FIVE months after a lucky few visitors got the chance to see around the area’s newest visitor attraction for the first time, the owners of a brand new farm park are getting ready to fully open their doors again.

The Reporter was fortunate enough to join a select band of local residents in seeing round Monty’s Farm Park, on the Ardardan Estate near Cardross, at the end of November.

That was a brief bright note for the estate’s family owners in a difficult year-and-a-bit which saw all 50 Ardardan staff members put on furlough and the estate close its doors at the start of the first coronavirus lockdown.

The estate’s garden nursery opened to members of the public public on Easter Monday, and the first local and pre-booked visitors were able to come along to the farm park that same week.

But the easing of many of Scotland’s lockdown limits means that Ardardan, which received a development funding loan from the Bank of Scotland for the farm park, will be available for even more people to enjoy from today (Tuesday) onwards.

Sue Aikman, who owns Ardardan Estate with her sister, mum and dad said: “The past 12 months have been incredibly tough for everyone.

“It has been frustrating not to open our new farm park venture but, throughout, we’ve been planning for the worst and hoping for the best.

Having been allowed to open our doors at Easter, it has been all hands on deck making sure everything is safe to welcome everyone back.”

The farm park proposals were first made public in January 2018.

Find out more about what’s going on at the ‘Ardardan Farm Shop, Garden Nursery and Tearoom’ page on Facebook, at ardardan.co.uk, or by calling 01389 849188.