Yolk Farm

Yolk Farm is a working hen farm at Minskip, just outside Boroughbridge, and it has built a whole morning out around its eggs. The hens lay them, the eggs are collected each morning, and the kitchen turns them into breakfasts and lunches in what the farm calls the world's first egg restaurant on a real egg farm. The Times named it one of the UK's best farm shops in December 2024.

For families, the animals are the reason to make the drive. Walking round to see the hens, the pigs and the goats costs nothing and needs no booking, and the Yard at Yolk play barn, opened in a converted hen barn in 2023, gives small children a big indoor space to play for a few pounds. Animals and play first, then an egg-led lunch, makes an easy half day and leaves the afternoon free for Thirsk.

From Tea Time Cafe on the Market Place, head south out of Thirsk on the A168 and join the A1(M) southbound. Leave at the Boroughbridge junction and follow Minskip Road out to the farm. The whole trip takes about 25 minutes.

Plan on driving. We found no bus that links Thirsk with Minskip, and Boroughbridge has no railway station.

Start with the farm itself. The hens have a six-acre paddock, and the three Kune Kune pigs help clear the waste fruit and vegetables from the shop. There are four baby pygmy goats, and a group of alpacas. Seeing them over the fence is free; getting close to the alpacas means booking an Alpaca Experience through the farm's website, which carries the current details and price.

Then the play barn. Yard at Yolk is 3.95 per child, with adults and under-1s free, and you can turn up without booking. Inside there is farm and food themed role play, ride-on toys, a sand pit and egg-collecting stations. The farm also sells a Yolk Family Trail sheet at 3.50, and the barn does takeaway drinks and snacks.

After that, eat. Eggs are the centre of the menu, cooked from the morning's collection, and the kitchen uses vegetables from its own market garden where it can. The farm shop is next door for anything you want to take home.

The animals cost nothing, which makes this an unusually cheap morning out with small children: the play barn is the only real outlay, and grown-ups go in free. The egg kitchen is the other half of it, a kitchen that cooks with eggs collected on the farm that morning. Dogs on a lead are welcome in the cafe as well as round the farm, so the family dog can come too. And it opens every day of the year except Christmas Day and Boxing Day, so a wet Tuesday in February works as well as a Saturday in summer.

The cafe takes no bookings of any size, so at weekends arrive soon after 9am, or aim for a late breakfast on a weekday. In winter both hot food and the play barn stop at 3pm, which means a morning visit gets the most out of it; an afternoon arrival leaves very little time. Dogs are fine on a lead everywhere except the play barn, so one adult may need to wait outside with the dog while the children play. Wear boots or old trainers for the farm, since this is a working farm with paddocks and mud. If the children have set their hearts on the alpacas, book the Alpaca Experience before you set off. Back in Thirsk, the World of James Herriot fills an afternoon well, and the Market Place is a short walk from its door.