Often referred to as Ashlyns Farm or just Ashlyns, this site initially appears to be a Farm Shop and restaurant, but if you take the path to the left of the restaurant you will discover a whole lot more: a soft play, animals, playground and even a small splash park. Worth noting that the inside and outside area require separate bookings. Located in Essex off the A414 between North Weald and Chipping Ongar, it's not far from Epping and easy to get to by car. 

Ashlyns Funbarn/ soft play and Farm Park/ Wildlife Park

Why Ashlyn’s Wildlife Park and Soft Play Are Good To Visit With Children 

• The soft play is a medium size with separate spaces for toddlers and slightly older ones.
• It now has an expanded seating area for parents visiting the soft play.
• The Wildlife Park has 3 separate play areas.
• There are picnic tables and seating spaced around the outdoor area. 
• There is an interesting range of small animals to see.
• There is a small splash park open in warmer weather (separate £).
• It’s in the middle of Harlow, Ongar, Epping and North Weald so a great location for meeting people who live spread out.
• It’s an easy, laid back morning or afternoon with lots of options to please most ages. 

What is there to do at Ashlyns Wildlife Park?

Ashlyns has indoor and outdoor areas, but it is worth noting that there are separate entrance prices for the soft play, wildlife park and splash park. Entrance to one area does not allow entrance to other paid areas. You can get a small discount if you book entrance to both tickets to multiple areas together. 

Ashlyns Soft Play

Ashlyns soft play is a lovely place to visit all year round with little ones. It’s not huge, but children age 6 and under should have a great time as there are lots of different bits to play on and a great long slide. 

The toddler area is for children age 3 and under. It has a ramp to climb up and a small slide down as well as various blocks and shapes to climb or play with. 

There is seating and a cafe which sells a range of drinks, snacks and meals. Due to the time slots this is very busy at the beginning of the slots.

The soft play is normally pretty clean, but it is getting a bit worn (I first visited 11 years ago and it hasn't significantly changed since then).

Visiting the Soft Play

Prebooking is recommended and sessions are 2 hours long.

The soft play sessions are currently run at 9am with sessions starting at 9am, 11.30am and 2pm at weekends or 9am, 11am, 1pm and 3pm.

Tickets cost: 

• Baby 6-11 months £2.95
• Children 1-4 £6.45
• Children 5 plus £7.45
• Adults £1.50

The website says that the soft play is designed for children aged 6 months to 10 years, but it’s unlikely to hold much appeal for children over 8. 

Food at the Softplay

In the soft play there are tables where you can eat the food from the café. The food is child friendly, with both a hot and cold kid's meal deal, as well as sandwiches, wraps, jacket potatoes and sides. As the soft play slot is only 2 hours you might not want to spend time eating though. The café service area is kids’ paradise all in front of them with candy floss, ice cream, chocolates, sweets, slushies etc so not easy for parents to avoid requests for snacks. They also have lots of coin machines in a small space with little toys, sweets, tattoos and little rides so you might want to manage expectations.

The medium size play frame in the soft play has a fun open slide

There is additional seating round the side of the play frame

View towards the toddler area from the entrance

Inside the soft play

Splash Park

The splash park is open in warmer weather. It is only small, but this means it feels more relaxing than bigger and busier splash parks so it's a nice way to cool down with little ones. It has a changing room, toilets and ice cream stall in the mini park area. 

You don’t need a locker for the splash park as it is all self contained and convenient with a little hut in the area.

The 2026 prices have not yet been announced, but it normally opens in May. 

The small splash park is a nice way to cool down in the Summer with preschoolers

Ashlyns Wildlife Park

There have been animals at Ashlyns for many years, but it was previously a farm with the normal range of animals you would expect. They now have a zoo license and a growing list of interesting and exotic animals. It is still small compared to places like Colchester Zoo and has far less animals than Essex's medium size zoo's like Call of The Wild, but it worth a visit.

What is at Ashlyns Wildlife Park?

You enter the Wildlife Park by going through the soft play entrance, checking in at reception and then out again through a gate. 

The Animals

As you come out the reception there is an inside animal area to your right. This is currently the only inside area at the Wildlife Park (although they were building another inside area between this and the soft play, it's not clear what this will be).

The indoor area has a number of animals including skunk, a small reptile area, chinchilla, marmosets, dwarf caiman crocodiles and ring tailed lemurs.

Outside there are enclosures of various sizes with animals ranging from standard farm animals to some more unusual ones. You can see: llama, armadillo, meerkats, spider monkeys, porcupine, owls, ostrich, civet, zebra, binturong, Azara’s agoutis, a wallaby walk through, serval cats and pumas.

Wallabies keeping warm by sitting on their tails

Spider Monkeys enjoying some snacks

Play Areas

There are three play areas around the Wildlife Park. The first as you go in has a pirate ship, the second has a large play frame with slides and climbing areas and then on the far side of the site there are two bouncy pillows and a smaller play frame. 

Food etc

If you are visiting at an off peak time the only place to get food and drink (based on our previous visits) is in the soft play.  While you can bring a picnic if you want a hot coffee on a cold day and your children are refusing to leave the bouncy pillow you might be out of luck (I say from experience). 

There is a food shack on the far side of the site open at busier times. They sell a range of hot food and drinks.

Visiting Ashlyns Wildlife Park

Book your tickets online for guarantee entry. They sometimes have great offers so keep an eye on their socials. 

The Wildlife Park is open Monday to Sunday 9am to 5pm. You arrive at any time in that window and stay as long as you want. 

Tickets cost:

• Under 2 free
• Children 2 to 16 £7.45
• Adults £8.45
• Over 60s £6.95

There are a number of outdoor enclosures to walk around

The reptile house

There are several different play areas in the Farm Park

The Bouncy Pillows are surrounded by sand and there are buckets and spades

View into the Wildlife Park and a smaller playground

The play areas all have plenty of seating near them for adults

What age children will enjoy visiting Ashlyns Wildlife Park and Soft Play?

Ashlyns Soft Play is probably best enjoyed by children age 3 to 6, although those outside this range will have fun if visiting with siblings. 

The Wildlife Park will be best appreciated by those who enjoy playgrounds (probably 4 to 9). While they have a lovely selection of animals you could walk round and see them all comfortably in an hour, and spend time talking to them as well so to get value you need to spend time enjoying the play areas.

Is it suitable for pushchairs?

At busy times the soft play seating area can be hard to get around with a pushchair, but it’s fine at quieter times.

The paths in the outside area are fine for a pushchair, although they can get muddy in places. 

What You Need To Know Before Visiting Ashlyns

Do You Need To Prebook?

Prebooking isn't always required, but they have online booking on the website it's easy to check availability and book. 

What Else Is There To Eat at Ashlyns?

Outside of the soft play and wildlife park there is a main restaurant inside the Farm Shop which has cakes, sandwiches and standard hot food. This is worth prebooking if you are a large group or you want to visit at weekends. It has a courtyard that is nice in the summer, but limited shade in parts.  The restaurant has high chairs and a children’s menu, but it is a little more formal than the café in the soft play. 

The Farm Shop and restaurant is a separate business entity to the wildlife park and soft play.

There is plenty of  picnic facilities in the wildlife park. With lots of tables near each playground even small ones for children you should be able to find somewhere to eat if you bring food.

The café in Ashlyns soft play has lots of appealing snacks and meals

If you are spending the afternoon at the Farm Park area bring a picnic

Toilets

There are not enough toilets on site and on a busy day you can expect to queue. In the soft play there is a mixed toilet and a disabled toilet which has a baby changing table (I think they are adding more though). For the wildlife park there are a few cubicles near the bouncy pillow.

There is also a toilet at the far end of the farm and a toilet outside the restaurant at the beginning of the path to the soft play.  

Is it dog friendly?

Dogs are not allowed in the soft play, wildlife park or any of the other businesses on site unless they are a service dog. 

What to bring when visiting

• If your children are likely to want to go on the little machines bring some loose change (or don't so you can make excuses). 
• There are bricks and buckets and space on the sand with the bouncy pillows but you can also bring your own.  
• The path gets muddy so you might want to bring wellies if it has been wet. 
• If you are going in the soft play or the bouncy pillows make sure they have socks.
• Suitable swimwear and a towel is required for the splash park.

How to get to Ashlyns and Where To Park

Address

Ashlyns Farm
Epping Road
North Weald
Essex
CM16 6RZ

Directions

It is quite close to the Talbot roundabout and Harvester so easy to find if coming from Epping direction. There is a big sign outside on the main road at the entrance, but go slowly along Epping Road as it does suddenly appear. 

Parking

The car park is a good size. It does get busy, but we have always managed to park though.

What to do Nearby

There are a few places to explore nearby that you could potentially fit into a day out:

North Weald Market - a large outdoor market with free entry and free parking on North Weald Airfield 8am to 3pm most Saturdays and Bank Holiday Mondays.

At Harlow Garden Centre (next to McDonalds on the roundabout at Junction 7 of the M11) you can find North Weald & District Miniature Railway. It's open on limited days run by volunteers between 12 and 4pm. Apart from special events (like Christmas or Easter) when they get booked up, you can normally turn up and go on the mini train for £2 per person. Check their website and Facebook for latest info and what days they are running.

It's only 15 minutes drive to Harlow with a large choice of shops, restaurants, bowling, theatre, playground and more.

Some photographs provided by @laurac_robotreg