Little North Field Glamping

The Wray family seemed destined to set up a glamping site. Catherine and Tim worked in the catering and events industry for years, so they know a thing or two about high-end hospitality, but they also used to take breaks from it all by going camping in Yorkshire with the kids. Now they’ve combined the two and left the rush of their former careers to set up a small, boutique safari tent site six miles north of Harrogate. And, in the summer of 2020 it finally opened, under the historic name they found hand-written in the deeds, ‘Little North Field’.

There are just three luxury safari tents at Little North Field, they are all set in just over an acre of space. Inside they’re uniquely furnished, with hedgehog-themed hot water bottles in The Hedgehog Hideaway, for example, and a foxy doormat and fox-themed pillows in The Fox’s Den. Fundamentally, however, you can expect similar things in each: Two separate bedrooms (one king-sized, one with a double bed with a single bunk over), an en-suite bathroom, a well-equipped little kitchen and a dining and chill-out area with a log-burning stove. There’s oodles of space for families and the sheltered veranda at the front of the tent is an ideal place to kick back when the sun’s out and the barbecue is going.

The glamping site’s location is very much undiscovered. You’ve probably never heard of the village of Bishop Thornton before and with popular national parks dotting this part of England – its 25 minutes to the Yorkshire Dales and 30 minutes to the North York Moors – you can be forgiven. But this quiet space in between is ideal for lesser-known walking routes and real local country pubs – particularly in the height of tourist season – while many of North Yorkshire’s most historic attractions are still within striking distance. It’s just two mils to Ripley Castle, for example, and three miles to Fountains Abbey, the riverside ruins of a medieval abbey surrounded by spectacular landscaped gardens. If the weather’s rainy you can explore the nooks and crannies of nearby Harrogate and when the sun’s out you can hike the hills around sparkling Gouthwaite Reservoir. You should, of course, make it back in time for a campfire. The quiet calm of Little North Field in the evening is a match for any night out elsewhere. And, indeed, that relaxing feel is the very reason the Wray’s wanted to open a glamping site in the first place.