Treat yourself to a Derbyshire Christmas - even in November!

This year at Oaklands Country Lodges we are fully booked for Christmas week itself, but we’ve still got some availability in the festive weeks running up to the big day. In Derbyshire we like to celebrate Christmas during November and December, so even if you visit us this week you’ll find that our very best festive events are running, so that you and your loved ones can enjoy them.

If you love a traditional Christmas event, you’ve got a wonderful choice. From Chatsworth House’s Christmas in the Farmyard (www.chatsworth.org), Haddon Hall’s Christmas in the Hall (www.haddonhall.co.uk) or one of Derbyshire’s Christmas Markets (www.christmasmarkets.com).

If you’ve got some little loved ones that want to see Santa, then there’s lots of events to choose from too. Just over the border in Leicestershire, Conkers’ Winter Wonderland will let you see Santa, ride a train and take part in the fabulous visitor attraction that is Conkers itself (www.visitconkers.com/events/winterwonderland). And just down the road from us, although over the border into Staffordshire, at Amerton Farm you’ll find a whole variety of festive fun from visiting Santa, painting a pot and enjoying a traditional Christmas roast (www.amertonfarm.co.uk). If you’d rather cook your own in front of a toastie log burning stove at your temporary luxury Oaklands home, then why not visit of Derbyshire’s superb farm shops to get all of the excellent quality ingredients you’ll need.

Hackwood Farm Shop near Radbourne (www.hackwoodfarm.com) has a butchery, farm shop and deli, as well as a tea room in case you need to take a break from tantalising yourself with all its yummy food!  On the Staffordshire/Derbyshire border, Denstone Hall’s farm shop and café now stocks more than 500 local lines from Derbyshire and Staffordshire, and has a special Christmas Food Fair on November 20^th too (www.denstonehall.co.uk). Family-run Bluebells Dairy & Farm shop (www.bluebelldairy.co.uk) will give you a different taste of Christmas as it’s a homemade ice-cream specialist, as well as a farm shop! And if you’re already attending the Chatsworth House’s Christmas in the Farmyard event, then you can pop into their renowned farm shop for some tasty locally sourced treats.

If you are looking for super-local luxuries, then don’t forget you can always ask us! We know pretty much everything that’s available on our door step, as we use most of them! And don’t forget, you don’t have to venture far if you don’t want to, you might want to spend your whole holiday tucked up in your lodge, enjoying the cosy, quality of Oaklands, and to give yourself a real break before you do home.

Get daring in Derbyshire!

If you’re not one for enjoying a sedate pace, or perhaps you just fancy a change, then why not take a tip from us and enjoy the daring side of Derbyshire?

Try taking a peak at the county from high in the sky. You can choose from para, hand or traditional gliding, or a hot air balloon flight - you could just take a spin with an instructor or you could sign up for a spot of training if you’re feeling braver! If having your eyes in the sky isn’t something that floats your boat then why not try an adventure on the water?

Canoeing is a popular pastime up in the Peaks or perhaps you’d prefer trying your hand at windsurfing? But if you’re handy with a rope then, there’s even more for you to dare to do. There’s climbing, abseiling, caving, a variety of activity centres and of course, the well-known and wonderful Go Ape experience!

If you want to take a trip to a cavern but don’t fancy caving, then you can explore several underground wonderlands all across the Peak District, both natural caves and manmade centuries ago. Enjoy stunning stalagmites and stalactites, fascinating fossils and at Speedwell Cavern you can even take a fairy tale boat ride through an 18^th Century mine!

Being a dare devil doesn’t always mean doing something unusual either, there are lots of cycle tracks and walking routes that need a strong will and firm determination to conquer!

Whatever type of activity you choose to undertake, you can be sure that when you return to Oaklands in the evening, you’ll get a warm welcome, cosy wood burning fire and a hot tub with a view. Enjoying the comfort of our four star lodges after a hard days dare devilling will make sure that you’re ready to take on the challenge of your next adventure in the morning.

Have Ewe been enjoying the sun?

We have! Even though it’s been a busy few months on the farm… In May, we watched our herd of cows give birth to lots of lovely calves - with a little help from us where it was needed of course! June was haymaking and in the last few weeks we’ve been weaning our lambs off their mums (Ewes).

The weather has been a treat and it has meant that our combining has been going quickly and smoothly – so often we’re scuppered by torrential rain during the UK’s summers that some proper seasonal sun this year has been a real relief - if we’re struck with bad weather it can take us so much longer, not to mention the crop can be in danger of being ruined. So we’re all in a very good mood on the farm!

And our guests have been enjoying the sunshine too. What we definitely have here is lots of green open space and outstanding visitor attractions so let me tell you about two of our guests’ favourites.

Many guests have been in awe of the amazing Chatsworth House (www.chatsworth.org) this month, a property that has been passed down through 16 generations of the Cavendish family. The Chatsworth in Wartime Exhibition has been getting excellent reviews from our guests, as has its Old Masters Drawings exhibit and of course its 1000 acre park, 105 acre stunning garden and farm shop with sumptuous goodies are none too shabby either!

Not everyone wants a visitor attraction quite as majestic, and luckily there’s plenty to choose from near us! Pretty much on our doorstep and over the border in Staffordshire is the lovely village of Tutbury. A superb historic church on the hill is a tourist favourite, although it’s Tutbury Castle where Mary Queen of Scots was once imprisoned and where (it is believed) Robin Hood was married, that is the most visited. The Castle has been home to regular ghost hunts and has hosted the UK’s largest event of its kind in previous years. You can find out more about Tutbury at its delightful village website:  www.tutbury.org

We’ve won a Gold Green Tourism Award!

At Oaklands Country Lodges we are really thrilled to have been presented with a Gold Green Tourism Award for our work to ensure that our three fabulous luxury lodges are as environmentally friendly as they can be. Awarded by the Green Tourism Business Scheme, it’s a tough award to get!

First of all you have submit an application and then you have to be audited – in lots of detail! The Green Tourism Business representative spent hours with us at the Lodges checking that everything we that we said we did, we actually did. It was a really thorough process, even the final audit report we received from the assessor was 16 pages long - phew!

Here is just a little bit of what they said in the report – we’re so proud!

“The business has achieved a Gold Level Green Tourist Award, a commendable achievement, reflecting the vision and determination of the owners. The properties make good use of air source heat pumps and solar PV... The environmental policy is well thought out and green matters are efficiently managed… A pond, fed by rainwater, is a notable feature and Oaklands has planted significant trees and hedges which help to support wildlife. A very good business.”

 

If you’d like to know more about our Environmental and Sustainability initiatives then why not take a look at our policy which summarises some of our recent eco work? See www.oaklandscountrylodges.co.uk/blog.php

If you’d like to know more about the Green Business Tourism Scheme then take a look at its website at: www.green-tourism.com

And if you’d like to talk to us in more detail about our environmental credentials, then please just drop us a line or pick up the phone, we’re always keen to hear your views and ideas.

Derbyshire: 10 Fun facts - How many do you know?

When our guests arrive, they often ask us about our fabulous county of Derbyshire so we thought we’d find some fun facts to share with you. How many of these do you already know?

1. Derbyshire covers an area of 255,071 hectares (630,366 acres) - which means it makes up around nearly two per cent of England!
2. The Peak District National Park is a... 555 square mile area (1,438 square kms) of outstanding natural beauty. It was the first national park in the United Kingdom to receive recognition in 1951.
3. More than 763,000 people live in Derbyshire with around 40,000 people living in the Peak District National Park.
4. The Peak District National Park accounts for more than a third of Derbyshire's total land area and stretches beyond Derbyshire into Cheshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.
5. If you’re a cyclist, you won’t have to look far to find some super cycle routes. The Peak District is packed full of them and even Derby, Derbyshire’s main city, has more than 100kms of on and off road cycle routes – imagine how many cycle routes we’ve got in the whole county!
6. More than 8.4 million people live within 30 kms of Derbyshire’s county lines and more than 80% of the UK’s population live within a four hour drive of the Peak District – so what’s stopping you paying us a visit?
7. As a country Derbyshire is great at green! We currently compost and recycle 43.3 per cent of the county's rubbish that’s up from 18 per cent in 2003/2004.
8. The Peak District National Park receives more than 10 million visitors each year – but luckily our visitors don’t come all at once!
9. Derbyshire is home to the renowned JB Kind which has been a timber specialist for more than 140 years and has been selling some of the UK’s most innovative wooden doors for more than 30 years! In fact JB Kind’s doors have just been featured in the Channel 4 Fisherman’s Church episode of Restoration Man!
10. We’re wizards with water in Derbyshire. From the ‘cracking’ Castleton Water and Cromford Canal to the Erewash Canal and the Trent and Mersey Canal – our water’s wonderful in Derbyshire so why not explore our county by narrowboat, windsurfing or canoe?

Going for Green!

As farmers we are acutely aware of the environment and all things eco but we’d never really thought of ourselves as particularly ‘green’. However all this changed when we were asked to write our environment and sustainability policy and we started to take a proper look at everything eco we did – and were amazed!

Of course we’d made sure that we have renewable energies powering our luxury lodges with a mix of air source heat pumps and solar panels that supply heating and electricity, to the sustainable logs we provide for the log burning fires. We provide recycling facilities, collect rainwater, provide environmentally-conscious cleaning products and use local suppliers – but doesn’t everyone? Our feedback and research tells us, apparently not!

I suspect as farmers we’re always looking to encourage biodiversity and support the natural environment because it’s part of the way we live, it always has been, but so many people were surprised to hear that since we’d started work on the lodges in 2009 we’ve planted 600 metres of hedgerows, as well as 250 trees. Guests have been happy to hear that we designed the large pond that sits outside the lodges to make sure that we encouraged all of nature’s wonderful creatures and in support of their habitats and that we consider how to heal the land on which we work.

To start with we thought that writing down our environment and sustainability policy was just a bit of admin that we didn’t really have time for, but part way through listing all the things we did, we felt proud that we were doing so much, when many others appear to struggle to do even the simplest of positive ‘green’ tasks.

So thanks to everyone for their warm support of our new policy. If you’ve not read it yet, you can find it on our website at http://www.oaklandscountrylodges.co.uk/sustainability-environmental-policy.pdf

If you’ve got any ideas about anything more we can do, we’d be delighted to hear from you.

Fancy a walk?

The sun’s out, spring is here and it’s time to get out and about, even if you still might need to don a pair of walking wellies when the weather’s wetter! We’re lucky at Oaklands as we are situated in the middle of the wonderful Derbyshire countryside, a few miles from the Peak District - and we’re on the edge of the National Forest (which is in South Derbyshire and Leicestershire) – both of which have their 2014 Walking Festivals starting in April and May. Both Festivals are long standing affairs and have really varied programmes depending on the time you have and your level of ability.


Whether you are a hardy or hapless walker there’s a walk here in Derbyshire that will be perfect for you. As farmers we tend to be hardy (we’ve got no choice!) but don’t ever seem to get the time to take a nice relaxing walk and enjoy our surroundings – like this month, we’re into our third week of lambing - it gets you into the fresh air but it’s unlikely to be very restful!

If you’re already visiting us this year, or fancy staying here next year to coincide with the walking festivals, then this is where you need to look to find out more:

The National Forest Walking Festival runs from the 17^th to 29^th May, includes more than 80 walks and also coincides with the launch of the National Forest Way, which is a lovely long trail that takes walkers on a journey through our transforming rural landscapes. Log onto: www.nationalforest.org/involved/health/walking_festival.php  or www.thenationalforestwalkingfestival.org.uk for more information.

You can also enjoy the great outdoors by attending one or more of over 100 events and walks in the Peak District that run from the 26^th April to the 11^th May. As part of the Peak District Walking Festival. For more information visit: www.visitpeakdistrict.com/events/PDWalkingFestival.aspx

If you’re not sure where you’d prefer to walk, why not give us a call and we might be able to pass on some of our local knowledge about the towns and villages en route?

And if you don’t fancy a walk when you get here, then that sounds like a perfect excuse to stay in your four star lodge’s hot tub and look our divine Derbyshire view instead!

From mud baths to hot tubs - celebrating five years of Oaklands Country Lodges!

This month is our five year anniversary – well of breaking ground for our three lovely log cabins anyway! In the first few months of 2009 the weather was atrocious, although not quite as bad as this year. You might think it odd that I remember the weather, but when you’re trying to get the foundations laid for a brand new project, then you really do remember. At one point it seemed like it would be easier to install mud baths rather than hot tubs!

Up until then I’d been a hard working farmer’s wife, helping out as a chef at local restaurants and tea rooms and, of course, raising my triplets – two boys and a girl. But in 2009 the triplets were teenagers and on the farm, we wanted to diversify to give ourselves a fighting chance – farming is challenging and incomes and profit margins can be unstable!

We’d spent a long time saving for our big investment and I was determined that our luxury cottages were going to be some of the best in Derbyshire. To begin with the rain hampered our attempts to build. It was frustrating at times and lots of hard work but somehow we managed to make sure the lodges were completed on time and open to guests within just a few months.

I think a few of our fellow farming friends thought we were quite mad to invest so heavily and include expensive facilities like hot tubs and renewable energies but my heart – and my business plan – said it would work and five years on, I really think it has.

Our guests really like some of the environmentally-conscious features we have, like the solar panels and our air source heat pumps that provide our under floor heating and the hot tubs have really been a hit! I think it’s because when you sit in them, you have a great view of our wonderful Derbyshire countryside. I’ve always found a view of Derbyshire relaxing, but I might be biased, I’ve lived here all my life!

For those of you that have already visited us, then take a look at the ‘before’ shots on Facebook, you’ll be amazed at what you see! https://www.facebook.com/peakdistrictlodges

And if you’re one of the people we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting, then we’d love you to come and see us if you get the chance. If you want to find out more about us, just give me a call or drop me a line, I’d love to talk to you!

Perk up in the Peaks!

January can be a bit of a miserable time for most of us. We’re back at work, it’s pretty chilly and our next holiday seems a long way away! So why not improve your mood by booking your 2014 holiday - or even just a short break to give you a little bit of respite before you take a longer holiday? You’ll find that once you’ve committed to some time away, you’ll feel much more relaxed and at lot chirpier!

One of the best things about Oaklands Country Lodges is that whatever the weather there’s always something to do. You could sit in the lap of lodge luxury, in front of your lodge’s log burning stove – or in your own private hot tub (all of our lodges have one) – and wile away the hours reading and admiring the country views.

If you’re feeling more energetic, then there is a lot to do.  We’re on the doorstep of the Peak District, which you might think of a place you’d only visit in the sunshine, but how wrong you’d be! There are some great wet weather ideas from Visit Peak District is you log on to http://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/thematic/wetweatherdays.aspx, you’ll be surprised how much you can do when our wonderful weather gives us wind and rain. From vintage trams and theme parks to cable car rides and museums, if you’ve got the energy, there’s no need to let a bit of rain worry you!

Of course if you’re happy to ‘weather’ the elements, then the amazing Peak District still very much open for business. There’s a plethora of cycling routes, walking guides and bridal paths for you to explore – and don’t think that you have to be super fit to enjoy these activities. There are plenty of more gentle activities for us that don’t like to push ourselves too hard when it comes to holiday fun.

Find out more about the Peak District at http://www.visitpeakdistrict.com/see-and-do/active-peak.aspx and plan what you can see and do, all from your base at Oaklands.