We could not be more grateful for our wonderful property during this time of limited travel; our green fields and leafy woodland are bursting with nature, offering a calming influence during these turbulent times.

We bought Orchard House as our future “retirement plan” but it soon took on a life of its own, once we fully understood the hidden gem we had been fortunate enough to find.

The property and its three and a half acres of land sit within Wormald Green and were once part of the Ripon to Harrogate railway line, with lots of interesting reminders of its history clear to see.

Little did we know how much work would be involved in looking after the grounds and building our business to where we are today!

We knew it was the ideal place to start a glamping enterprise, due to its great location between Harrogate and Ripon. We started off with one shepherds hut which we bought complete, but when it was time for the next, we used everything we had learned from our first year of operation and worked with a North Yorkshire joiner to design and build one on site.

Being a former horticultural nursery, the property benefited from 2 huge polytunnels and we soon realised that we could offer much more than quirky, luxury accommodation in our shepherd’s huts. We know how keen people are to live the “Good Life” with full visibility of their food miles and what better way to enjoy a break away in North Yorkshire than to forage and pick produce, growing in the grounds?

As the business name might suggest, one of the key things we grow is strawberries and we always try to leave a small dish of our best berries for our guests on arrival. They can then pick as many as they like during the strawberry season and outside of these months there are lots of other fruits and vegetables to be picked.

The healthy lifestyle idea really chimed with us, particularly as Andy is a lifestyle and fitness coach and we soon started to think of other opportunities on site for those looking for a more active stay.

We have teamed up with another local Ripon business, Yoga Den, to provide yoga classes in the grounds (or inside the other polytunnel if the Yorkshire weather gets too bad!). The tranquility of the spaces around the ponds are ideal for quiet meditation and the woodland offers a really unusual space to practice whilst connecting to nature.

Yoga by the ponds

Our future plans are to develop yoga and fitness weekends at Strawberry Safari, where groups of like-minded individuals can get together, staying in the shepherd’s huts and join classes each day.

For now, we are working hard on the shepherd’s huts and the grounds to make them even more inviting for guests once we re-open. We cannot be more grateful for our beautiful North Yorkshire surroundings and are very excited to be going on this Strawberry Safari together.