world and ecosystem in their own right. 

J-Bear loves the foxes, ravens and reindeer whilst T-Bear favours the bears and squirrels. They both adore the wolves and rabbits, and mice spotting at the very end of the trip. I love the bison and the badgers whilst Paul is a fan of the otters and beavers – it just goes to show, there really is something for everyone! Summer has only visited once so hasn’t decided on her favourites yet, but she’s planning on returning with her camera so no doubt there will be plenty of photos to come on our Instagram page!

If you are looking for a beautiful, educational, and animal-filled day out we really do recommend Wildwood. Grab a good picnic and head out early to enjoy the whole day together. If you are local, we really recommend the annual membership, we worked it out and for our family, provided we go more than 4 times in a year we’ll be saving money and I guarantee we will easily surpass that many visits!

Added bonus: membership covers both sites so if you happen to find yourself in Devon you could visit the Escot park for free!

Please do let us know if you visit Wildwood, and what your favourite animals are, we would love to hear it.

Livvy and Summer