‘Must-visit’ Scottish pumpkin patch to close

One of Scotland’s pumpkin patches won’t be open for Halloween picking this year, and is likely to stay shut. Jenny Fyall, owner of Udny Pumpkins, located in Ellon in Aberdeenshire, made the announcement via the patch’s social media, noting that she’d been putting off writing the post.

The post reads: “To all my lovely followers...This is a post that I have been putting off writing, but the time has come to let you know that I have decided to close Udny Pumpkins, at least for this year but probably permanently.

Udny Pumpkins

“I cannot express strongly enough how grateful I am to you for your support over the past eight years. I am so sorry to those of you for whom visiting the pumpkin patch has become a beloved annual tradition. I know that some of you have visited every year and I am so grateful to you. I have come to think of you as friends, albeit friends I see only once a year! I will genuinely miss you, as well as the small business owners I have worked with and the teenagers who come in to help.

“If the pumpkin patch only involved the two weeks in October when we opened to the public, I would not even have considered taking this step. When the sun is (occasionally!) shining and children are leaping on hay bales and the pumpkin patch is full of visitors with their colourful wheelbarrows. It is the best sight and I am so grateful to you all for making it the thriving event it has become.

“However, the pumpkin patch involves far more than those two weeks and the truth is that physically it has become too much for me. As we are a very small farm we don't have the machinery of a bigger site and almost all the digging, laying of weed cover, planting, harvesting and other manual work is done by hand.

“Over the years this has taken its toll on my back and during 2024 this took a more serious turn. By the end of October I was struggling to walk due to a back injury from too much heavy lifting and I was in considerable pain for more than three months. It is only in the past few weeks that this has improved and I can now move around again pain free. It is an understatement to say I don't want to go through that again…”

Ms Fyall also mentioned the work that goes into growing the pumpkins, 4am wake-ups to chase crows that were digging up the pumpkin plants and picking thousands of slugs off them. The weather also plays a huge part in the success, or failure, of pumpkins that grow in Scotland.

The closure of Udny Pumpkins comes just a few months after Kilduff Farm in East Lothian announced they wouldn’t be continuing with their pumpkin patch. Ms Fyall mentioned this in the post about closing Udny, writing: “Growing pumpkins in the north of Scotland is extremely challenging. They thrive in sunny, dry conditions. It has come as no surprise to me that I am not the only large pumpkin patch in Scotland that has closed this year.”

Pumpkin picking has become an autumn trend for many families ahead of Halloween, as pumpkins are now more popular than the traditional neep.

Due to this there are a number of pumpkin patches throughout Scotland to pick your own pumpkins, as well as other seasonal fruits and vegetables.