Hemsley Conservation Centre

Visited yesterday with my partner and we absolutely enjoyed ourselves. Very intimate Conservation Centre and it’s refreshing to see its natural approach to the whole area. You can clearly see their priorities are (as they should be) the animals! Cleaning enclosures, lots of fresh food out for the animals, lovely sized spaces for them too. I have read a disgusting amount of bad reviews about this place and had to say what I think… I think a lot of people nowadays expect animals to be here for our amusement, play areas for kids, easy viewing spots without care for the animals welfare. However, this place has it spot on. And please don’t change a thing. It’s amazing what you’re doing for these animals. And what a pleasure to have been able to experience seeing them for ourselves. Cafe was lovely too, nicely decorated and honestly if I was local, I’d love to visit often to support this amazing organisation. Amazing all round :)

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Amazing experience at the Helmsley Conservation Centre. We did the otter feeding experience and the staff were all lovely and super friendly. The keeper doing the experience with us was very informative and made the experience as personal as possible. We also got to walk around the conservation centre and see the rest of the animals. There was plenty to see and all the animals seem really happy in their habitats. A lot of them were even confident enough to come right up to the glass/fence to see you which was really nice and shows how well they are being looked after. The cafe was amazing as well, really good value meals, all made to order and good quality food. Highly recommend.

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We had a lovely time at Hemsley conservation centre today. My husband and son had booked me an otter experience for today. We were met by a lovely lady on reception who explained all about the conservation centre, maps cafe, etc. There is a lovely rainforest cafe where we had coffee and hot chocolate. As we made our way around the centre, we came across many different species of animals. We saw tapiers, merecats, lemurs, monkey's wallabies, ocelots, otters and wolves. We were very lucky to see a wallaby who had a baby in her pouch and all the animals seemed very happy in their enclosures. We were met by Henry, the keeper who took us off for the Otter experience. We firstly went to where they do all the food prep for them. I cut up the fish to feed the otters with, and he explained all about the food charts. How many times a day they are fed and what they eat. It was so interesting. We then went round to the otter enclosure and met Rita and Noodle who were so excited to see us because it was feeding time and just so cute. The experience was absolutely wonderful. Henry was so knowledgeable and told us all about the otter's habitat, how they breed what they eat, about all the different species of otters there are - it was an amazing experience!! We then went right round the centre again, and saw the animals being fed and listened to some talks on the other animals. We then had another coffee and a snack in the cafe. We left around 3pm and would really recommend this small animal centre to anyone. Thank you for a great day!

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Brilliant local wildlife park - a real hidden gem! We booked the lemur experience for my daughter's birthday, which was excellent. Although not large, we ended up staying all day! A great mixture of well cared for animals and the keeper talks were really fascinating and informative. The little cafe/restaurant was great - the food was really tasty. We will be coming again and would definitely recommend to people of all ages. Why is it not more well known in Kent?

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