Chestnut Centre Otter, Owl & Wildlife Park

I thought I reviewed this place last summer, when I dragged my friend’s family here on the pretext it would be so nice for her children when actually it quickly became clear it was all about me, world’s biggest otter fan, to the extent that the person who received a cuddly otter toy at the end of the day was not a small child.
The small children did really enjoy it though, and it’s a fantastic day out. You first descend down a hill through a mini deer park, and then hit the main path which has a lot of owl enclosures. Despite anticipating the owls to be quite dull, I thought they were magnificent — some are huge and their beautiful feathers and imposing faces are very impressive. They also have some adorable smaller owls like the burrowing owl. The otters are of course inherently amazing and there’s enough enclosures/​indoor viewing areas that you will definitely see something adorable/​hilarious. While I prefer the mini otters (Asian short claw) the giant otters are extremely striking, they look almost like seals.
The keepers are very friendly and it’s great to go at feeding time, especially as you may have trouble seeing the polecats/​pine martens in action if you don’t. The former are particularly entertaining, and they have a great enclosure with lots of runs and play space.
The whole park layout I think is quite beautiful, especially when the leaves are on the trees — don’t miss the lower path through the stream where you can see extra otters and owls and loop your way back up to the café.

Another Sunday, another wildlife park — being an animal lover, having a one year old really does give me a great excuse for going to all these places (it just wouldn’t have been the same going in the past with my mates and a few beers for the walkaround.)
It only took us about 35 mins to drive here from Stockport so will likely take around 50mins from Manchester city centre and after a fairly chilled trip down the A6, you’re a few turnings off and there. First off I have to say that on arrival I was a little unsure this was going to be any good — I actually thought it might be one of these little petting farm type things where you spend a fiver and end up doing everything in 20 mins!
The great news was that it actually turns out that this place is huge with so much lovely countryside to walk through. Lovely tame deer coming up to say hi on the walk down to the main sanctuary — and once you get to the main park at the bottom there must be 25 different exhibits with otters, owls and other cool animals on show. We must have spent 3 hours here and for £7.50 each (kids go free) it was good value.
There’s a little shop at the end selling gifts and a café attached. The coffee is out of a Costa machine which was ok because at least you got real beans but it did seem strange there was no espresso option — I really didn’t want a bucket of milk drink and the small Americano was huge and diluted the taste of the coffee (enough about my personal coffee rants though — haha)
If you have kids or just fancy seeing some cool animals in some nice country air then go and check it out!

The Chesnut Centre is an otter sanctuary set in the beautiful hills of the Peak District, a mere 40 minutes from South Manchester and a really nice place to spend a few hours be it with children or just big kids.
The area that the centre is set in is actually much bigger than we were expecting and is a proper little parkland, with amazing views of Kinder Scout as you enter the park where there are loads of beautiful deer that are obviously very used to humans walking through there field every day as they remained pretty close to the path.
The path then drops down to a wooded area where the otters and other animals such as owls, polecats and foxes live. The cages and pens were all really big and provided very natural habitats which was brilliant to see, although did make spotting animals a little tricky at times! Luckily they hold animal feedings a few times a day which was great entertainment, particularly with the giant otters.
All in all we spent just over 2 hours meandering through the park followed by a cuppa in the café. It’s a pretty basic café/​gift shop with coffees courtesy of a Costa machine so don’t expect too much but it’s fine for what it is.
A great day out!

What a great place to see otter in fairly open pens. Large selection of otters and owls. Friendly staff. Ask when its feeding time and see them come to life.