Farm Experience

A stay at Gwarmacwydd is a farm holiday experience. We are a cottage-style aparthotel on a working organic farm, and the farm is part of your stay from the first morning: the animals we keep for our guests, the farmers who look after them, and a morning round that our reviews mention more than anything else.

The Guests’ 8:30 Morning Round, with a real farmer

The Guests’ Morning Round starts at 8:30, every day of the year, Christmas Day included. Mary and Martha the pygmy goats, the hens in the Chicken Palace and the spring lambs are kept for our guests; the calves are the orphans and twins our suckler herd always produces, raised by hand on the round.
Angela, or one of our other farmers when she is away, mixes the milk feeds in the lean-to by the farmhouse back door, with the farm cats weaving round her feet in the hope of a spilt drop. Guests arrive in ones and twos, there is a chat, and the mixing slows down; by the second morning everyone knows their neighbours, whose children are whose, and who had a late night.
Then everyone sets off past the pond and into the paddocks, the cats following for the drips and Ivy the dog coming along if she is in the mood. First Mary and Martha, then the Chicken Palace, where the children compete to find the eggs and argue over who carries them back for breakfast. The buggy goes round to the old lambing shed at walking pace, with room on the front bench beside Angela for a parent and child or two older children, taking turns each day. In the shed the calves and lambs are waiting for their bottles, and everyone gets their turn.
On her own, Angela could do the round in a third of the time. With the questions, the stories and the queue for the bottles, it takes as long as it takes. Angela loves it, and so do our guests. Children join in as little or as much as they like, and every day we see each child’s confidence grow as they become more familiar with, and relaxed around, the animals .
Every morning on the round, you will meet:

🐐Mary and Martha, our pygmy goats
🐓The hens of the Chicken Palace, and the eggs they leave for your breakfast
🐑The spring lambs, bought in each year to be bottle-fed by our guests
🐄The calves, raised by hand, and our Simmental suckler herd in the fields
🦋The wild birds we feed every day of the year for you to watch
🐕The farm cats and Ivy the farm dog when she feels like it

The Beauty of Nature

Our Simmental suckler herd grazes the fields around you, and the calves you bottle-feed on the round are its orphans and twins. There is always something new: chicks in the brooder for much of the year, lambs to feed from March and calves from May. From about May the herd calves , and if you are lucky you may see a calf being born.
The round is also when we talk about the farm: how an organic suckler herd is run and why we farm the way we do. Being an organic farm, every day we make conscious decisions to work in harmony with nature, and we are happy to explain every one of them.
Children who cannot take their eyes off the tractors, and fathers who cannot either, can ask to see one close up. We explain what it does and how it works, and let them sit in the cab, with the engine off, the key out and the brakes locked, to ask what every knob is for. The Tractor Driving Experience and In-Cab Tractor Rides can be added to your stay.

Good to know

The Guests’ Morning Round is included in the price of every stay. Wellies or stout boots are best, as the paddocks can be muddy. Please wash hands with soap and warm water after touching the animals and before eating. Parents stay with their children throughout, and everyone follows the guidance of the farmer leading the round. Please read our Farm Safety briefing before your first morning.