Dairy Barns at Lound Farm in Hickling is a working farm covering 360 acres of grazing marshland and arable land, have sheep grazing in the winter and a suckler herd of beef cattle in the summer months. Ian is a 3rd generation farmer on this land, taking over from his father in the early 2000’s. We grow Wheat, Barley, Peas, Potatoes and grass for hay and haylage. Our son Joe has a drone and takes some great footage of the farming activities through the season which can be seen on our Facebook page.
There are plenty of farm tracks, meadows and autumn stubble fields, all of which adds up to a wonderful place to spot some of our wonderful Norfolk wildlife. So if you come to stay with us, do take a walk around the farm and along the country lanes. If you’re lucky you may well see a member of the Red Deer herd who live in the woods behind the farm and regularly cross the fields to graze and we also see Muntjac, Chinese Water Deer and hare.
The farm is a “birder’s” delight and depending on the season we regularly see the following….
- Barn owls
- Cranes
- Marsh Harriers
- Swallows
- Housemartins
- Skylarks
- Pink Footed Geese
- Kingfishers
- Yellowhammers
We’d love to hear from our guests what they might have spotted so we can add it to our list and we welcome lots of groups of birdwatchers throughout the year
Feeling festive at the Barns today
This years Christmas Wreath for the Dairy Barns, created using cornus and foliage from the farm and decorations from my endless boxes of Christmas bits in the flower workshop …. A few more to make for the cottages and then onto decorating the trees #naturalchristmas #festiveseason #naturalfoliage #winterbreak
Moooooving day …… cows heading into the barns for winter today enjoying the winter sun on their backs
Pink-foot geese filling the night sky over Hickling earlier this week. Photo credit to Mike one of our regular guides who stays with us as part of Naturtrek wildlife holidays #pinkfootedgeese #naturtrek #wildnorfolk #winterbirds #birding #farmstay #norfolkskies
Autumn has arrived on the farm #countryside #autumn #seasonschange