Luxury under the canvas of a yurt in Dorset
Jo Ind finds a luxury outdoors alternative for those indoorsy types who don’t do camping.
To appreciate my holiday staying in a yurt in deepest Dorset, there are a few things you need to understand, or rather there is only one thing – my husband.
To say my husband is anti-camping does not really do him justice. He is a man who claims you can catch a cold from sitting next to a window. He wears a hat if he has to sit under a skylight. When I took our three-year-old camping earlier in the year his last words to me were: “Make sure you bring him home if it starts to rain.”
So how was I to sell the idea of a holiday under canvas to him?
“Darling, I’d really like to have a break in a yurt. Would you like to come with me?”
“What’s a yurt?”
(How to explain without using the t-word?) “It’s a kind of big and round. It’s hand-made. Traditional. Beautiful craftsmanship.”
It was with some trepidation that we made our way down to Stock Gaylard, an 1,800-acre estate in North Dorset including 300 acres of woodland and an 80-acre deer park as well as three little yurts nestled on the edge of a field of maize.
We were greeted by a very friendly Andrew Langmead, who runs the estate having inherited it from his wife, Josi’s, side of the family. The family aims to provide an income for themselves and their tenants whilst managing the estate in a traditional and ecologically sensitive way.
Conservation is at its heart, so there are bushy hedgerows, wild flowers, old trees and wildlife corridors surrounding the fields. The yurts are designed to provide accommodation for holiday goers in a way that combines comfort with minimal impact on the environment.
Nonetheless, I was a little horrified to see a carbon-crusted kettle dangling over a little camp fire as we approached the site.
“Is that how we’re going to make a cup of tea?” I thought. “It’s been such a nice marriage. I really don’t want a divorce.”
But as Andrew showed us round, I found myself relaxing. There are three yurts, modelled on traditional Mongolian tents, on the site. One is a kitchen and living room. The other two are bedrooms sleeping up to four people.
“Oh how lovely,” I gasped as he opened up the living room yurt.
There was a rounded hand-made wooden sofa, a beautiful low oak table, a dresser which included two calor gas rings, a fridge and a hot water bottle. There was even a calor gas fire.
Phew! My marriage was going to survive.
