Fordhall Farm’s hidden treasures
April 7, 2025
Spring on the farm brings many delights with it!
How much do you notice when you visit the farm? There are delights here which jump out at you, like the piglets racing around their pens, Dave the ginger farm cat waiting by the tearoom for his bowl to be refilled, and (when bird flu doesn’t confine them) the free roaming families of chickens with their fluffy chicks chirping their way through the car park.
Spring brings with it treasures of both the botanical and animal kind, as the landscape becomes more colourful, warmer, and, well, noisier. Flittering their way through the countryside, blue tits, great tits and blackbirds are carrying beak-fulls of mosses, twigs and animal hair – constructing their nests for the newest generation. Keep an eye out all over the farm for these busy passerines – you can watch them from the Community Garden to the woodland and beyond!
Wandering the free walking trails at this time of year is often not only accompanied by the twittering of feathered friends, the bleating of tiny sheep too. By April, the hectic lambing season has usually concluded at Fordhall, and now the fields are full of woolly creatures, who’s voices and energy seem to vastly outweigh the size of their bodies.
The bluebell carpet in the woodland is a considerably quieter seasonal spectacle – the soundlessness is quite fortunate, when you learn that folklore has warned that hearing a bluebell ring precedes a visit from a malicious fairy! An important feature of Britain’s national heritage, these wildflowers are considered relatively rare elsewhere in the world – in fact the UK is home to around 50% of the world’s population. Considered an 'ancient woodland indicator’, their presence heavily implies that Fordhall’s woodland has been well established for quite some time!
With the season in full swing, do keep an eye out for the launch of our new spring menu in the café – we are working to create a selection of seasonal delights for you all our visitors to enjoy. April is an exciting time on the farm, and we hope we can welcome you all for it!
Francesca Lant, Marketing and Communications Officer
