Our transfer to Kent has opened up a brand new world of alternatives to expertise southeastern England. Weekends are invites for street journeys to discover the Kent shoreline, farming villages, historical cities, vineyards, and extra. As a part of our life replace collection, we share highlights from our go to to the serene Romney Marsh and our keep on the Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts. This uncommon however surprisingly cosy Bohemian nation escape proved to us that farm stays can provide much-needed alternatives to retreat and reconnect with nature and with self.
The ‘Fifth Continent’ is lower than an hour from our residence!
We’re having fun with dwelling lower than one hour away from the coast of southeastern England. The M25 and M20 are shut sufficient for us to begin street journeys while not having to navigate via inner-city visitors. Regardless of the unpredictability of motorway visitors, we’ve been largely fortunate every time we’ve set out on our adventures in Kent.
We had by no means heard of Romney Marsh, a sparsely populated wetland area spanning the counties of Kent and Sussex. We later came upon that Romney Marsh is residence to a number of the most well-known sheep bred in England!
“The world is split into Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Romney Marsh.”
– The ingoldsby legends
So goes the quote from the ‘The Ingoldsby Legends’, a set of tales written by an English clergyman, Rev. Richard Harris Barham, virtually 200 years in the past.
The quote goes on to confer with Romney Marsh as ‘the fifth quarter of the globe’ which explains why the strapline ‘The Fifth Continent’ seems on many promotional supplies in regards to the space. The Marsh’s distinctive panorama makes this moniker fairly becoming.
Trivia buffs will let you know a couple of time when Romney Marsh as soon as offered cowl for wool smuggling below the quilt of darkness. In the present day these nights (mixed with a low inhabitants density and minimal gentle air pollution), make the Marsh among the finest areas in Kent for stargazing and sighting the Milky Method.
Visiting the Romney Marsh
Romney Marsh, positioned simply off the M20 Motorway, is a sparsely populated space that stretches throughout 100 sq. miles in Kent. It’s designated as an ‘Space of Excellent Pure Magnificence’. With miles of shoreline stretching from Hythe to Dungeness and a predominantly flat panorama, we had been greater than a bit of curious in regards to the space.
Amidst all the drama of residence initiatives and coping with contractors, we determined that we may do with a weekend break. The prospect to calm down, recharge, and get again in contact with nature in a location that’s solely a brief drive from us appeared like a welcome prospect.
Our itinerary for the weekend would possible embody visits to Hythe and Folkestone as they had been solely a brief drive from the Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts the place we might be staying.
Timing an after-work departure, after an uneventful drive, we arrived in Romney Marsh simply because the solar started its descent. Its dying embers forged a delicate orange hue on a pair of solitary shepherd’s huts constructed on stilts and located in a sheep discipline. Certainly one of them could be our abode for our weekend staycation. If Mom Nature had meant to welcome us with a fascinating view, she definitely delivered.
The Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts firm has created a really helpful cell app with all the data visitors want for his or her keep. We learn via the arrival info, adopted the self-check-in directions, and had been quickly inside The Lookerer.
The app contains notes on necessities to carry together with all-weather garments, wellies, trainers or strolling boots, and a water-proof jacket. This being Britain, you may count on a rainshower on one of the best of days! We are able to’t stress sufficient that bringing the best footwear is essential. It is a working farm and the huts are positioned in a discipline filled with sheep!
The Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts
Conceived by husband and spouse staff Paul and Kristina Boulden, the Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts are positioned on the household farm on the sting of Aldington (Ashford District, Kent). These huts, Rumwold and Lookerer, echoing the standard designs of the early 1900s, had been skillfully dropped at life by a neighborhood craftsman.
Nevertheless quaint they might look on the surface, the within of the huts demonstrates consideration to element and quite artful use of house. The inside decor presents the customer with trendy countryside stylish and Kentish allure that goes past mere aesthetics.
Each huts are fully self-contained and are available totally geared up with a double mattress and ample under-bed storage to maintain luggage and different objects out of the best way. The kitchen features a two-ring hob and utensils which, when mixed with the out of doors hearth pit, supplies enough services for self-catering. Assume starry barbeque nights roasting scorching canines and marshmallows.
The built-in bathroom and bathe room have sufficient house for one particular person at a time. Throughout our go to, the bathe had respectable water stress and ample scorching water provide. Leveraging their heritage, comfy wool blankets and toiletries had been provided by the Boulden household’s sister enterprise – Romney Marsh Wools.
The doorways of the hut divulge heart’s contents to a personal seating space which extends the utility of the house by combining the indoors and outside in a single seamless move.
The choice to have your shepherd’s hut stocked with domestically sourced breakfast objects is an additional perk that may be requested when reserving a keep on the Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts. We had been happy to seek out our mini-fridge contained bacon, butter, milk, eggs, and desserts. Kristina, our host, had kindly accommodated our gluten and dairy-free requests and had offered ‘free from’ choices as effectively.
Prepared and excited for the weekend, we saved our luggage away hurriedly in order that we may sit on the steps of The Lookerer, take pleasure in uninterrupted views of the Romney Marsh, and end watching the night sky painted totally different shades of orange, pink, and purple by the setting solar.
The Looker and the Lookerer
After a heat and cozy evening’s sleep with surprisingly little noise (regardless of the shepherd’s huts sharing the sphere with a couple of hundred Romney Sheep), we acquired up the following day to take pleasure in a hearty breakfast, opening up the doorways of the hut to arrange the foldable desk and chairs within the Lookerer’s ‘backyard’ space.
The hut’s title, ‘Lookerer’, is a nod to a time when the farm’s Marsh Shepherd lived throughout the street at Hurst Farm whereas taking care of lambs on this discipline the place the huts are located.
The job title, ‘The Looker’, itself dates again to the 18th and nineteenth centuries on the Romney Marsh the place shepherds, generally known as Lookers, had been paid by property house owners to supervise huge flocks. Usually needing to navigate a considerable amount of terrain in a single day, deliberately located huts offered short-term shelter and lodging for them.
These weatherbeaten shepherds would have thought-about our a lot fancier vacation cottage, with its recent pinewood scent, soft-touch electrical hob, scorching water bottles, forged iron fire, and woolly comforts (excellent for cosy winter nights) the peak of luxurious.
HDYTI Tip: We visited in late summer season when nights had been cooler. First rate insulation and wool blankets stored us heat. There’s a forged iron wood-burning fire that may add additional warmth if wanted.
Biking Romney Marsh
The Romney Marsh Huts app accommodates guides for exploring the native space in addition to hyperlinks to bookable experiences together with wine excursions, images lessons, arts, and craft retreats, group biking excursions, and meals festivals which we discovered very useful.
Our hosts had organized bicycles from a neighborhood bike rent firm that gives bike supply and assortment companies from the shepherds’ huts. After breakfast, Omo went biking and spent about an hour exploring the encircling space.
Romney Marsh is the biggest coastal wetland on the south coast of England. The Marsh’s flat panorama, quiet nation lanes, and well-marked biking routes current countless alternatives for self-guided excursions of native villages, historic church buildings, nature reserves, and native seashores.
Biking and strolling are one of the best methods to actually get shut sufficient to expertise it in a private manner. Routes take you thru flat, inexperienced fields and shingle and sandy seashores. Above you’re sweeping skies and round you is blissful solitude.
HDYTI Tip: To get round Romney Marsh, native taxi companies can be found. Nevertheless, we discovered it simpler to self-drive throughout our keep.
Rural life is a special tempo!
Nights out on this a part of rural Kent are largely comparatively quiet and laid-back affairs in village pubs.
Accustomed to indulging in late-night meals every time we journey (this being a staycation in any case), on our first evening, we discovered ourselves considerably caught off guard by the “shock” revelation that the handful of pubs in Romney Marsh serving meals shut down by 9 pm.
Ignorantly unprepared, we quickly realised that except you’ve arrived and positioned your order by 8:30 pm, you’re mainly out of choices.
After driving round for about half-hour and being unable to seek out something native, we determined to drive to Hythe (round 20 minutes away), a busier city that, fortuitously, had extra restaurant choices and institutions that stayed open later. Nevertheless, on the ones nonetheless open, we had been informed that we wanted to have booked forward!
Fortunately, we discovered a Thai restaurant that was joyful to squeeze in a single final order for us earlier than closing down their kitchen for the evening. Classes discovered, we resolved to be aware of the totally different tempo of life in Rural Kent the following time we go to.
A unusual vacation cottage staycation in Kent
Our final day on the Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts ended the identical manner as our first one had begun…with one other putting sundown.
Reclining on the wood bench outdoors The Lookerer, we felt that we had been watching a timelapse video of the altering colors of the sky, sharing the fascinating second with our oblivious woolly neighbours.
Surrounded by such magnificence and serenity, it might not have been misplaced for shepherds of previous who as soon as discovered shelter in these huts to momentarily take their eyes off their flocks to understand the surroundings.
The comparatively slower tempo of life in Romney Marsh took some getting used to initially however as quickly as we settled into it, we discovered ourselves having fun with the chance to attach with nature.
Romney Marsh, the “Fifth Continent”, is a unusual however worthwhile vacation cottage staycation vacation spot the place farm life generally is a welcome retreat.
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Helpful info: To e-book a keep, go to bloomstays.com/property/the-lookerer or name Bloom Stays on 01227 903 404. Additionally, see romneymarshshepherdshuts.co.uk
A two-night keep in April 2024 within the Lookerer Hut – with two adults sharing – begins from £290. There’s a minimal two-night keep per reserving. Breakfast packing containers curated with domestically made merchandise can be found from £16 additional per reserving. Because of the sheep, canines usually are not permitted.
A variety of optionally available add-ons with native exercise suppliers and artisans are additionally obtainable to e-book. These embody bike rent from £25 per particular person by way of Channel Bike Rent (channelbikehire.com)
Declaration: This text initially appeared in Home of Coco Journal in 2021. Nevertheless, it has been tailored for this weblog.
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