Outdoors: Gorgie City farm is still a great place for children to learn about livestock

When you read in the papers about all the hideous people around in the world today who give not a jot for humanity it's easy to forget how much good there is as well. I suppose it just doesn't make the headlines.

Ellen had her friend Rachel over to play and she hasn't lived in Edinburgh for that long. I mentioned the City Farm to her mother who didn't know much about it so we decided to visit.

Although I had been to collect Ellen from parties I had never properly visited and the website doesn't give much clue as to cost. On arrival I couldn't find a reception as such, just lots of chickens pecking about the car park and ducks quacking at the side. Finally I found a sign which told us that this was run by volunteers with free entry and a suggested donation of 2 per person.

Just off Gorgie Road and across from Tynecastle, this is the last place you'd expect to find a little spot of bucolic worthiness. It's not huge, but there's plenty to see, from the pigs snuffling about, a cow, a goat and a horse called Red which had obviously been given something to eat which has resulted in an astronomical vet's bill and "Do Not Feed" signs everywhere.

We peered in a window of a shed which had a banner saying "Out of Bounds" which housed smaller animals and budgerigars. This place is maintained by local children and if it wasn't for one man working with the rabbits telling us that it wasn't actually out of bounds but merely the name of the project we wouldn't have gone in (there are handling sessions at the weekend). Talking of rabbits there seemed to be an awful lot of them, which is, I imagine, what happens when you get a few bunnies together.

Beyond the car park there is a vegetable garden, the chicken runs and another cage with three rather miserable looking turkeys. Then again it is getting a bit close to Christmas for their comfort.

In the cafe there were quite a few parents and children tucking into delicious-looking soup and as we left I put a tenner in the donations milk churn. This is definitely a project that needs all the support it can get.

Open daily from 9:30am-4pm in winter, www.gorgiecityfarm.org.uk

This article was first published in The Scotsman, 13 November, 2010