There’s camping, and then there’s off-grid camping. Beech Estate Campsite is most definitely the latter – no electricity, no mobile phone signal and a wheelbarrow for weaving your gear through the trees to the tent. If that all sounds like too much effort, then you may want to move on in search of something more suitable. If it sounds like the perfect escape, you’re in for a real treat.
Beech Estate is one of two campsites from the 'Pegs and Pitches Camping' group – the others being a bell-tent-only affair at Wild Boar Wood in West Sussex. The Beech Estate site is the larger of the two. Tent pitches here are nestled among the trees or spread out in individual clearings and private spaces. The woods of the estate spread, in total, across some 2,000 acres. If that doesn’t sound like camping heaven already, then just wait for the punchline: the 600 acres of woodland on which the campsite is located are for the exclusive use of guests to walk, mountain bike and generally run wild. The forest is all yours.
For those who really want the most private spots, additional ‘faraway’ woodland pitches are available on a hill overlooking the surrounding countryside. There are also eight wild-glamping bell tents, each with its own separate clearing, which come complete with beds, chairs, a picnic table, cookware, a firepit, logs and an eco cooking stove. It’s fair to say that these are functional rather than luxuriously appointed, but then that’s just what you’d expect in this off-grid, back-to-basics paradise.