PUPILS and staff of Greenmill Primary spent a day on the farm when they also met the Duke of Rothesay.

Prince Charles joined them to officially open Valentin’s Education Farm on his estate at Dumfries House.

The farm is expected to host thousands of school pupils from East Ayrshire and beyond each year.

As well as working with animals pupils have the opportunity to milk a fibreglass cow in a barn and make woollen items on a traditional spinning wheel.

Greenmill PS had booked onto courses during the official opening and were enthusiastically working away when Prince Charles toured the farm.

Abby McAulay, youth activities coach at East Ayrshire Council, said: “There’s such a wide range of facilities here, such a variation for all the kids.

“As a week-long residential goes on, you can see them coming out of their she’ll and more able to get out of their comfort zone.

“This experience gives them skills they can use in everyday life.”

Structures on the farm including a sheep shelter, traditional pig sties and a goose ‘hoose’, were constructed by apprentices as part of a building course run by The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community.

The new development is located next to a working unit on the estate, Home Farm, with both managed by husband-and-wife team John and Denise Richardson-Rowell.

Development of the education farm began in February 2016 on the site of a former prisoner-of-war camp, Pennylands. There are plans for the farm to be declared fully organic within two years.

Valentin’s Farm is named after a member of the Pierburg family that has contributed towards the development of projects on the estate, and is home to rare breeds of sheep, cattle, geese, ducks, pigs, and turkeys.

Some of the lesser-known breeds include Castlemilk Moorit sheep, British Landrace and Tamworth pigs, Shetland geese, Scotch Grey and Scotch Dumpy chickens, Pied Crowlitzer turkeys, and three breeds of cattle Beef Shorthorn, Whitebred Shorthorn, and Vaynol.

E-mail EducationAdmin@dumfries-house.org.uk to arrange a school visit.