1. Welcome...

Farlands Holiday Cottage is a self-catering cottage in Hayfield (where the current BBC drama 'The Village' was filmed)  in the Peak District which sleeps up to 4 people. It is available for weekend breaks and longer stays. Please contact James Ellson on 07958 930049 or email ellson3@hotmail.com for further details.

A typical stay at Farlands Cottage will have the following highlights:-

• a warm welcome from James (and possibly a tour of the smallholding);
• a great walk from the door, and either lunch in a local pub or a picnic on the hill;
• tea in front of a roaring open fire (if it's cold) or tea outside the cottage (if it's warm);
• looking for (and hopefully finding!) eggs from our chickens;
• a meal in the local pub and a star-lit walk home back to the Cottage.

Farlands Holiday Cottage (arrowed)

This blog gives further details:-
1. Welcome...
2. What's new at Farlands Holiday Cottage?
(updated July 2016)
3. Basics...and a bit of luxury...
4. Things to do...
5. Walking - including Accompanied Walks
6. Walking - have you done the Farlands 5?
7. Looking for something a bit different? - why not try a Smallholding Tour?
8. Our guiding principles
9. We are (effectively) zero-consumers of non-renewable energy...
10. Events in 2014

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Farlands Holiday Cottage is attached to Farlands House, and is part of a smallholding of several acres. Please also see the Far Lands blog http://jamesellson.blogspot.com/which describes life on the smallholding.

Farlands (arrowed) and Kinder Reservoir

2. What's new at Farlands Holiday Cottage?

This photo is from one of our recent walks - it shows Kinder reservoir and not far below it is Farlands Cottage . . .

I run accompanied walks if you want some help with route-finding, carrying your gear or just want a gentle commentary on the local landscape - see section 5 or email for further details.

I also run smallholding tours and fruit and nut tree tours - see section 6 or email for further details.

Cup of tea outside the cottage?

The local heron (in river - 2 mins walk)

Farlands

3. Basics...and a bit of luxury...

Farlands Cottage in the heart of the Peak District is a great place to stay at all times of the year. It is close to the village of Hayfield, and in a stunning location. It can be a quiet atmospheric retreat – it has a log fire, and is well-equipped. But, equally, there is always lots to do and see.

The Cottage is the left-hand wing of the impressive 19th century Farlands House. It is comfortable and homely; ideal for recovering from a hard day in the outdoors, or from life in general! Relax with a BBQ, or in front of the log fire in the living room.

Internet Access

Wi-Fi is installed in the Cottage. It is a booster signal from the House, but gives about 2 Mb per second (enough for internet browsing, picking up emails etc).

Ground floor: large living/dining room, kitchen, bathroom (inc. newly-installed shower!) with toilet.

Open tread stairs to 1st floor.

First floor:- 2 bedrooms (1 double, 1 twin).

Children welcome from any age.

No smoking, no pets. Sorry.

The closest pub (which also does food) is only half a mile away, and the attractive village of Hayfield only 1½ miles (a pleasant 20 min walk, 6 mins cycling (downhill, 12 mins back up!) or 4 mins by car). The village has lots of amenities (PO, chemist, chip shop, newsagent, greengrocer, general food shop, antiques shop, DR's surgery, restaurant, several pubs and a tea shop). There is a stream that runs through the village with ducks etc. The stream runs past the village cricket square and the Royal pub.

And a bit of luxury?

To make your stay even more special / luxurious we can usually sort out the following:-

champagne
chocolates
weekend papers
a breakfast tray (mainly home-made and local produce)
dinner at Farlands House (ie with us! - 3 courses inc wine)
baby-sitting
lifts back from Hayfield / local pubs & restaurants

4. Things to do...

There is always lots to do and see, both in the immediate vicinity of the Cottage and smallholding, and locally. There is plenty of birdlife, and there is fantastic walking from the door (see Section 5).

There is plenty to do, apart from walking! There is great cycling (both mountain-biking in the fells and more leisurely exploring on the Sett Valley Trail), rock-climbing (even ice-climbing in Winter!) and horse-riding.



Kinder Downfall (20m ice climb)

There are lots of activities for kids to too! We live next door to two farms, and there are always lots of animals for the kids to see. Children's play areas in the village.



Always popular with children are Speedwell Cavern (you get to go round a cave in a boat!) http://peakcavern.co.uk/ and the Chestnut Centre Conservation & Wildlife Park http://www.chestnutcentre.co.uk/

Local places of interest include Lyme Park, Chatsworth, Bakewell and Buxton (opera house and weekly markets). Manchester with its many cultural highlights (inc. Bridgewater Hall, the Lowry, Manchester Art Gallery) is only 45 mins (10 mins by car plus 35 mins by train). Alton Towers is less than an hour's drive.

5. Farlands Walking - including accompanied walks

Farlands is ideally situated just inside the Peak District National Park for a limitless number of walking possibilities; short walk and all-day epics!

The Cottage is equipped with walking books and the local OS map, and we can help you with ideas and send you off in the right direction.

Have you done the Farlands 5? See the following section for some great walking routes.

Accompanied walks

• Most people who stay at Farlands walk by themselves. However, if you would like some help with route-finding, carrying your packs (even a child!) so that you can venture a little further and hearing a little of the local history, then I could accompany you.
• Walks can be tailored to meet your needs.
• Reasonable rates.
• Please note that you would be walking at your own risk

James Ellson - Walking CV

• experienced walker, backpacker and mountaineer for 20+ years
• Volunteer Walk Leader Training Certificate, Walking For Health
• lived in Hayfield for 10 years, walked and fell run most weekends
• organised and led mixed-ability family (my family! - siblings and partners, parents) walking groups hut to hutting in the Alps
• mountain ascents include the Matterhorn, Mont Blanc, the Eiger and Ama Dablam

6. Have you done the Farlands 5?

The Farlands 5 - five great walks from Farlands

The following classic walks are graded 1 (easier) to 3. The time estimates are for return trips.



South Head in Winter

1. South Head (grade 2, 400m of ascent, 2-3 hours)
Classic ridge walk along a local's footpath culminating in a summit with a great 360 degree view.







2. Lantern Pike (grade 1, 300m of ascent, 3 hours)
The backdrop to Hayfield gives a short, sharp ascent and good views of the village. (Parking in the village would halve the length.)








3. Edale (grade 3, 900m of ascent, 6-9 hours)
A corker of a day. But can be a long one as it involves two significant ascents. Walk up to South Head, then to Edale, Barber Booth and then regain Kinder by climbing Jacob's Ladder.






4. Kinder Downfall (grade 3, 500m of ascent, 4-7 hours)
The must-do walk. If you are up to it! Numerous possible routes for ascent and descent; lunch often taken in the vicinity of the top of the downfall. Great views all day.








5. Chinley Churn (grade 2, 500m of ascent, 5-7 hours)
A ridge line walk that gives good views both of the Kinder Plateau and the flatter panorama towards the Cheshire Plains. Another double ascent day. Not as well walked as the other walks.

There are many other shorter walks suitable for less experienced walkers, and some are suitable for pushchairs (robust ones!).

7. Looking for something a bit different?

The Cottage is part of a smallholding of several acres that we are developing, where possible, on permaculture principles. There is a vegetable garden, a bee hive, and plenty of bird activity. We make our own marmalade and other jams. We are keen on recycling, and renewable energy. Our aim is a greener, more self-sufficient way of life.

Farlands Smallholding Tours

Meet the livestock

Chickens, Turkeys, Bees (from a safe distance!)

See the large veg garden and fruit cage

Visit the orchard

Tour the tree projects

Fruit-tree grafting, hazel coppice, walnut trees, 100+ tree foraging hedge

Discuss the green energy systems

Wood pellet boiler, solar panels, non-mains water system

Tours

Highlights (1 hour) - £20

The full tour (2 hours) - £30

(Clockwise from top left: chickens and chicken house, veg garden, turkey poults and orchard.)

In the orchard are apples, a pear, a damson, a mirabelle, sweet chestnut and two hazel trees (a cob and a filbert). Outside the orchard we have also planted walnuts, and a cherry tree. We are experimenting with growing trees from seeds (including walnuts, hazel and elder) and also with fruit-tree grafting.

In 2013 we planted over a 100 trees in a foraging hedge - including hazel, blackthorn (for sloes, and an early source of nectar for bees), elder (for elderberries and elderflowers), crab apples, wild pears, a medlar, willow (an early source of pollen for bees), sea buckthorn and dogrose.

Farlands is set amongst woodland - there are over 250 trees, mainly sycamore and pine but also ash, horse chestnut, oak and silver birch. During the Winter of 2011/12 we planted 20 common hazel saplings, aiming to coppice them in the years to come.

8. Our guiding principles

We try to do things without using (too many) machines, or too much power and by re-using materials. We scythe our orchard (even making a little hay), and try to harvest our wood predominantly with axe and hand-saw. We made our compost bins, turkey house and wood bins almost entirely from old pallets, batons and nails from our old roof and floorboards from an old floor (and some screws from Wicks).

We have had solar panels fitted to our roof, and have switched our fuel supply from oil to wood (biomass) (see below for further details).

Future plans (or hopes) include pigs, a large extension of the vegetable garden (in line with the historic 130 year old Cottage Garden), and an outside working area.

Our guiding principles are from Seymour's Self-Sufficiency for Dreamers and Realists, Ben Law's The Woodland Year, Walden's Thoreau and CAT (the Centre for Alternative Technology)'s mantra: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle..

We welcome new ideas, and look forward to discussing both our and your plans and aspirations...

9. We are (effectively) zero-consumers of non-renewable energy...

Over the Summer of 2012 we had an extension to house our new heating and water systems. We have replaced the two oil boilers with a biomass (wood pellet) boiler. Our new boiler room houses the boiler and a 4-tonne hopper that contains the pellets.

The new wood pellet boiler, hopper, and HW tank (boot for scale!).

The aim has been to drag Farlands into the 21st century, but with sustainable living as a major goal.

Farlands (House and Cottage) already had its 16 PV panels supplying some of its electricity (in aggregate making it a zero-sum consumer of electricity), enjoyed spring water and used septic tanks.

And it now has a wood pellet boiler supplying all of its (space) heating and hot water. In effect, we are zero-consumers of non-renewable energy.

Before deciding on biomass I considered all the options (eg heat pumps, wind energy), but biomass seemed to make the most sense.

10. Events in 2014

NB Further events and more precise dates will be added when they become available.

	Hayfield and local area	Farlands Cottage
Jan		Tree planting.
Feb		Fruit-tree pruning.
Mar Apr
May	Hayfield May Queen	Scything orchard.
June	Hayfield Pro-loco art competition
July	prepare for Well Dressing
	Well Dressing Festival & Flower Festival
	Buxton Festival
Aug
Sep	Sheepdog trials & Hayfield show	Plum harvest
Oct		Turkeys arrive
Nov	Bonfire nights at Chatsworth & New Mills
Dec	Well Dressing May Queen procession	Turkeys go! Sarah being lifted by strong man (in his teeth!) at the Hayfield Sheepdog trials May Queen procession