Castle Adventure Open Farm, Wardtown Castle, Ballyshannon, County Donegal, F94C1W7, is gearing up for the pinnacle of its yearly calendar, a machinery and demonstration show on Sunday, May 28th, 2023.
The event will take the form of a GRASSMEN meet and greet, live entertainment with Johnny Brady, The Engagements & Hard 2 Beat, along with a tractor and machinery display, trade stands and talks.
Open farm event
Speaking to That’s Farming editor, Catherina Cunnane, ahead of the event, Castle Adventure Open Farm, which is a farm diversification project, which came to light following the loss of 70% of the family’s suckler herd to a TB outbreak, said:
“At the farm, we try to cater for all ages and all abilities. The farm is fully wheelchair accessible, and all our animal pens are equipped with viewing windows. “
“Along with the usual animals you expect to see, such as rabbits, lambs and guinea pigs, we also have some more unusual stock, including our wallaby, Skip, our meerkats and our emus. “
“Then, on the fun side of things, we have our large playground as well as indoor play areas, our interactive floor and our new pedal tractor track and, of course, the fan favourite among all our visitors, little and large, the real JCB diggers, which are modified for children’s safety.”
“On site, we also have party rooms and our coffee shop. We try to bring something new to our visitors every year, so we like to change up the areas of our indoor play and bring in new animals.”
“At the moment, we are in the process of getting two black foxes. We are also in the early stages of extending our playground for 2023/24.”
“We try to hold events throughout the year to offer something different to our day-to-day, such as dinosaur days, unicorn days and our biggest event every year, our Grassmen machinery show, which takes place this Sunday,” they added.
Farm open day
The team will open two of its fields to local dealerships, contractors and firms to promote and display their product offerings and services.
There will also be a demo field where local contractors make silage, demonstrating mowing, raking, lifting, baling and wrapping etc., along with entertainment and talks and cooking and weaving demonstrations throughout the day.
They continued: “This is a real family day with something of all ages. After a very successful event year with over 3,500 visitors and over 30 exhibitors, we decided to focus on the health and mental health in agriculture this year.”
“This is a topic we think is not openly discussed enough within the farming community.”
“Diabetes Ireland will be doing free health checks as well as a talk alongside Embrace FARM and STOP. “
“We will also be donating a portion of the exhibitor fees to charities from the day and doing a raffle to also raise funds,” they concluded.
The event takes place from 11 am to 5.30 pm, and the cost for admission is €10 per person.
