This week I did one thing that felt presumably a bit batshit loopy and stayed, alone, in a treehouse within the woods. I do know. The one who will get spooked in her personal backyard.
It’s testomony to only how desperately I wanted to take away myself from all noise and distraction (impending deadline that I nonetheless can’t speak about) that I ventured out into the wilds alone, risking potential Blair Witch Venture-style eventualities and with solely a small pair of nail scissors and a laptop computer charging cable (makeshift garrote) for cover. As somebody who barricades their resort door from the within, even when there’s a reception desk two flooring down and a twenty-four hour concierge, I can’t fairly imagine that I willingly took myself off to the wilderness.
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However look; I’ve made all of this sound a bit creepy. Clear your minds of the Blair Witch stuff, it was only a little bit of drama for the intro, for this treehouse, one of many Skylark Treehouses at KIP hideaways, was simply one of the vital phenomenally enjoyable, superbly secluded locations that I’ve ever stayed. Anyplace.
When you crave solitude, in the event you lengthy for the sound of birdsong and the rustling of the bushes, overlook the resort break: two nights right here, with the outside tub and the on-deck hearth pit and the key walkway that weaves by way of the woods…two nights right here and it’s as if you’ve had some type of thoughts and soul reset. Three nights and also you overlook that there’s the rest on the market, on the planet. whenever you simply have completely nothing to do? And there’s nothing you can do? So that you simply grow to be type of inert, as if you’re working on standby mode quite than really switched on?
That’s how Skylark made me really feel. And keep in mind, please, that it made me really feel like this regardless of the very fact I used to be knocking out 4 thousand phrases a day on my laptop computer, mainlining natural tea and solely sometimes getting as much as have a shake and a stretch. In precise reality it was the right place to plough by way of my wordcount for the deadline-I-can’t-mention-yet as a result of it was simply so utterly, superbly silent.
And although half of the treehouse was completely open-air, together with an incredible – very photogenic – outside kitchen and the aforementioned bathtub and deck, the bed room and bathe room had been absolutely enclosed in a hyper-insulated, hermetically-sealed pod. Large home windows in all places, large cozy mattress, however a correct protected little (absolutely lockable) hotel-style room with a kitchenette (tea, espresso, oven) and massive walk-in bathe in addition to one of many best-placed bits of toilet glazing I’ve seen, excessive up on the wall in order that it framed the bushes outdoors however retained whole privateness.
On the privateness factor: there are different treehouses (six homes altogether) however they’re fairly far aside. On arrival, my coronary heart did sink after I heard the faint, dulcet tones of another person’s kids (as a result of who needs to listen to different individuals’s kids once they’re attempting to chill out?) however after I leaned proper out to try to spot them and maybe scare them off with an evil glare the treehouse they had been in, my nearest neighbour, was actually fairly distant. The truth is you’ll be able to inform how distant every one is as a result of the parking areas on the lane, two for every home, are properly spaced-out.
Right here’s the way it goes: you arrive to Skylark Treehouses by way of the doorway lane after which the parking for every treehouse is signposted with somewhat emblem. (They ship you all the information by e mail earlier than you arrive.) Every little automotive park has an electrical charging level, which is massively useful in the event you’re an electrical car-haver and wish to recharge while you keep. (I’m a brand new electrical car-haver and nonetheless getting used to the truth that you’ll be able to’t simply pull into any previous petrol station and replenish; having a charger at your vacation spot simply appears to be the last word, world-changing comfort at this level in my life. Extra thrilling, I believe, than even an outside tub.)
A personal walkway takes you down, Swallows and Amazons fashion, to the doorway of your treehouse (which is lockable, and lit) and the door opens onto essentially the most beautiful little outside camp, excessive up within the bushes, completely non-public and with a roof over the residing bits in order that it may be continually in use. After I say camp, that is nothing like tenting; it’s tenting, I suppose, for these (good day!) who love the scent of the outside and like being surrounded by nature however who don’t wish to get trench foot and must be inside ten metres of a completely flushing bathroom always. It appears to be like like the agricultural treehouse/tenting idyll, although a model of it you’d discover in Vogue, nevertheless it acts like a luxurious resort. All the finest supplies, costly home equipment, a bin with buttons to open and shut (God how simply happy am I?) and that sensible, show-stopping outside tub. With solely the cows within the subject to witness your soak.
There’s a woodburner contained in the sleeping suite, in addition to radiators, so I’m fairly positive this place can be toasty as something within the wintery months, however in summer season it’s doorways thrown huge open and outside hearth pit on, only for the atmosphere, in the event you fancy it. I didn’t, as a result of I used to be there alone and I’m an everlasting catastrophiser and imagined myself by accident setting hearth to my very own hair and never having anybody to assist put it out. Nonetheless, it was good sitting there and listening to the near-silence, as soon as the birds had gone to sleep. With my Brixham Harbour fish pie, one of many ready-to-oven freshly-made meals the individuals at Skylark can ship to your treehouse on your arrival. It was scrumptious. And massively welcome as I’d determined upfront that I didn’t wish to need to cook dinner, as a result of it could have been simply one other distraction, and so it saved me from consuming muesli for dinner three nights in a row.
So to recap: you need absolute peace and quiet. You need the posh really feel and a spotlight to element {that a} resort would possibly give, however you need one thing extra secluded and personal. You like the concept of a camp-style break however need a good mattress, full plumbing and no sense of damp. You need the ever-Instagrammable “tub beneath the celebs” however don’t wish to hear one other soul while you lie in it and – lastly – you wish to benefit from the outside however really feel protected and safe.
Bingo! I don’t suppose anybody would remorse a few nights right here for a complete reset. What I preferred most was their very stern guidelines contract that you simply needed to conform to and signal, promising to not make noise and to respect different friends. Bloody sensible. You actually do really feel as if you’re the one friends there – and it was absolutely booked on the nights that I stayed.
Costs? From £250 per evening. Possibly barely greater than you’d anticipate in the event you went “glamping”, however this totally just isn’t glamping. It’s a full resort suite that’s utterly non-public, with the good thing about a giant outside house that can be utilized all yr spherical. (There’s heating above the eating desk and the entire house is considerately lit.) It’s nowhere close to as costly as a luxurious resort suite however that’s what I’d evaluate it to; though the supplies contained in the sealed sleeping space had been left fairly rustic and pure, simply one of many many eco-measures right here, the fixtures and fittings had been of the best high quality and no expense had been spared.
Had I not stayed alone, I genuinely suppose that it could have been troublesome to ever go away. In precise reality, I booked one other evening on the tip of my two evening overview keep, so I believe that claims all of it. The mad factor was, I didn’t even enterprise out of the treehouse. I couldn’t let you know what was half a mile in any course, even an eighth of a mile. I simply wrote and wrote and wrote. In my escape pod. Which is strictly what it was.
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