MORE than two years of hard work and planning behind the scenes have begun to bear fruit after a new farm park near Dumbarton welcomed its first visitors.

The Ardardan estate in Cardross played host to three family taster sessions on Friday and Saturday to give the public a chance to find out more about Monty’s Farm Park.

Having first sought planning permission for the project in January 2018, the Montgomery family, who own the estate, were almost ready to open the new facility to the public in the spring – but then the pandemic, and the full-scale national lockdown, got in the way.

After spending much of the time since then working out a plan for which parts of Ardardan could reopen safely and to whom, the new farm park finally played host to its first visitors on Friday and Saturday.

And while visits are restricted for the time being to pre-booked family groups living in Tier 2 of the government’s coronavirus restriction zones, fingers and toes are being kept crossed in the hope that limits might be eased enough in the weeks and months ahead to let more visitors in to see the farm parks pygmy goats and pigs, three different kinds of sheep, and signature Highland cattle.

Sue Aikman from Ardardan said: “It was a lovely couple of days. It was so nice to see something going on.

“With every version of the restrictions that have been in place since March, we’ve looked very carefully at what we can do that’s right, and viable, and safe, for us as a family and as a business.

“Although we’re restricted to Tier 2 visitors at the moment, when the tiers are revised we’re really looking forward to being able to welcome more people to have a look around.”