Clark's Little Ark Sanquhar

Clark's Little Ark Sanquhar A result of observing the enjoyment that animals brought to people, Being near the town, people from the local communities began to visit the animals.

Clark's Little Ark began evolving unintentionally in December 2012,
A small piece of land at the former brickworks in Sanquhar, became home to my miniature Shetland ponies and donkeys. Watching the enjoyment shared between humans and animals was so rewarding and the animal family began to grow! In May 2013 ,sadness and heartbreak struck our family, when our beloved son Clark passed away. Although

Clark had many "labels" of disability, he was a happy, loving boy who loved being around happy, smiling people. Clark's Little Ark was named in his memory. We know he would approve of all the smiles that take place at the Ark. The Ark has also helped our family deal with our grief, even on the most difficult days. We have been so lucky receiving support from the local communities and beyond, to help keep Clark's Little Ark free and accessible to all ages and abilities. We are indebted to THE FRIENDS (AND WEE FRIENDS) OF CLARK'S LITTLE ARK, who volunteer their own time to arrange meetings, fundraise, organise open days and manage all donations, bank accounts and paper work. This enables everyone to see where and when their kind donations are being used. We are extremely grateful to everyone who supports Clark's Little Ark in any way at all and hope the smiles continue for many years to come. PLEASE NOTE - Clark's Little Ark can be found at the Old Brickworks. It is situated on the left hand side of the road, just before the civic amenity site, St Mary's Street Sanquhar DG4 6BS. There is very limited parking at the Ark and if specialist access is required please contact Alison Shankly on 07789394138, 0165950123 or email [email protected]
As far as possible, arrangements will be made to meet your needs. Hand cleanser is available at the gate to the yard. For those who don't have mobility problems, parking is usually available at Sanquhar Station, which is nearby.. The Ark is FREE to all visitors - all we ask for payment is a smile.


** ••••SINCE COVID 19 THE FOLLOWING CAN CHANGE DAILY -
( Please feel free to go down the track and enjoy spending time with the animals. If Alison or any the Friend's of Clark's Little Ark are around there will be an opportunity to interact with some of the animals. However, in the interest of Health and Safety, no one is allowed in beside any of the animals unsupervised. If the green gate at the top is unchained, visitors can walk up the newly fenced track (funded by a grant from PROPEL) up to a picnic bench in the top field. The animals will be in paddocks at the side. If the yard gate at the bottom is not chained, it will be possible to enter and visit the animals that may be in the stables, as well as Percy the pig. PLEASE TO NOT PUT YOUR HANDS NEAR PERCY, AS HE THINKS MOST THINGS ARE FOR EATING! If any the gates are chained it means ANIMALS WILL BE LOOSE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ENTER. )****

We hope you enjoy your visit and please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions. The animals will update their news on here :-)
Please allow for their spelling mistakes!! Thank you Alison and Ian Shankly and family (human and animal)

Watch out for this show on BBC2 next year.It could put Sanquhar and Clark’s Little Ark on the map!  😊😊
29/11/2025

Watch out for this show on BBC2 next year.
It could put Sanquhar and Clark’s Little Ark on the map! 😊😊

Hit quiz The Finish Line with Roman Kemp and Sarah Greene will also return for a fourth series and Christmas celebrity specials

We are very grateful and a big thank you to Yvette Rafferty and her family for organising a brilliant raffle to help rai...
28/11/2025

We are very grateful and a big thank you to Yvette Rafferty and her family for organising a brilliant raffle to help raise funds for Clark’s Little Ark .Thanks also to all the shops and businesses locally and in Dumfries for donating lots of lovely prizes, which are listed below.
It is greatly appreciated, especially when times are hard for everyone. Tonight we had a lovely time at Kirkconnel light switch on,thanks to Yvette and Jennifer for helping.
We still have tickets for sale and we also have some calendars left too.
The raffle will be drawn the week before Christmas.
Thanks again to all involved.

For days our  human complained  about rain, the past week there was no rain and blue skies but she complained about ice ...
23/11/2025

For days our human complained about rain, the past week there was no rain and blue skies but she complained about ice ( water was frozen) and the donkeys didn’t help because they used their nice full bucket of clean water as a potty 🙈
They were confused to hear her ranting “Aw look at this,as if it isn’t hard enough to get water”because they thought it would save some mucking out!
Anyway, when they put their big heads over her shoulder the ice didn’t melt away but the complaining did.
It really doesn’t matter what the weather or the problem is, time with animals usually always helps ☺️
Now it’s “We’re lucky to have access to water, lots of people and animals don’t and it’s not just an inconvenience, they struggle to live.”
So, after the verbal warning about the website.
We made her put this in writing! ☺️

23/11/2025

Just to say although we sometimes fall behind with our Facebook news, our human really fell behind updating the website news 🙈
All the information gets sent to Alex at CSU web design but if Alex doesn’t get the information he can’t update it!
Over the last few months Alex has been updating the information sent to him and our human will try to not fall behind again.
The animals have already sent her a verbal warning!!

https://clarkslittleark.co.uk/

Benny tried today again but Jimmy was holding on tight to the rucksack. Cheeky rascal stuck his tongue out again though!
17/11/2025

Benny tried today again but Jimmy was holding on tight to the rucksack.
Cheeky rascal stuck his tongue out again though!

17/11/2025

Daisy helping to give Percy a banana treat.

It’s been a lovely day, everyone enjoyed the sunshine and it was even nice enough for some of our visitors to have a pic...
16/11/2025

It’s been a lovely day, everyone enjoyed the sunshine and it was even nice enough for some of our visitors to have a picnic up the back!
Good going for November.
Daisy visited too and helped sweep the yard before she left 😊
Benny has been a bit of a rascal though.
Jimmy laid his rucksack down on Friday and went to give carrots to the rest of the animals, when he came back the rucksack was gone. Benny had leaned out his window, grabbed it and took it right to the back of his house.
Then, when Jimmy tried to unbolt the door to go in and retrieve it, Benny stood on the door so he couldn’t open it and cheekily stuck his tongue out!
So he’s been on the naughty step for a few days.
After all the animals had their tea and were settled for the night Nik and our human went up the back to take pictures of the nice sunset.
A nice end to a nice day 😊

16/11/2025
Paws For A While
15/11/2025

Paws For A While

15/11/2025

Thorma has improved so much and loves her new accommodation.
So much so that when we went to let her out this morning we discovered we now have a “ dancing duck” 💃 🦆 😊

Thanks to everyone who brought up pumpkins 🎃 😊
13/11/2025

Thanks to everyone who brought up pumpkins 🎃 😊

13/11/2025

Lucky checking the coast was clear before she came in for her tea 😊

Address

St Mary's Street
Sanquhar
DG46BS

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Our Story

Clark’s Little ARK began evolving unintentionally in December 2012. A small piece of land at the former brickworks in Sanquhar, became home to our miniature Shetland ponies and donkeys. Being near the town, people from the local communities began to visit the animals. Watching the enjoyment shared between humans and animals was so rewarding and the animal family began to grow! In May 2013 tragedy and heartbreak struck our family. When our beloved son Clark passed away. Although Clark had many “labels” of disability, he was a happy, loving boy. Who loved being around happy, smiling people. Clark’s Little Ark was named in his memory. We know he would approve of all the smiles that take place at the Ark. The Ark has also helped our family deal with our grief, even on the most difficult days. We have been so lucky receiving support from the local communities and beyond, to help keep Clark’s Little Ark free and accessible as possible, to all ages and abilities. We are indebted to THE FRIENDS (AND THE WEE FRIENDS) OF CLARK’S LITTLE ARK who volunteer their own time to arrange meetings, fundraise, organise open days and manage all donations, bank accounts, grant applications and paperwork. This enables everyone to see where and when their kind donations are being used. The Friends and much valued volunteers also help with many manual tasks at the Ark where and when they are available. We are extremely grateful to anyone who supports Clark’s Little Ark in any way at all and hope the smiles continue for many years to come. Thank you from Alison and Ian Shankly and Family (Human and animal). Clark’s Little Ark can be found at the Old Brickworks. It is situated on the left-hand side of the road, just before the Civic Amenity Site St Mary’s Street Sanquhar DG4 6BS. Parking is very limited at the Ark and if specialist access is required then please contact Alison Shankly on 07943389018 or 01659 50123, email [email protected] or send a pm on Facebook. As far as possible we will try and make arrangements to meet your needs. Hand gel/wipes will be available at the gates. Please use these after you have touched any animals. For those who don’t have mobility problems, parking is usually available at the Sanquhar Station. The Ark is FREE to all visitors, all we ask for is a smile. Please feel free to go down the track and enjoy spending time with the animals. If Alison or any of the Friends are there it will be an opportunity to interact with some of the animals. PLEASE READ ALL NOTICES AS THEY TELL YOU WHAT YOU CAN AND CAN’T DO WHEN VISITING THE ARK.