[1] Located in extreme northwest Fauquier County, Virginia in the Blue Ridge Mountains, near Paris, Virginia off U.S. 17, one mile (1.6 km) south of U.S. 50 and seven miles (11 km) north of Interstate 66, it is an International Dark Sky Park located about an hour outside the Washington, D.C. metro region.

The name Sky Meadows came from former owner Sir Robert Hadow, a British diplomat (consul general) who lived on the farm during World War II and who named the property "Skye Farm" after the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.

With a combination of meadows, grazed fields, forest, scrub, and streams, it has a wide variety of ecological zones.

Most of the year, there are monthly "astronomy nights" where amateur astronomers bring their telescopes and use them to show attendees various celestial objects.

Depending on the time of the year, it is almost certain that this and the other six species of woodpeckers—downy, hairy, red-bellied, yellow-bellied sapsucker, pileated, and northern flicker—commonly found in this part of Virginia will be present.