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Lake District Glamping Retreat – Gerdy Hut

Highlights

  • Relax and appreciate the beautiful countryside of the Lake District
  • Escape crowded summer locations in a secluded and environmentally friendly site
  • All attractions and amenities are within a walking distance
From £310 per hut
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  2. Select the number of nights
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What you'll do

Escape the everyday and immerse yourself in the beautiful wilderness of the UK with these intimate shepherd's huts. Set in the heart of the Lake District National Park, Rydal, this idyllic location carters for all. Enjoy waterfalls, lakes, plunge pools and gentle to rigorous walks all at your fingertips.

These beautifully traditional Shepherd’s Huts are situated underneath the Fairfield mountain range and Nab scar where you will be greeted with tranquil noises of nature. Set on their own exclusive site, these huts are perfect for a couples romantic retreat with room for one more.

Explore stunning Rydal hall with 34 acre grounds of ornate gardens along with woodland walks, Rydall lake, secret wateralls and rockpools right from your doorstep.

Appreciate the gorgeous landscape with renowned “Cofin walk” offering impressive lake and mountain views straight from your hut to famous Grasmere. Other attractions include “The Fairfield Horseshoe Walk”, badger watching, Wordsworth House and Rydal Water. If you fancy a cosy pub head down to The Badger Bar only a 5 minute walk away! Ambleside town is also within walking distance and offers amenities such as shops, restaurants and a cinema.

There is even easy access to the site by road, public transport and bicycle if you would like to explore further a field.

Included in your Shepherd’s Hut:

Double bed with memory foam mattress (sleeps two adults with all bedding )

Single Bunk with memory foam mattress (sleeps one child with all bedding)

All kitchen Utensils

Wood burning stove and oven (with wood,newspaper and kindling)

Cast iron gas hob stove

Drop leaf oak table and chair

Tea light lanterns and LED lights

On Site Facilities:

Fresh water Tap (2 mins walk)

Woodland toilet block (2 mins walk)

Modern toilet/ showers (3 mins walk)

Washing-up area (3 mins walk)

Old school room tea shop and toilet (2 mins walk)

Property sleeps a total of 3. One double bed and one small single bunk. Infant also allowed – no travel cot provided

What's included

Included

  • Parking for your stay
  • Double bed and single bunk with memory foam mattresses
  • Fresh linen and duvets
  • Fabrics and cushions
  • All kitchen/cooking utensils
  • Cast iron gas hob stove (cooking gas provided)
  • Wood burning stove and oven
  • Complimentary bucket of logs, kindling and newspaper
  • Drop leaf oak table and chair
  • Tea light lanterns (with spare tea lights)and LED lights
Your local host

Sarah

I have lived and worked in the Lake District for 21 years now and I would not want to live anywhere else. I have two sons, my eldest son Sam is 21 years old and a keen wild swimmer, especially in Rydal Water. My youngest son Beren is 16 and enjoys fell running, rugby and football. Both of them keep me on my toes!

I also run a drop in local yoga class in Grasmere and really enjoy walking in the fells whenever I get the opportunity. Rydal is my all time favourite place, a stones throw from Ambleside and right in the centre of the Lakes. Ambleside is a friendly little town with an array of shops, cinemas, and restaurants and a great community spirit.

I have a passion for creating spaces, especially in such idyllic settings as ... Read All

I have lived and worked in the Lake District for 21 years now and I would not want to live anywhere else. I have two sons, my eldest son Sam is 21 years old and a keen wild swimmer, especially in Rydal Water. My youngest son Beren is 16 and enjoys fell running, rugby and football. Both of them keep me on my toes!

I also run a drop in local yoga class in Grasmere and really enjoy walking in the fells whenever I get the opportunity. Rydal is my all time favourite place, a stones throw from Ambleside and right in the centre of the Lakes. Ambleside is a friendly little town with an array of shops, cinemas, and restaurants and a great community spirit.

I have a passion for creating spaces, especially in such idyllic settings as these. The idea behind these beautiful shepherd huts is to provide environmentally friendly holidays where everything is within walking distance of the hut door. People are so busy these days that it is becoming even more important to get away from the complications of modern life and have space in nature to rest the mind and appreciate the moment.

Sarah image

Location

These Sheperd’s huts are ideal for those who want to enjoy nature in a peaceful and unique setting.

Located at the heart of the Lake District National Park beneath the Fairfield Horseshoe mountain range and Nab scar in Rydal with their own exclusive site. There is an abundance of beautiful walks from your doorstep.

FAQs

What should I bring?

Food and drink
Bath towel
Toiletries
A cool box during summertime
Torch for walking back to the huts during nighttime
Wellies in case it rains

How is the hut heated?

There is a large wood burning stove with complimentary recycled briquettes, kindling and firelighters making the huts cosy anytime of the year

Where is the nearest train station?

Windermere, where there are regular buses that stop directly outside the Rydal Hall entrance off the main road. There are also taxis waiting outside the station.

Do you allow well behaved dogs to stay?

Well behaved dogs are allowed to stay with a £20 supplement. There is a maximum of 1 dog per hut. The fee is payable to the host on arrival.

What kitchen utensils are included?

Cutlery, plates/bowls, pots/pans, knives, stirring spoons cheese grater, coffe pot, scissors, bin liners, washing up liquid, scourer, matches, tin opener and bottle opener

How green are the huts?

At The Herdwick Huts we care about the environment and that's why all our cleaning products are environmentally friendly to both you and the land.
Our briquettes are recycled hard wood.
There is really no need to buy plastic bottled water as there is a cannister in the huts that you can refill at the spring water tap. Water doesn't get any better than this, straight from the Fairfield mountain range.
Rydal Hall has one of the largest hydro powered turbines, currently generating electricity for 400 local homes.

Rydal Hall is using traditional methods to restore a natural woodland on their 34 acre estate. The woods were previously a plantation to provide fuel and building materials for the 17th Century hall.

The first step is to open up the thick canopy to allow light to penetrate to the ground by removing the non-native trees, but in a dense wood, timber extraction is difficult. Turning away from vehicles and machinery, Rydal Hall engaged Dan Sumner, a local tree logger to use Cubb horses to drag the felled trees. Cubbs are similar to Shire horses but smaller. This ancient method will help support the red squirrel population and wildlife. Apart from being quieter and pollution free, the use of horses breaks up the ground allowing native grasses and plants to establish themselves, creating a woodland scrub layer and create small glades. Some of the wood will be used as fuel and the rest is being carefully stacked to provide wildlife habitats.

The project will be carried out over several years, by eco-foresters, the Rydal Hall estate team and volunteers. Local schools are being encouraged to use the Rydal woods as an educational resource. All of Rydal Hall’s woodland and gardens are open to the public and the estate is designated as a Special Conservation Area in the Lake District National Park.

What is a Sheperd's Hut?

The first evidence of a wheeled Shepherd’s hut is 1596.

Whilst thinking that the Shepherd's hut is a relatively new invention, maybe late 18th or early 19th Century, we were amazed to find out that these old beasts have been around a lot longer than that. Thanks to the presence of a few very early publications, we have traced a reference to a wheeled Shepherds hut from the 16th Century during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Leonard Mascal, reputed to have become Chief farrier to King James VI, produced a number of very early works regarding rural life. His titles covered such subjects as fishing, plants and one entitled ‘Government of Cattel’ published in 1596 was split into three sections. The third section of this work was devoted to discoursing the order of sheep, goats, hogs, and dogs, with true remedies to help the infirmities that befall any of them : also perfect instructions for taking of moales, and likewise for the monthly husbanding of grounds.

The small yet important description appears in this book “in some place the Shepheard hath his cabbin going upon a wheele for to remove here and there at his pleasure”. This is probably the very first mention of a shepherds hut in the form that we currently recognize. It is also the first glimpse that the Shepherds accommodation from as long ago as the late 1500’s was in line with his status as a very important member of the farming community. Those in more rugged terrain such as Scotland, Wales and morland areas of England had to deal with the elements it seems, a hut on wheels needs a track suitable to take it. Boggy ground or hilly areas rule out ease of access for a portable hut. In these cases a more permanent building, sometimes referred to as a ‘lookers hut’ was built to protect the shepherd from his sometimes bleak environment. A shepherds hut was a big investment to a farm or Estate, costing the equivalent of up to 6 months of the Shepherd’s salary. However it seems that ownership in most cases stayed with the Landowners rather than the Shepherd.

History reproduced with permission from www.shepherdhuts.co.uk

“The shepherd strays, a rolling hut his home” William Wordsworth

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