Short stay: Brook Cottage Shepherd Huts, near Pwllheli, Llyn Peninsula, North Wales

If you’ve been pursuing the BBC collection ‘Interior Style Masters’, hosted by comedian Alan Carr, you may perhaps now inadvertantly know about the web-site of our most current brief keep overview. Brook Cottage Shepherd Huts consists of five shepherd’s huts (very well, technically, one particular shepherd’s hut, two gypsy huts and two poachers huts), just about every with their individual exceptional style and character, positioned along a limited extend of drinking water on the Llŷn Peninsula.

This recently-opened three-acre glamping retreat has been really a brave way of living adjust for co-house owners Mark Barrow and Jonathan Gooders who ended up previously involved in a wonderful artwork framing enterprise in London. In spite of not possessing a history in tourism, they have properly pulled off an idyllic rural retreat of the optimum top quality.

The welcome

I confess to being aware of quite tiny Welsh other than what I’ve viewed on various road indicators – “croeso” (welcome), “araf” (gradual) and “ysgol” (university) are the handful of phrases that spring to mind. The previous greeted us as we drove up the lane that operates parallel to the huts and the wildflower meadow and non-public lake they overlook.

Our arrival time experienced been communicated via textual content and co-operator Mark was there to greet us and exhibit us the basics of how issues worked. A reserved parking bay outside each and every hut, but divided by some fenced screening, can make loading and unloading your luggage quick.

The hut

Each and every hut is named after celebrated ladies from the time of Llywelyn the Great, King of Gwynedd and, following the signing of the Magna Carta by King John in 1215, the eventual ruler of Wales. Our hut, Joan, was named after Llywelyn’s spouse (and John’s daughter). This shepherd’s hut is the most significant of the huts at Brook Cottage Shepherd Huts and significant more than enough to incredibly comfortably accommodate two people and with house for a doggy if you ought to be travelling with a 4-legged good friend. (Pet dogs are encouraged, and the entrepreneurs even talk to that you send out them photos of your pooch, but this is the only hut that can accommodate just one.)

The web site is a good place to unwind with each and every hut offering a genuinely 5 star expertise, but in a relaxed, rural setting where by you can switch off and join with mother nature.

Within, the hut has been really tastefully decorated with earthy tones – delicate, brown-primarily based tones and all-natural greens, complimented by wonderful wooden units, loaded floorboards and crimped hessian blinds. A compact, cosy double bed and seating spots both inside and out, give you with everything you could need in an region where by the use of place plainly been supplied a good offer of assumed.

And do not worry… if you did view BBC’s ‘Interior Layout Masters’ and were anxious about some of the designers’ additional strange contributions (these as the taxidermy magpie named Malcolm), these additions have been discretely removed. In reality, 1 hut design and style that truly did not work at all in the clearly show, was specified a complete re-design.

The rest room

Joan also has an en suite shower area, total with shower, flushing bathroom, hand basin and heated towel rail. Towels are offered and an Ariston 30L immediate warmth h2o heater ensured we were being in no way quick on sizzling h2o.

There are even some complimentary handmade natural and organic goats milk soaps, from The Clean Goat Soap Business dependent a minor nearer to Caernarfon, presented.

The amenities

The huts all have thoroughly doing the job kitchens with cooker and fridge/freezer. The oven is complimented by a two-ring hob hid beneath the function floor, as well as a toddler Belfast sink.

An Anker SoundCore mini bluetooth speaker and radio suggests you can take pleasure in some music as you prepare dinner.

The kitchen is also geared up with a kettle, toaster and cafetiere, Fairtrade tea and coffee, and of program saucepans, frying pans, utensils, crockery, cutlery, glasses, chopping boards, knives, and so on.

A wooden-burning stove inside of the hut ensured that we were heat and cosy through our keep, irrespective of the evenings nonetheless getting really chilly outside. There is no WiFi at the huts but, cloud cover allowing, a very good 4G sign. This meant I could conveniently tether by laptop to my phone’s hotspot and do a location of get the job done in entrance of the fire. But I’d recommend you really don’t do what I did, have a electronic detox and just love the peace and solitude of the website.

Must you prefer to be outside, why not get pleasure from a glass of wine and cosy up to the chiminea? There is one particular outside the house each individual hut.

Place

Situated on the superb Llŷn Peninsula, just a couple of miles from Pwllheli and close to the border of the Snowdonia Countrywide Park, the huts are positioned in an Location of Superb Organic Magnificence with uninterrupted significantly-reaching sights to the Yr Eifl mountains. The preferred seaside resort of Abersoch is just a 20-minute drive away. This AONB is also a dark sky place, thanks in portion to the area’s cleanse air high quality, and shut to the Snowdonia International Darkish Sky Reserve.

Other awesome touches

In addition to the aforementioned tea and coffee, we were also provided with scorching chocolate, Welsh cakes, lacto free milk and 50 percent a dozen free array eggs. A generous provide of logs, kindling, firelighters and matches which is meant to go over your 1st night or two, was in reality plenty of for the 4 evenings that we stayed.

Charge

Stays at the huts start from £115 for every night time, with a minimum stay of two nights
Joan, which is the premier of the huts, is priced at £145 for every evening

The very best little bit

For me, the best bit about Brook Cottage Shepherd Huts is the good quality of the complete and the focus to element. No corners have been reduce and no expense spared in the pursuit of excellence. It might seem trite but it’s the tiny matters that can be truly recognizable sometimes, no matter whether it be the excellent of the appliances, the slicing knives (which are really sharp) or merely obtaining a non-intrusive text to make sure we ended up content and nonetheless experienced plenty of logs for the wood burner. The house owners are on-hand should really you want them, but offering all the privacy you require need to you choose to be remaining be.

The last verdict

Brook Cottage Shepherd Huts is a gem of a discover in a section of the Llyn Peninsula in which accommodation of this high quality is not easy to arrive by. Just lately showcased in The Moments listing of ’25 Ideal Glamping Stays in the UK‘, I have every self-assurance that it will be a deserved good results.

Disclosure: Our continue to be was sponsored by Brook Cottage Shepherd Huts.