Girls’ Brigade visit to Almond Valley

On Saturday 10th May a group of 22 girls from 1st Lenzie Girls’ Brigade attended the Divisional Fun Day at Almond Valley Heritage Centre. It was an early start and the sun was already shining as we started our journey by bus with other Girls’ Brigade companies from our area.

Almond Valley occupies a large site in the Livingston countryside on both sides of the River Almond. The Girls’ Brigade companies had exclusive use of a barn area with picnic tables and these were welcome shelter from the sun!

The girls had fun with all the activities on offer. We started at the subterranean trolleys and zip wire, next to the woodland enclosures for the reindeer, the beautiful peacocks and the Highland cattle. Next we visited the adventure castle, with its big slides and high walkways. The paraffin works play space was next and the girls ran and climbed around the engines, pipes and tanks of a Victorian shale oil works. There was a chance for a quick turn on the go-karts before lunch in the barn area.

The girls absolutely loved the bouncing ‘pillows’, huge green bouncy domes set into the ground and surrounded by sand. Next we headed off to see the animals. In the fields we saw goats with their kids, alpacas and sheep and inside the barn were some donkeys and more really cute baby goats – everyone wished they could take one home! There was also a barn with smaller animals like rabbits, mice and newly hatched ducklings. We made a trip to the gift shop and museum and then went on a tractor ride around the paddocks for the horses.

We managed to find another adventure area to climb around in before we headed back to the barn revisiting all the favourite spots on the way.

The event finished with a music worship session for everyone in the barn.

Thanks to GB Greater Glasgow Commissioner Karen Scott and her team for arranging this event.