Barnwell Farm Cottages
About Barnwell Farm Cottages
Barnwell Farm Cottages are self catering cottages situated off a quiet country road, in the heart of the Ards Peninsula.
Barnwell Farm Cottages Description
Barnwell Farm Cottages are situated off a quiet country road, in the heart of the Ards Peninsula, 1 mile from Strangford Lough and 2 miles from the Irish Sea coast. The location is protected from the noise and bustle of everyday life. It is tranquil and relaxing, surrounded by farmland and unspoilt countryside.
The farmhouse and courtyard has been sympathetically restored into 7 self catering cottages. The use of traditional materials and clever design have captured the true atmosphere of a rural country cottage. This, coupled with a quality interior finish, reflects their 5 Star Rating. The aim of the Proprietors is to provide home-from-home comfortable self catering accommodation with tailor made arrangements by prior request, including accommodation for your horse or dog.
Facilities include a fully equipped laundry, a large games /function room, individual patio areas with patio furniture and gas barbeques, digital satellite TV and video, CD /radio, mobile phones, dishwashers and microwave ovens.
A complimentary "Starter Pack" is provided in all cottages. Should you require a laundry service please contact the proprietors and this can be arranged.
Every effort has been made to make our guests feel at home and a large games /function room is provided, complete with kitchen, where they can read, play games or relax with a cuppa. Games are provided to keep the children busy and for the smaller ones, a cot, highchair, bath and baby alarm are available on site.
Reviews
Out for a quick look about in daylight. Hopefully more chicks soon.
Busy bees at Barnwell
One of this year's baby owls ready to go back to bed after ringing under supervision of Ulster Wildlife. They are adorable and never seem to mind the procedure.
Food arriving for this year's baby owls. Both doing well
This year's young owls at Barnwell. For the third year we have 2 chicks who seem healthy and well grown. They have now been successfully ringed and are ready to venture into the world!
The date and times on these 3 videos are incorrect. They were all recorded from the 2nd to the 8th Aug.2016 after we had successfully put rings on the owlets. The younger of the 2 females still has a lot of down on its body ,the other one is starting to fly around the nest box. The larger one is first to feed when a mouse is brought to the nest ,but the smaller owl is attracting the adults (with the loud rasping sound) for its share of the mice.
We had a Scottish Skiffies club from Inverness staying at Barnwell Farm cottages last week.They had a great time and were successful in several rowing classes,they finished 7th overall out of over 40 boats. The feed back from the team was very positive, the event was very well organised and extremely enjoyable.Several families are planning to come back to stay at Barnwell next summer.
Last night, at last we found out how many young owls were in the nest box when the Ulster Wildlife Trust arranged to get the chicks ringed. We were delighted to find two healthy chicks.There was a significant difference in the maturity, the one in this photo is about 2 weeks younger than the other still with a significant amount of down,the other chick is almost fully feathered.In about 3 weeks they will both look alike when fully feathered.
The first appearance of this years young Barn Owl. It struggled to make it up to the platform,its wing feathers are not fully formed .The adult female has now left the nest and joined her man in the other nest box,both are feeding the young,I am nearly certain by the amount of food being brought to the nest box that there must be two young owls.
Had a look at the webcam yesterday and several video clips showed the adults trying to coax the young owls out to the platform.This was a young juicy rat I think, too big for a mouse!!!! ?????
I don't know yet if there is one or more young.The only guide is to compare the noise to last year.On that basis I guess we may have 2 young but I am not sure. Last year on the 2nd.July the female had joined the male in the other nest box and they fed the young ,who were able to fly out to the platform and receive the food here.This has not happened this year yet so we are running about 2/3 weeks behind 2015.
More mice for the young.They are now able to take a full mouse without it being taken apart by the parents.
The male owl at the moment is feeding about 10 mice each night,the female is also now hunting but has nit left the nest...
Have now got some up to date video of the owl box.The male owl has been living in our other box some 500 metres from where the female has her young. He left (or was thrown out) after the young were born.He comes out around 10.00pm and after a short time on the platform he takes off and hunts during the night and around 4.15 am becomes back to the platform and gets the early morning sunrise for around 45mins.before he goes back into the box.
Early morning snooze before going to bed!!
They came out to see what was going on in the field under the nest box as we had just let the cattle into the field.
The owls still come out occasionally during daylight hours but they don't stay out more than about 2/3 minutes.