Lickham Bottom Camp

A bell tent bedroom, an outdoor kitchen, a hammock and private facilities make up the enchanting encampments at Lickham Bottom Camp. Come here and an off-grid, outdoor home-from-home has been set up for you within 13 acres of meadows, woodland and streams. It’s an idyll in the Blackdown Hills close to Devon’s border with Dorset. All you need to do is find it – and that’s not too hard thanks to a location that’s on the edge of the village of Hemyock and the guidance of Hipcamp Host, Penny.

She’ll meet you when you park your car and take you to your tent with luggage transfer by quad bike. Your kids are going to love it. They’ll be right at home here as the two bell tents are each set up for a family of four with a double bed and two single camp beds. Dogs are welcome too. Outside each tent there’s a rather nice camp kitchen with a canopy cover, a fire pit for cooking on and a rustic but lovely compost loo with an outdoor shower attached. There’s a curtain for modesty but the sky is yours to enjoy while you shower. Again, your kids are going to love it and we predict you will too. The whole experience is rustic and outdoorsy but well thought through, well kept and pretty.

You can spend days right here watching buzzards and red kites overhead, wandering in the woodland and keeping an eye out for deer but if you want to stretch your legs, it’s a good place to do that too. Perhaps take a walk up nearby Culmstock Beacon or wander to the village for lunch at The Catherine Wheel. Further afield, the Black Down Hills give way to the East Devon National Landscape which stretches all the way to the sea at Seaton. It’s a 40-minute drive but a pleasant one so you might want to add a day at the seaside to your Devon itinerary.