About us

Twelve Clearings and a Long Lease on Quiet

The retreat began when a forester and a carpenter took over a neglected woodland holding crossed by three small streams and decided to build as little as possible on it. Twelve clearings were chosen for their light, drainage and distance from one another; everything else was left to regrow. Cabins were milled from timber thinned on the same slopes, foundations were set on stone rather than concrete, and every structure can be dismantled without leaving a scar. The result is a place where fifty guests can stay without ever seeing each other, and where the loudest thing at night is water over gravel.

Comfort was never sacrificed to romance. Beds carry proper mattresses and wool bedding, stoves heat the space within twenty minutes, hot water runs from a wood-fired boiler at any hour, and composting toilets are ventilated, odourless and cleaned daily. Solar arrays with battery storage run lighting, charging points and a small fridge, while the kitchen holds cast-iron pans, real knives, a grinder and a kettle for the fire. Nothing about staying here requires you to be an experienced camper.

The woodland itself is managed as habitat rather than scenery. We coppice on rotation, leave standing deadwood, keep the streams free of fallen timber only where flooding threatens paths, and monitor amphibians and dippers with a local naturalist group. Guests are welcome on those surveys, and a share of every booking pays for replanting, path repair and the removal of invasive plants along the water.