Buckfast Butterfly Farm

Situated on the south-east edge of Dartmoor in a fairly remote area. You can get to it in several ways. There is a limited bus service from nearby Totnes and you can drive of course. The route I recommend however, is to drive to Totnes and get a combined steam train/entry ticket.

The steam train (very picturesque journey) will take you to Buckfast butterfly farm and then drop you back. The combined ticket gives you entry to the farm as well. There is parking at Totnes station so it all makes for a fairly smooth and interesting day.

The butterfly part of the farm (the otter section is outside the butterfly area) consists of 3 long glasshouses giving you a generous area to explore. There is a large pond roughly in the middle which is straddled with a bridge (pictured here) making this a nice area to stand and enjoy your surroundings.

There is also a small waterfall area near the back of the glasshouse right next to the hatching area. Here you can see four rows of chrysalises which have been collected and carefully arranged for all to see.

If you're lucky, you'll experience an emergence and witness one of the colourful tropical butterflies pumping up its wings to their full extent before fluttering off to explore its new surroundings. I was honoured to witness just such an event and watched a large White Tree Nymph butterfly slowly unfurl its wings, creep along the support and eventually fly off.

Oh, by the way, one experience I had in here which up to now I've never had before, was misting up of my camera lens. The humidity in the glasshouse after bringing in the camera from outside immediately 'fogged' the lens! It was a bit frustrating at first as there were a lot of butterflies around and I couldn't take any photos.

Well actually, truth be told, I just wiped the lens and then took the photos because I was impatient. Don't try it! The fogging was almost immediate after wiping and I wasted a number of shots which turned out looking very misty. Just wait a couple of minutes whilst the camera temperature adjusts to match the surroundings and you'll be fine. Learn from my mistake.

Don't know whether I have a particular affinity with butterflies or what, but they often seem to like landing on me. This butterfly should have been called the parrot butterfly as it perched on my shoulder for the next 15 minutes or so as I walked around! Not quite sure what it was, looks like a Cracker butterfly of some sort.

There are a good number of species to observe (do make sure you stand still and observe that bush or tree fully) and depending on the time of year, you may see up to 20 different species. I managed to capture around 17 species on my camera and I think there were one or two that were too fast for me, so it looks like I did a pretty good job of spotting most of them.

There is a website, but it's pretty clunky and not up-to-date. Still, there are some useful bits of information here and there as well as a few videos including a number on the butterfly life cycle.

There is a video of a selection of the butterfly species which can be found at the farm too. All-in-all, a great visit and another one to add to your list of places to visit.