On a mission to inspire a love of the woods: A Woodland Camping Manifesto
OUR PROMISE
Our purpose is to help you to disconnect with the everyday, re-connect with what’s important, and to inspire a love of the woods. Good for you; good for the planet.
Our promise is to do our best to provide you with a truly memorable woodland experience whilst looking after the ancient woodland plants, trees and wildlife.
Our joy comes from seeing your smiles after a night immersed in nature, the faint aroma of the campfire, and from building our community of camping friends; not from selling pitches.
THE BASICS
We’ve got it covered – private and secluded pitches; running water; hot showers; firepits & dry firewood; a small shop for forgotten bits, and ice-creams. Feel a million miles away from home.
Boys camping; girls camping; family camping; camping with friends; camp on your own; camp with your dog. Camp in a tent, in a campervan, under the stars in your hammock. Just camp.
What Three Words - we love a little serendipity. Click on this ///keeps.tracks.loved - it’s where to come for a warm welcome and the start of the path into the woods.
For the little ones - some family pitches closer to the car, we know when you’ve got little legs, you don’t always want to go deep into the woods.
KEEPING IT GREEN
Our circular economy - our composting toilets take sawdust from our sawmill and with a little gift from you, plus a little time, sunshine and friendly bacteria we make compost for the fields.
Net Zero; it’s a journey we’re on. Starting with home-grown firewood, solar power and our own construction timber from the trees around us.
We are working towards regenerative tourism - Beyond sustainable and eco-camping, your stay helps us to manage and improve the woodland biodiversity and support local employment and businesses.
FOR OUR CAMPFIRE KINGS AND QUEENS
Sharing stories around the fire has been part of what it means to be human since the dawn of man. Channel your ancestors, throw another log on and wax lyrical.
Our seasoned firewood comes from the surrounding woods and is air-dried in our barn. After coppicing the trees, the flowers shoot up and the butterflies move back in. Pure magic.
God love a toasted marshmallow. The crunchy-brown and sticky-white gooiness of it. Best off the end of a hand-whittled stick.
WOODLAND WELLBEING - ‘DISCONNECT TO RE-CONNECT’
Take a moment when you arrive. Drop your shoulders and look up through the trees to the sky, close your eyes. Inhale, hold it, breathe out. Repeat 3 times. It might be the end of a tough week or just a hectic journey. Leave it all behind.
Get lost and disconnect - most major religions believe that significant personal breakthroughs include periods of disconnection and disorientation; indeed it’s even called ‘Forest Dwelling’ by some. Put your phone away, come and get lost with us.
2 nights in the outdoors resets your body-clock, google it! The trees overhead mean no over-heating in your tent in the dawn sun; which is good if you’ve had a glass or two the night before.
Engage the senses and breathe deep – it’s really really good for you. Inhale the good bacteria in the soil and phytonicides from the trees. Our forest bathing guides can tell you more.
Re-connect; Let the woodland embrace you - Connect with Nature, connect with others, connect with yourself. Try to hold onto it when you get home.
NATURE’S BOUNTY
The joys of Spring means a white-blue carpet of wood anemones and bluebells. The smell of hundreds of years of undisturbed ancient woodland. See if you can track down the wild garlic too.
Foragers fill your basket; in autumn there are blackberries, sloes, perhaps avoid the mushrooms (no picking deathcaps by mistake), and an abundance of sweet chestnuts for roasting on an open fire!
Bats, badgers, dormice and hooting owls in the woods. Buzzards, kestrels and red kites floating in the skies. Bring your bino’s and notebook.
On a warm sunny day, stroll through the butterflies and the heady herbs of the chalk grassland to enjoy the views off the north downs. Don’t let the goats nibble on your picnic.
THE WOODSMAN’S WAY
Channel your inner child, unless you are lucky enough to be one already. Build dens, climb trees, whittle sticks and get your knees muddy. Loose yourself for hours in the joy of the woods.
Embrace the woodsman in you with sessions in bushcraft, forest bathing and wildlife identification or just simply follow the nature trail.
Woodfire cooking - nestled in the embers, on a grill, over a Swedish candle, or slow-cooked in a dutch oven; the how is up to you. Cook, share, enjoy.