Isle of Wight Spring Walking Festival 2024

9 April 2024

Isle of Wight Spring Walking Festival

We’re delighted that the Isle of Wight Walking Festival is back this spring from 11 to 19 May 2024. It’s such a great opportunity to get out and see different parts of the Island with knowledgeable local people – it’s a real community event.

We’re thrilled that a member of our own Donkey Sanctuary community Linda is running a couple of walks during the Isle of Wight Walking Festival: Tiptoe through the Bluebells on the 12 May and Strolling around the Donkey Sanctuary and Godshill on the 17 May. They are both filling up quickly, so early booking advised!

Nestled in 55 acres of serene Isle of Wight countryside, our Sanctuary is home to over 100 donkeys, ponies, and mules. Throughout the spring Isle of Wight Walking Festival we’re inviting walkers to visit the Sanctuary, meet our herds and enjoy a wander around our site. We’re open 7 days a week from 10am to 4.30pm. We offer free entry and free parking – with several footpaths and a bridleway leading from our land we’re a great place to start and end a walk. We also welcome well behaved dogs on leads to the Sanctuary. The number 3 and Island Coaster buses stop right outside our gates.

Our award-winning café is open daily from 10 am to 4pm, serving a range of delicious baguettes to go, fabulous cakes, hot food and more. During the walking festival we’re offering all participants a 10% discount* on food and drink in our café. Why not treat yourself to a bacon bap before you leave and a post-walk cream tea! Gluten free, vegan and vegetarian options available.

To take advantage of the 10% discount, just show a reservation for any Spring Isle of Wight Walking Festival walk when you pay.

*Offer valid only during the Isle of Wight Walking Festival, May 11 to 19, 2024 and is not available on our afternoon tea.

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Equine Treatment Centre

by abigail.fox • 7 November 2024

In late 2022, we started fundraising to establish an equine clinic at the sanctuary. Thanks to your generosity, we raised £125,000 from the initial campaign. This is ringfenced to spend on the Equine Treatment Centre. In the summer of 2023, we paused fundraising and undertook a separate feasibility study, using the generous free support of a civil engineer. We used this opportunity to make sure our build plans were making the very best use of your donations and the funds we had raised. We’ve tweaked the initial plan and have planning permission to undertake a project that will greatly support our high standards of equine welfare. We plan to: Repurpose an existing structure to house the Equine Treatment Centre thus reducing construction costs. Construct an equine rehabilitation barn on the site originally intended for the clinic. Create an isolation barn at the site’s perimeter. This will mean we can provide the very best care for equines needing isolation for medical treatment or observation. We will focus first on building the new barns, then move on to repurposing existing structures into our Equine Treatment Centre. The work cannot start until spring at the earliest, when we hope the ground will have dried out and the machinery will be able to move around the site. We need to make sure our precious paddocks are well looked after while the building work takes place.