I’m not sure who was more excited to go to the Cornish Seal Sanctuary – me or my kids! We’ve seen seals from a distance but never up close and we were all excited to learn more about them.
The Cornish Seal Sanctuary is based in Gweek near Helston and the first thing we discovered is that it’s much bigger than expected.
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The friendly reception staff gave us a map, quiz trail sheets for the children and a list of the different talks and feeding times on throughout the day.
I highly recommend going to see some of these talks – they were absolutely fascinating and really brought the animal’s stories and personalities to life. We also learned a lot about the animals themselves from the fact that a seal’s whiskers are a thousand times more sensitive than our fingertips, to discovering that puffins can hold their breath for a minute whilst diving up to 60 metres.
The aim of the Cornish Seal Sanctuary is to rescue injured seals whether they’re pups or adults and rehabilitate them before they can be released back to the wild. They have an amazing 87% success rate which is apparently the highest in the world.
Some of the seals we saw during our visit were permanent residents because they have conditions like eye infections have mean they would be unable to survive in the sea.
We particularly enjoyed watching the seals being fed and the games the keepers played to keep them stimulated and entertained.
There are several different pools of seals to visit, and some have underwater viewing areas which me and my boys really loved as you got to see a whole different side to the seals.
The Cornish Seal Sanctuary recently welcomed 11 resuced puffins to the site too. Most came from the Beluga Whale Sanctuary in Iceland although all of them now live at Puffin Island as their conditions mean they can’t be released back into the wild. The puffins were very cute. They were also smaller than I expected with much bigger personalities!
As well as puffins and seals, the Cornish Seal Sanctuary is also home to a beaver. Whilst you’re unlikely to see it as they’re most active at dawn and dusk, we did spot a dam the beaver had made and several very gnawed trees in the ‘secret creek’ area of the sanctuary.
We were also lucky enough to go on a ‘behind the seals’, behind the scenes experience. This guided tour took us through the hospital, into the staff only areas where we saw up close how much fish some of the seals eat every day – around 8kg. We also learned more about what happens to rescued seal pups but the highlight was definitely getting to feed some of the seals.
The Cornish Seal Sanctuary has a fantastic play area which my boys loved, several cafes and a picnic area with benches which helpfully overlooked the play area. There was also a beautiful woodland walk which we enjoyed.
The whole site is dog friendly (although they must be kept on leads) apart from the cafe, play area and seal hospital. There is also a great gift shop by the entrance/exit.
Tickets are 20% cheaper when bought online at least two days in advance and allow free re-entry for an entire year. You can buy tickets here.
All of the staff we spoke to during our visit were really friendly, helpful and patiently answered all of our questions.
You can find out more about The Cornish Seal Sanctuary on their website.
Our tickets were complimentary but all views and opinions are my own.
Naomi Jones is an award-winning author and mum of two. You can find out more about her on her website and read more of her writing here.
