Ironic perhaps for a shepherd hut traditionally built for travelling, but today we are finally seeing our planning journey coming to an end with the granting of planning permission for 2 bespoke Shepherd Huts on Whitelee farm. Such wonderful news for our family business.
We have spent a number of years looking at diversification projects and the most natural first step was always felt to be the provision of holiday accommodation. The best way forward was always the debate - stone barns around the main farmstead, whilst not currently used for their initial purpose such as milking or as pig sty's; are still incredibly useful for the day to day running of the farm - there is a reason they are referred to as 'tractor shed' or 'the dairy'! Creating luxury accommodation from them would also be prohibitively expensive.
Searching for the right option that offered premium, luxury accommodation, but which could fall within strict planning guidelines has meant over the years the dismissal of a number of options. Until 2 years ago when we had a chance meeting at the Game Fair with a bespoke Shepherd Hut craftsman. The hut at the show wasn't the right hut for us, but the lightbulbs went off in a dazzling style - here was our solution! The pure craftsmanship, ethos and ambience of the example hut struck us straight away; and we commenced on our journey of how to make the dream become a reality.
So for now, some design examples on our thoughts for the huts and how they will look. We plan on having the huts available literally 2 years to the day of first falling in love... we did mention it has been a long journey!
