Sheffield Review - The Leeds Guide

I think I’m in love. His dark, pool-deep eyes look into mine as I stroke my hand through his wiry hair. Meerkats are probably not the best of pets, though and this one looks pretty happy to continue being shown round the visitors at Sheffield’s Butterfly House. My partner and I have come to see the new prarie dog residents – similar to meerkats but, as they bask in the sun in their expansive enclosure, seemingly a bit more chilled out – along with other residents including pigs, goats, rabbits, skunks, birds of prey and of course, butterflies.

It’s a really sweet place with obvious emphasis on caring for the animals and educating youngsters. As you’d expect, the meerkats keep small crowds amused for hours but we’re most enamoured by the tiny goat kids in the Small Animal House, who trot over to lick our hands and generally turn us to mush. The butterfly house is very impressive, larger than our beloved Tropical World in Roundhay, it houses snakes and spiders (thankfully housed in tanks) as well as myriad types of butterly, terrapins, fish and a huge lizard (unhoused, as we found to our surprise when we came face to face).

We’ve become quite obsessed with the staycation, my partner and me. The equivalent of putting a pin in a map, only with slightly more background information, we’ll search www.yorkshire.com and pick a destination, generally based on how many cute animal opportunities it boasts. Sheffield won out this time, and before our visit to the Butterfly House, booked in at The Rutland Hotel, about a ten minute walk from the city centre.



The hotel’s entrance at the back does little to give away the beautiful garden with water feature and boutique bedrooms, so we are suitably impressed when we arrive in the Dainton Suite. Exposed brick, wood panelling and rich-hued furnishings prevail and there’s a hamper full of local delights, including the ubiquitous Henderson’s Relish. There are also two wet rooms, which even I don’t manage to fully take over with cosmetics and candles.

We enjoy the last rays of afternoon sun – is it just me or is South Yorkshire just a teeny bit more clement? – with drinks in the pretty garden. The restaurant boasts a conservatory and tasteful furnishings which remind me of a health spa; only with more Yorkshire puddings, naturally. We’d vowed to spend more time after tea exploring the greenest city in Europe (Sheffield has a record-breaking 2 million trees and 5,500 plant species, apparently) but a big meal and inviting bed put paid to this. We’ll return soon anyway… we hear there’s another wildlife park just around the corner.

www.yorkshire.com, www.rutlandhotel-sheffield.com, www.butterflyhouse.co.uk