Have a Nice Walk, Watch Out for the Deer

Chestnut Centre

Attraction (General)
in/near Buxton, Derbyshire,
England East Midlands



Review added: 04/10/2006 16:36
By: katygriff (£0.00 earned from reviews) Earn £££'s

"Me and my fiancé Dave love to go on days out to places and because we have been saving money to buy stuff for our new house, we have not had the chance to do much for ages. Dave's Mom and Dad are very into going out every weekend and they came back one Sunday saying they had been to this great otter sanctuary in some stunning grounds and we should go take a look. Dave got it in his head that he wanted it to go so Sunday just gone we decided we would have a day trip there and what a wonderful day it was even in the pouring down rain.

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What is the Otter Sanctuary?

Te actual place is called the Chestnut Centre and it is an otter and owl sanctuary set in beautiful countryside in Derbyshire.

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Location:

Castleton Rd
Chapel en le Frith
High Peak
Derbyshire
SK23 0PE

To get to it is very easy indeed as you can get the M6 motorway to stoke-on-Trent which is Junction 15 and then follow signs to Manchester, Stockport and then Buxton will begin to be signposted. When you are in Buxton you will see tourist signs to the Chestnut Centre. We found it easy to get there and that everything was clearly signposted from miles away and very regularly so you can't really get lost.

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Price:

Adults - £6
Children 2-15 - £4

For the time you can spend at the sanctuary and for what you can see I think these prices are very fair indeed.

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Entrance Area:

Parking.
The parking area to be honest is quite small and we were actually lucky to get a space and this was on a rainy day. There is just space for about twenty cars at the actual sanctuary but we saw people parking on nearby roads and walking down to the area. There was a man standing in the parking area telling you where to go and as he is dressed in bright green you can't really miss him.


Toilets.
The toilets are situated just up a small hill on the right of the car park. There are only two women's toilets so be prepared to wait ladies. They are very clean though with basic facilities.


Gift Shop.
The gift shop is very small but there are a few things you can buy such as the usual otter cuddly toys and then lots of pencils, keyrings and other sorts ofstationary with the Chestnut Centre written on. My favourite thing though was that you could buy proper photos which you could put on the wall as art work at home. The prices of everything was very reasonable indeed.


Café.
Now usually when I walk into a café at a place like this you can just get sandwiches and then junk food. Here you walked in and it smelled strongly of Jacket potatoes which was nice. You can get the usual sandwiches but they do some proper meals but as we were not hungry we did not go in. the prices looked ok though with a jacket potato and cheese being a couple of pounds and there was plenty of seating within the café.

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The Park:

This is actually a 25acre park so as you can imagine it is absolutely beautiful. You walk in there and it is just so green and looks so beautiful and we went when it was pouring down with rain. The entrance to the park is at the gift shop and you will see gates that close automatically because of big rocks attached to them so that the animals cannot escape the park. As you walk into the park you can see that there area couple of paths you can take but either way will get you to see everything.

The thing I liked about walking around was that you go through open grass land and then through some woods to see all of the animals so it is really nice to take a picnic and I wish I had thought of this before we went. Throughout the park you will see directions on where to go and you will also notice that dotted around are benches and places you can have a sit and eat if you need to. There are bins around the park as well.

If you walk quickly around the park you can do it all in about half an hour. Although there are not any steps I would not say it is wheelchair and pram friendly at all which is a shame. The paths especially through the wood are up and down an very uneven so unfortunately I would not recommend it for those with prams, pushchairs or wheelchairs. This is my only gripe with the park but there reasoning is just to keep everywhere as natural looking as possible.

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The Animals:

Ok now the reason you come to this park is to look at the animals and they do have some pretty nice ones here.


Otters.
The otters are the main reason for visiting this park and they certainly do not disappoint. The have quite a few variations of otters such as short tailed ones and they are in lots of different enclosures throughout the park for you to look at. We were getting a bit worried at first as we came upon the first enclosure which had a female otter in and she was nowhere to be seen. We then traveled to the next ones and there was an inside room to look at and they were all in there fast asleep. I was saying to Dave that I think the otters should wake up and give me my moneys worth.

As we walked around though we saw many otters and they were just so lovely. They are obviously really used to humans because as soon as you stand by them they come up to the cages and start making noises at you which is so cute. I hate it that the otters are caged up but I can't really get across to you in a review how much space they do actually have. The good thing about the otters is that you will see lots of places to go and stand where you can see different views of where they are. I think with the amount of otters in the sanctuary you will see some out and about and it is quite nice to see them playing about and basically being naughty.


Owls.
Owls are the next animal that this sanctuary specializes in and there are so many. They are not in just one specific place but as you walk around you will see them all about in their cages. Each owl has a huge cage and they are really nice. There are many variations so you can see snowy owls, barn owls and eagle owls and many more. They are quite friendly owls too so all of them were out and were easily visible. My favourite part was when a Mom asked her son why they were called snowy owls and he replied 'because they live in the snow and eat snow', bless!


Polecats.
There is a single polecat in the park and he has a great cage full of pipes and a huge run which leads to another little area for him. He was friendly and stayed out in the open which was nice.


Red Fox.
Although I loved the otters I have to say that the red fox was my favourite animal I saw at the park because he was just so beautiful. I actually made Dave sit and wait for about fifteen minutes until I caught a glimpse of him but because it was raining he decided to keep himself indoors for most of the time.


Deer.
The park boasts quite a large number of Fallow deer and they are literally in the main area so you could just stumble across them if you were lucky. As we were entering we didn't see them but as we were coming out we spotted them and there were about thirty there. It is a shame I can't show you all a photo as it was so amazing to just see this huge pack of deer right by us. Obviously though when I tried to get a little closer to take some good photos they heard me and ran off but hey, who can blame them?

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Animal Environments:

For those of you who worry about caged animals as I do to, I will tell you that they all have extremely big enclosures and although it cannot mimic really what they would have in the wild, all of the animals do actually seem happy as you can see most of them playing about.

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Verdict:

The Chestnut centre is wonderful and we had such a fantastic time there. The thing about places that keep animals is that you do worry about them being in cages but this place is one of the best for giving them big spaces and the animals seem to genuinely like humans coming forward to people when they are near.

My favourite part of the day was when we were at one otter place and there were six or seven huddling together and then pinching leaves from the plants and then rolling over, going for a swim and just playing together basically. They were so lovely and it was nice to see them as you don't usually see otters. All of the animals though were wonderful to look at and there are plenty to see.

In conclusion I am giving this park top marks because I think it is a fantastic time for all ages and I think everybody should enjoy it. You will get to see some truly amazing animals and see some beautiful surroundings and even better than that you have to walk around the park so you can get some exercise while you go. I think it is a great place and I would not hesitate in visiting again in the future.

Thanks for reading.

xxx"

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