News

17^th October 2021

This year the Donkey Park will be closed for the winter (Nov, Dec & Jan) and reopen for February Half Term week 19^th to 27^th February 2022.

For up to date information please see our Facebook page and website.

https://www.facebook.com/Tamar-Valley-Donkey-Park-83256342162 

www.donkeypark.com

 

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A Message from Daphne the Donkey With the Covid-19 restrictions lifting from 19th July we would like to thank our visitors for adhering to the rules during what has been a very difficult time. We have decided that for the safety of our customers and staff, mask wearing by staff members will continue indoors and we would request that visitors do the same. We have several staff members who have underlying health problems and young staff members who have not yet been vaccinated. Hand sanitisers will still be available at all entrances/exits and at 3 entry places to the soft play. Tables in the Donkey Drop-In will remain well spaced and food ordered at the coffee bar will be delivered to your table by staff wearing masks. The Donkey Drop-In is very well ventilated with doors kept open and large roller shutters open at each end of the building. We will be increasing the number of day tickets available, but this will still not be to pre Covid-19 levels. Although no longer compulsory pre-booking is therefore highly recommended. Thank you and stay safe, Julia Tamsin & Old D

 

24th May 2021 UPDATE

Welcome back to the Donkey Park

Donkey Park reopens Thursday 27^th May at 10.30am

Welcome back to the Donkey Park the donkeys and staff have missed you. Some things will be the same as last summer; to achieve social distancing we have to control visitor numbers. Bookings will therefore still be “on-line”.

During your visit you will be able to sit at well spaced out tables in the Donkey Drop-In, to have a bean to cup coffee or a meal from the Cafe or eat you own picnic.

Rule of 6 or 2 households still applies

To keep visitors and staff safe please adhere to the following:

·         Do not visit if any of your household have systems of Coronavirus (dry cough, fever, loss of sense of taste or smell)

·         All entry tickets must be booked on-line.

·         Use the “touch free” hand sanitiser as you enter.

·         Queue to enter at one way social distancing markers.

·         Masks to be worn (11 years upwards) except when sitting at tables and when outside.

·         Children MUST be supervised at all times especially when visiting the toilets to enforce hand hygiene.

·         Wash hands frequently and use the hand sanitisers available around the park.

·         Please use card payment.

·         Please have a great visit!

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After much thought the decision has been taken that the Donkey Park will not re-open before Christmas Father Christmas is unable to visit this year, however he looks forward to returning next year. Please visit our Home Page and Facebook page for future updates. We wish you all a safe and happy Christmas

October Half Term

Open daily Thursday 22nd to Sunday 1st November

10.30am to 4.30pm  

 

UPDATE 6th September 2020

The following are planned days and times for rest of year

September 2020

Open Thursday to Sunday (closed Mon Tue Wed)

10.30am – 4.30pm

Entry by pre Booking Tickets on “home” page

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October 2020

Open Thursday to Sunday (closed Mon Tue Wed)

Plus Daily Half Term Week (22^nd Oct – 1^st Nov)

10.30am – 4.30pm

Entry by pre Booking Tickets on “home” page

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November 2020

Open Weekends (closed Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri)

10.30am – 4pm

Entry by pre Booking Tickets on “home” page

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December 2020

Opening dates to be advised

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Wednesday 19^th August 2020

Our indoor play is now open with new rules as below.

Booking to visit including indoor play is via the link on home page.

Indoor Play Area Rules

 

1)   Children to queue at socially distanced markers outside play frames to be counted in by staff member. Adults should encourage children in their care to stay apart from other children when in the play area.

 

2)   All children to use hand sanitiser dispensed by staff member before entry and exit of soft play.

 

3)   When soft play capacity is reached one child out one child in policy will be in force.

 

4)   Children to follow the arrows around the play frames and wait one child at a time in marked square areas to use slides and tunnel.

 

5)   Any adult that needs to enter soft play to supervise a child must wear a face covering and use staff dispensed hand sanitiser before entry.

 

6)   Maximum number of children allowed in the Tractor and Roller Racer area 10.

 

7)   Children entering Tractor & Roller Racer area must use hand sanitiser before entry and on leaving.

 

8)   All toddlers and adults entering the toddler play area must use hand sanitiser on entering and leaving. Adults must wear face covering in toddler play. Maximum number of people (children & adults) in toddler play area 7.

 

9)   Indoor play will be open from 11am to 1pm & 2pm to 4pm and closed for cleaning from 1pm to 2pm.

10) Children 6 and under must be accompanied to the toilet to ensure Covid-19   hand washing is carried out.

 

PLEASE NOTE

We can only open the soft play if everyone co-operates with following the Covid-19 regulations.    

Thank you.

We reserve the right to close the play area at any time at our discretion.

 

 

Update Tuesday 4^th August 2020

 As we are managing social distancing extremely well we are going to change to daily visits instead of morning and afternoon sessions.

Booking is still on-line only at www.donkeypark.com

Annual Pass holders and Adoption voucher holders will need to book a “free” ticket on the booking site using the “Annual Membership Pass” button

During your visit you will be able to sit at well spaced out tables in the Donkey Drop-In, to have a bean to cup coffee or a meal from the Cafe or eat you own picnic. For now the indoor soft play is out of bounds until Covid-19 Government regulations allow. The outdoor play is fully open and the donkeys can be petted and fed.

To keep visitors and staff safe please adhere to the following:

·         Do not visit if any of your household have symptoms of Coronavirus (dry cough, fever, loss of sense of taste or smell)

·         All entry tickets must be booked on-line including “Yearly Membership Pass” holders.

·         Use the “touch free” hand sanitiser as you enter.

·         Queue to enter at one way social distancing markers.

·         Children MUST be supervised at all times especially when visiting the toilets to enforce hand hygiene.

·         Wash hands frequently and use the hand sanitisers available around the park.

·         Please use card payment.

·         Please have a great visit!

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Friday 17th July 2020

  

Welcome back to the Donkey Park the donkeys and staff have missed you. Some things will be different; to achieve social distancing we have to control visitor numbers. We are therefore operating morning (10.30am -1.30pm) and afternoon (2pm –5pm) sessions. Bookings for these sessions will be “on-line” ONLY.

Yearly Membership Pass holders will have 4 months added to the expiry date on their pass.

During your visit you will be able to sit at well spaced out tables in the Donkey Drop-In, to have a bean to cup coffee or a meal from the Cafe or eat you own picnic. For now the indoor soft play is out of bounds until Covid-19 Government regulations allow. The outdoor play is fully open and the donkeys can be petted and fed.

To keep visitors and staff safe please adhere to the following:

·         Do not visit if any of your household have symptoms of Coronavirus (dry cough, fever, loss of sense of taste or smell)

·         All entry tickets must be booked on-line including “Yearly Membership Pass” holders.

·         Use the “touch free” hand sanitiser as you enter.

·         Queue to enter at one way social distancing markers.

·         Children MUST be supervised at all times especially when visiting the toilets to enforce hand hygiene.

·         Wash hands frequently and use the hand sanitisers available around the park.

·         Please use card payment.

·         Please have a great visit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday 19th June 2020

We know from all the calls and messages that you want to know when we will be open. We are hoping this will be sometime mid July, but that depends on future regulation changes. If we opened today the current Covid-19 regulations FORBID our visitors from doing all of the following: pet or touch any of our donkeys or other rescued animals, use outdoor play or indoor play or use the café. So all you would be able to do is just stand outside and look at our animals from a distance!

Providing things move forward and new rules are implemented we will open as soon as we can.

 

Our Donkeys need your help

Many of you have messaged us in the last few weeks to tell us that the Donkey Park is your favourite place to visit and you cannot wait to come back again, when this crisis is over. We want this too, but we need your help to get there. We have now been told by our insurance broker that the underwriters will not entertain a “Business Interruption” claim from us as in our policy under the list of “Notifiable Diseases” Covid-19 is not listed!

The donkeys now need your help as we are unlikely to be able to welcome you back until maybe sometime in July. Our funds are approaching rock bottom, after the hard wet winter which used up all our available reserves. Normally by now we would have had income from the Easter holidays, which with income from May and June would keep us going to the summer holidays. By next week we are going to need to buy a month’s worth of hay (£500). We also have feed farrier and vet bills to pay plus all the other usual expenses like water, insurance, electricity etc.

Pplease donate if you can, we do understand it may be difficult in these uncertain times.

Tamar Valley Donkey Park & Sanctuary

Wednesday 18th March 2020

Following days and days of deliberation and following the request for social distancing from the PM and HM Government, we have taken the very sad decision to close the Park and Sanctuary to visitors for the foreseeable future.

As a duty of care to our visitors and staff who we value highly, we feel that there was no other decision we could make. Our animal care staff will continue to look after the donkeys and all the other animals until we can open again.

Our family also needs protection as not only are David and Julia both 77 years old this April; we have other “hidden” medical conditions in our family.

Julia, Tamsin and young Bethany have Ankylosing Spondylitis (an autoimmune arthritic condition).

Bethany has just started Biologic treatment which affects her immune system even further.

We plan to keep you all updated via our home and news pages at donkeypark.com as well as our Facebook page Tamar Valley Donkey Park. Lots of photos and videos to look at.

These are very uncertain times ahead. Following an extremely hard winter, finances as always at this time of year are low and we are normally looking forward to a busy Easter to catch up. This obviously is not going to happen this year. If you are able, you can help in one of the following ways:

• Adopt one of our donkeys, via the adoption page on our website
  
  
• Donate through PayPal, info@tamardonkeysanctuary.org
  
  
• We are also on the TotalGiving website as Tamar Donkey Sanctuary
  
  
• If you are shopping on line you can donate by going through the Easyfundraising portal
  

We hope and pray that it will not be too long before we can welcome you all again.

Stay safe and Best Wishes from David, Julia, Tamsin, David and Bethany xxx

Tamar Valley Donkey Park and Sanctuary. Charity # 1138221

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Aug/Sept 2016

It's nice to know that some of our visitors understand what we are about.

Thank You and  big Eeyore from the donkeys


This was posted on Facebook.

"First time we have been there and we had a brilliant time. I think people need to realize that they are a charity and not a fully equipped themed park. The animals obviously come first as all were in fantastic condition, all were friendly and this is obviously due to the care they receive from the staff. Our 18 month old loved learning to feed the goats and donkey's and the inside play area is safe and big enough for tons of fun. The staff were all friendly and helpful, stopping to tell us the names and histories of the animals there. A big thank you for taking these animals in, and long may you continue."