Fairy Bell Wood

This glamping site between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, is as enchanting as the name suggests. A single yurt stands in a clearing between the trees of a four-acre wood. In spring it's chock full of bluebells. In summer it's awash with colour. And wildlife visits throughout the year. There are leafy walkways through trees to the pond, which attracts everything from dragonflies to deer, and there’s a summerhouse, a jetty, and a hammock where you can relax. Best of all you get the whole place to yourselves, with just the single yurt on the entire site.

The yurt in question offers self-contained accommodation for two. It has a made-up double bed, a cosy seating area, a simple kitchenette, and a connected bathroom cabin. It’s well kitted-out but off grid and rustically lovely. That means heat is from the log burner, limited electricity is from solar power, and water comes via 25-litre containers that you need to fill up outside. The toilet is composting and the shower requires you to warm your own water in the kettle on your gas stove. It’s a simple, sustainable way to stay that requires you to slow down a little. And as you do so, you’ll be able to take in all the details that make this place as aesthetically friendly as it is environmentally.

The pleasing clad of the kitchen is made of reclaimed pallet wood, the bed posts and bedside tables are straight from the woodland outside, the bathroom is built from larch from nearby Windermere. And that, of course, is Fairy Bell Wood’s other advantage. It’s near Windermere. It’s also near Kendal, Sedbergh, and the Howgill Hills, with magnificent views of the fells. It’s situated in a sliver of land that connects England’s most-loved national parks and, as such, is a great place to base yourself to to explore both the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales and everything that’s in between.