Days Out NI
Farm Shop Comber, Co. Down

Horner's Farm Shop

The Comber potato, sold in the farmyard it grew in, by a family who have worked this ground for three hundred years.

5 photos
Mon–Sat, 9am–5pmClosed Sundays
Free to visitPay for what you buy
Coach RoadComber, Co. Down
Get directions Official website
20–40 minHow long
All agesBest for
IndoorsIn the farmyard
In the yardParking
Mon–SatClosed Sun

This is where the Comber potato actually comes from — a working farmyard on the Coach Road with a shop in it, and a sign on the gable that just says NEW COMBER POTATOES, because that's the whole pitch and it's enough.

  • What you'll do — drive into a real farmyard, walk into a small shop stacked with their own potatoes, their own vegetables, free-range hen and duck eggs, and fruit brought in fresh each day. Buy the spuds. Go home.
  • How long — twenty minutes. This is a proper shop, not a day out — but it's the kind of stop that makes the rest of the day taste better.
  • Closed on Sundays. Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm.
  • The potatoes — Comber Earlies are the famous ones and they carry Protected Geographical Indication status, the same kind of protection as Champagne. Horner's grow them, along with Queens, Dunbar Standards, Maris Piper, Kerr's Pinks, Blues and Golden Wonders, plus oversize ones for baking and chipping.
  • Also on the shelves — cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, parsnips, carrots, scallions, lettuce and turnip from their own five acres of vegetables, free-range eggs from their own hens, milk, and coal, logs and firelighters for the winter.
  • Worth knowing — 4.8 out of 5 across 102 Google reviews, which is about as high as this gets.
Plan your visit

Go for the potatoes, and go in the season

The shop opens Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm, closed Sunday, and you park in the farmyard. The thing to know is the calendar: new Comber potatoes are an early-summer crop, lifted from around late May, and that's when the sign on the gable is doing real work. Outside that window there's still the full range of main-crop varieties, their own vegetables and the eggs. If you're making a special trip for the Earlies, ring first — 028 9187 1275 or 07929 168839 — because a crop is a crop and the dates move with the weather.

Mon–Sat · 9am–5pm Their own potatoes & veg Free-range hen & duck eggs Park in the yard Coal, logs & firelighters
It's a working farmyard, so mind the yard:

You're parking where the tractors and forklifts work, and the signs say so. Keep children beside you between the car and the shop door and you'll be grand. Prices and stock change with the season and with what's been lifted that week — their own website hasn't been updated in a while, so treat anything you read there as a guide and ring to confirm.

What they grow

Two hundred acres, and what comes off them

  • 🥔Potatoes — 30 acresHomeguard, Queens, Dunbar Standards, Pentland Squires, Maris Piper, Kerr's Pinks, Blues and Golden Wonders. The Comber Earlies are the ones with the reputation.
  • 🥦Vegetables — 5 acresCauliflower, broccoli, hispi and savoy cabbage, parsnips, carrots, scallions, lettuce and turnip, cut and carried the short way to the shelf.
  • 🥚250 free-range hensTheir own hen eggs, and duck eggs too, which are worth trying if you've only ever baked with hen's.
  • 🌾Barley, wheat and grassNinety-five acres of cereals and seventy of grass — the parts of a farm nobody photographs, holding the whole thing up.
Good to know

Everything before you go

Cost
Free to walk in — you pay for what you buy.
Opening
Monday to Saturday, 9am–5pm. Closed Sunday.
What's in stock
Their own potatoes in a range of varieties, their own vegetables, free-range hen and duck eggs, fruit sourced locally each day, milk, and household coal, logs and firelighting sticks.
Season
New Comber potatoes are an early-summer crop. Main-crop varieties and the vegetables run through the year. Ring ahead if you're travelling specifically for the Earlies.
Parking
In the farmyard. It's a working yard with machinery moving, so keep children close.
Toilets
None that we can confirm — this is a farm shop rather than a visitor centre. Comber town is a few minutes away.
Dogs
We haven't been able to confirm a dog policy, and it's a working farmyard. Ring and ask, or leave them in the car for the twenty minutes.
Accessibility
Level yard, and the shop is off it. For anything specific a quick call is the surest answer.
Trade
They also supply potatoes wholesale to chip shops, restaurants, greengrocers and other farm shops.
Reputation
4.8 out of 5 from 102 Google reviews.
Contact
028 9187 1275 · 07929 168839 · hornersfarm.com
Questions

Before you go

When can I get new Comber potatoes?
They're an early-summer crop, lifted from around late May. Outside that window you'll get main-crop varieties instead, which are still their own. If the Earlies are the reason for the trip, ring first — the date moves with the weather every year.
Is it open on Sundays?
No. Monday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm.
Is this a day out or just a shop?
Honestly, it's a shop — twenty minutes, not an afternoon. But it's five minutes from the Comber Greenway and a short run to Streamvale Open Farm, so it slots neatly into a bigger day rather than being one on its own.
What else do they sell besides potatoes?
Their own cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, parsnips, carrots, scallions, lettuce and turnip, free-range hen and duck eggs from their own 250 hens, fruit brought in fresh daily, milk, and coal, logs and firelighters.
Can I bring the children?
Yes, and a farmyard is a good thing for a child to stand in. Just keep them beside you — there are tractors and forklifts working the same ground you're parking on.
Do they supply restaurants and chip shops?
They do — the wholesale side goes to chip shops, restaurants, greengrocers and other farm shops. So there's a fair chance you've already eaten their potatoes without knowing it.
Getting there

Horner's Farm Shop, 40 Coach Road, Comber, Co. Down BT23 5QX — just outside Comber, with parking in the farmyard.

Directions on Google Maps Official website See it on our map

Check what's lifted: 028 9187 1275

Nearby

Make more of the day

Comber GreenwayWalk or cycle · 1 min away Streamvale Open FarmAnimals & play · 5 min Dundonald Ice BowlSkating & bowling · 6 min Bullhouse Brew CoBrewery · nearby
The story

Three hundred years on the same ground

The Horners say they have been farming in Comber for over three hundred years. Set that beside the sign on the gable — three words and a potato — and you get a sense of the place. Nobody here is trying to be a visitor attraction. They grow the crop their townland is famous for, and they open a door so you can buy it without it going through a lorry, a depot and a supermarket first.

Comber is genuinely known for this. The new potatoes lifted from this ground in early summer, Comber Earlies, carry Protected Geographical Indication status — the same legal protection that means Champagne has to come from Champagne. It's the soil and the sea air off Strangford that does it, and there aren't many fields in Ireland that can make the claim.

The farm runs to two hundred acres: thirty in potatoes, five in vegetables, ninety-five in barley and wheat, seventy in grass, and two hundred and fifty hens loose on it. The shop is stocked from that, plus fruit brought in fresh each morning. In winter there's coal and logs stacked by the door, because a farm shop in the country is also the place you call for the fire.

Go in June with a bag. Boil them the same day with butter and salt and nothing else. That's the whole point of the trip, and it's a very good point.

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