Boutique glamping site near Banburyshire village offers unique venue for 'staycation'

The Fat Pheasant Shepherd Huts are opening on May 1, and with news the holidays abroad might be limited they’re hoping to help provide the ideal place for a staycation.

Jo Edwards, the founder of Fat Pheasant Shepherd Huts, said: "Bookings have been flooding in, and most weekends until the end of September are already booked up. They believe that this year, more than ever, people need an escape from their day to day grind of lockdown, home-schooling and Covid-based uncertainty."

Fat Pheasant Shepherd Huts is a new glamping venture on a working farm near the village of Shotteswell in North Oxfordshire.

Fat Pheasant huts are perfect for couples wanting a change of scenery and also for families. The experience includes a wood-fired hot tub just outside the hut.

Families can arrange for a bell tent to be put up outside the shepherd huts for children or close friends. Those in the bell tents sleep on beds with comfy mattresses and duvets and fall asleep listening to the sounds of wildlife on the farm.

Jo added: "Families, in particular, have had a difficult year, and we know how important it is for children (and their parents) to get out in nature and to have positive and fun experiences as a family."

Families can roam the farm at their leisure and they can meet the animals, which include Highland Cattle, Kunekune pigs and emus. Children can go into the chicken coop and collect their eggs for their breakfast, which they can then cook on the fire-pit outside their hut.

Jo added: "If there’s ever been the perfect antidote for a year of home-schooling in a cramped house, this is it."

Fat Pheasant Shepherd Huts have two shepherds huts on their 500 acre farm in Shotteswell. Their family have been farming the land for more than 40 years, and they wanted to open the farm up to the public to see how happy animals on a productive farm live.

The farm is mainly arable – they grow wheat, barley and linseed. Over the last 10 years they’ve been shifting the focus of the farm towards renewable energy.

On the farm you’ll find solar panels, a biomass boiler and a combined heat and power plant. They provide electricity and heat for the farm and sell any excess electricity back onto the National Grid.

The introduction of the two shepherd huts are the next step along the road of diversification that most British farmers are finding themselves on. Guests can buy food hampers to cook on their fire-pits outside the huts. The hampers are sourced largely from the farm itself, or otherwise from the local area through nearby farm shops.

They hope to introduce people to British farming, and to inspire them to shop more responsibly and take an interest in where their food comes from.

The huts are off-grid, giving guests a taste of living sustainably and also give people the chance to escape the day to day rush of their busy lives.

For more information on the Fat Pheasant Shepherd Huts see their website here: https://www.fatpheasanthuts.com/