Getting started with Cledan Valley (2016 season)

When we took on Cledan Valley, we purchased the beautiful acreage with existing, functional shower and toilet block and 9 gravel hard standings and car park. We inherited with this some odd bits of furniture, some slightly rusty woodburning stoves and some decent camping cookers, lots of mattresses, a few unusable tipi canvases and the shepherds hut. We had stayed in the tipis a few times ourselves but as the fire inspector no longer allowed open fires inside the tipis, the atmospheric experience was somewhat ruined, in addition to which, with the hole in the pinnacle for the tipi poles to extend out, in the wet Wales climate, this type of tent would never be cosy or perfectly dry. Finally, we had visions of upgrading the site to a more luxurious form of glamping whilst trying to maintain the beauty, undeveloped tranquillity of the site.

Otter tipi

But of course upgrading is expensive! Amongst the inherited tipi canvases, we managed to find one usable one which we put up in a riverside location. As these tipis used to have open fires inside them, the canvas was stained with smoke and soot so in an attempt to smarten the Otter tipi up, we painted the inside canvas with acrylic paint in dark blue with silver stars. Guests loved the ambiance but as the 4 week season that we ha din 2016 went on, it began to leak so in 2017, we bought a new bell tent which was all together cheaper, dryer and brighter accommodation and could fit a small family!

Inside a bell tent - a lighter, dryer experience!

We also inherited two bell tents but once more you can imagine our disappointment when we discovered one unusable with mould stains and the other barely acceptable with stains. We do use one for the short 2016 season but had to replace this in 2017 as well.

So in 2016, of our eight permitted accommodations, we had inherited one dilapidated tipi, 1 shepherds hut and 1 bell tent. Some internet searching provided us with a good value-for-money larger tipi too. We didn't really want tipis but as the current planning permission allowed it, then it was a cost-effective way of trying to get the business started whilst we worked towards our longer term goals.

Our large family Tawny Owl Tipi

Happily our start-up budget  had allowed for two beautiful new yurts to move us forwards into the more comfortable glamping experience we are hoping to develop. The yurts were made to order, and the first one, the Honeymoon yurt was delivered in June must to our excitement. The larger family yurt arrive a few weeks later. With a wooden floor, proper bed and bedding and high-spec new woodburning stoves from a specialist firm for canvas-based woodburners, we were happy that we were on track to provide a comfortable stay to our Cledan guests.

Finally more internet searching led to an impulse buy of a 25-foot diameter yurt secondhand which we excitedly erected as a communal space. Although this was a definite part of our ambitions, it had not been an intended development for 2016 but we were excited to have this massive space. I will do a separate post about our Yurt Lodge!

Our short 4 week season in 2016 gave us a brief opportunity to test the waters to see how popular we were and see if clients liked the facilities we had to offer, and if returning guests liked the changes we had made. With everything looking good, we packed everything away again in storage for the winter to start the whole process again in 2017...