Folly Farm Adventure Park and Zoo

The Folly Farm Adventure Park and Zoo (also known as Folly Farm), situated to the north of Saundersfoot and Tenby in Pembrokeshire, is a visitor attraction in Wales with around 500,000 visitors each year. Initially a farm attraction, the park is now also home to an indoor vintage funfair, a zoo with over 200 different species of animal and extensive indoor and outdoor adventure play areas.

Folly Farm Adventure Park and Zoo
Lemur island at Folly Farm
Date opened17 July 1988
LocationPembrokeshire, Wales
Coordinates51.743329°N 4.730273°W / 51.743329; -4.730273
No. of animals700+
No. of species200+
Annual visitors50,0000
Websitehttps://www.folly-farm.co.uk

The original farm has expanded and now covers a significant part of the park including a large undercover Jolly Barn area featuring horses, goats, sheep, pigs and smaller petting animals. Folly Farm is made up of four areas: a farmyard; a zoo; an undercover vintage funfair, including a Wurlitzer organ;[1] There is a daily timetable of "meet-and-greet" sessions and visitors may hand-milk goats at certain times of the day. The park has expanded to the other side of the A478 road where more animals can be found in outdoor paddocks. A tractor-driven land-train ride touring the outdoor paddocks, operates between late-morning and mid-afternoon.

In 2013, Folly Farm added Penguin Coast, a state-of-the-art saltwater penguin enclosure which is home to 24 Humboldt penguins and was the setting for an unusual proposal of marriage.[2]

In 2014, Folly Farm opened Pride of Pembrokeshire, to house six African lions.[3] This was followed in 2015 by Kifaru Reserve, a breeding facility for eastern black rhino, as part of its membership of 14 European Endangered Species Breeding Programmes (EEPs).[4]

A limited company, Folly Farm is owned and operated by the Williams and Ebsworth families and holds Investors in People status with 90 full-time employees and an additional 100 seasonal members of staff.

History

Folly Farm started life as a dairy farm. After noticing that families were stopping by the roadside to pet and watch their cattle, the farmer Glyndŵr Williams and his wife Anne decided to diversify into tourism.[5] In 1988, the dairy farm was converted to receive visitors; now guests could stop to visit the Folly Farm cows and see them being milked. Over the last 25 years Folly Farm has grown with continued reinvestment. The first zoo animals arrived at the park in 2002.[6]

Winner of the Wales Tourist Board's 2005 Best Day Out in Wales award, and again in 2010, and in 2015.[7] In 2009, winner of Pembrokeshire Tourism's Best Family Day Out award. Folly Farm was named 10th best zoo in the world in the 2017 Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice Awards.[8]

Folly Farm's giraffe

The founder Glyndŵr Williams was born in 1944 in Haverfordwest and his parents George and Margaret moved to Folly Farm when he was two years of age. He died on 18 February 2020 following a long illness.

Animals

The zoo animal collection includes:

Projects

The zoo is a member of European Association of Zoos and Aquaria and British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums taking part in a European breeding program for eastern black rhinos, which are listed as critically endangered animals according to the IUCN Red List.[9]

gollark: (well, not *everyone*, but lots)
gollark: People have art on their walls and whatnot.
gollark: People eat nice-tasting food instead of nutrition paste.
gollark: We have buildings other than generic grey cubes, because despite beauty not really being a rational thing to care about in pursuit of common goals (other than just "happiness" or whatever), *people care*.
gollark: Many things are irrational, and yet people are still care about that.

See also

References
  1. "Folly Farm Pembrokeshire, A look at the past". ridemad.com. 30 December 2006.
  2. "P-p-please will you marry me?". ITV Wales. 4 September 2013.
  3. "Folly Farm lions settle into life in Pembrokeshire". Western Telegraph. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  4. "Rare black rhinos arrive at Pembrokeshire Zoo". ITV News. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  5. "Folly Farm: Zoo's founder Glyndŵr Williams dies". BBC News. 27 February 2020. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
  6. "All the fun of the farm". South Wales Evening Post. 15 June 2013. Archived from the original on 22 August 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
  7. "County Scoops Top Accolades in National Tourism Awards". Western Telegraph. 25 October 2010.
  8. "Folly Farm named 10th best zoo in the world!". Tenby Observer. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
  9. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/three-critically-endangered-eastern-black-8662030
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