Wildwood Devon

We visited Wildwood Devon (formerly Wildwood Escot) near Honiton (around 20 minutes away from Blackdown Yurts) on a sunny May Saturday in 2019 with friends (so bear in mind this blog may be a little out of date now). It was really peaceful when we visited. There were other people there but it didn’t feel busy. Don’t go expecting a really polished theme park, as that’s not what it’s about. Their aim is to re-wild Britain by working towards re-introducing animals such as wolves that used to live here before humans hunted them out, but also to re-wild our children (and probably us too) by allowing them to connect with wildlife, woodland and Britain’s Saxon past in a relaxed, real and raw setting. As visitor attractions go, we found it charming and unpretentious.

On entering Wildwood, you go through the walled garden which is reminiscent of images of the Lost Gardens of Heligan before it was restored (incidentally another fantastic place to visit but a bit further from us). A tumbledown greenhouse and a trampoline had a stunning backdrop in the form of an enormous rhododendron. We passed the otter enclosure, where they were happily swimming in their pool, and made a bee-line to the bird of prey display area where we witnessed a couple of young birds in training and a lanner falcon flying to a lure. 

Wildwood Devon prides itself in having native British wildlife including wolves, lynx, red squirrels and more. There is something very primeval and haunting about watching wolves basking in dappled sunlight, you can’t help but feel a bit uneasy when their steady, magestic gaze rests on you for a moment. The wild boar were evidently as happy as pigs in a mudbath can be! They now have bears too. 

Dotted about among the trees and the wildlife enclosures are various play areas that the children enjoyed. The dropslide tantalised with the promise of exhilaration – getting over the urge not to let go proved tricky for some but they did it in the end. A relatively new attraction is a zip wire and climbing wall near the cleverly-designed maze (where we got hopelessly lost – an overhead shot on their website shows just how beautiful and intricate the design is). There is also an indoor soft play barn but we didn’t go in as the weather was good.

We all adored the sun-dappled Saxon village area which has demonstrations of dwellings from different eras, a fire pit, and chickens pecking around your feet. We locked Felix in the stocks but luckily we let him out again otherwise he may have been abducted by vikings. There are often guided activities to have a go at in the Saxon village and there were displays of animal pelts, grinding stones and a couple of thrones to play at being a Saxon princess. 

Wildwood Devon was a lovely place to spend a few hours and we would definitely recommend it if you enjoy watching wildlife and exploring intriguing places. 

Further information:
Visit https://devon.wildwoodtrust.org/ for more information including gorgeous videos of their wolves.
We had lunch first in the Coach House Cafe which is (funnily enough) located in the old coach house!
The adults all had a generous tuna melt panini with chips and salad and the kids had little lunch boxes.
All was very well prepared and delicious. 

Note that you can’t take dogs into the wildlife park itself, but you can take them in the wetland area opposite. There is also a house which is used as a wedding and conference venue but is not accessible to visitors to Wildwood.

Bug hotels:
We visited Escot again in the Spring of 2019 and found that they had installed lots of features to benefit bugs in the walled garden. Here are a few photos of the various bug establishments. We might try to create some similar ones at Blackdown Yurts in the future. They really are fantastic.