Stepping out of my "shack" I could hear lambs, curlews … and the distinctive hum of power tools. I'd arrived at Bivouac two days before the UK's latest glampsite opened and there was plenty to be finished off.
A collection of eight yurts, six shacks, a 12-bed bunk barn, cafe, shop and wood-fired hot tub, Bivouac is set around an old stone farmhouse five miles from Masham, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales. It has been the mission of Sam and Beth Hardwick for five years, ever since they took an extended honeymoon and – inspired by a "basic but beautiful" lodge in New Zealand – ended up changing careers.
Teaming up with the Swinton Estate, a sweep of countryside that includes the swanky Swinton Park hotel (swintonpark.com), the couple started work on Bivouac. Not only is there a managed supply of firewood on hand to feed Bivouac's biomass boiler, there's also a spring. True to the project's eco ethos the water is used, filtered through a reed bed and returned to the river below.
There's also a 19th-century folly, the Druid's Temple stone circle. Dubbed "Yorkshire's Stonehenge" by more impressionable visitors, this is moodily intriguing, even if its Jenga-like design suggests its builders had been taste testing for soon-to-launch Theakston's brewery before upping tools.
If you get twitchy without flat-screen TVs and Wi-Fi, the shacks won't be for you. More Huckleberry Finn than Four Seasons, each wooden cabin sleeps seven, with a ground floor double, another in the eaves and a platform of three single beds in between. Ideal for a couple or a small family, but possibly a bit cosy for seven lumbering adults, they also have shower, toilet, basic kitchen, drying rack for wet clothes (this is North Yorkshire after all) and a woodburner (no electricity).
The inspired decor is the thing that really sets Bivouac apart. There are no twee Cath Kidston roses here, nor any incongruous urban furniture sitting uncomfortably in the canvas-trimmed setting. Instead mismatched junk shop chairs have been repaired and the shack's crockery and cutlery are cleverly salvaged finds.
It's a continuing theme. That evening Sam and Beth invited me to try one of chef Dom Fullen's cafe suppers – a truly great lamb curry and a neat twist on Yorkshire "pudding" that mixed sweet and savoury with cake, chutneys and local cheeses. On the way, I had a peek into the shower block where, like at the shacks, nothing is off the peg. Cubicles have slate tiles, sandstone floors and exposed copper pipes, and a row of elegant reclaimed sinks sits embedded in a long stone worktop.
This is a stylish and sustainable base for a week of walking, biking and sightseeing (Jervaulx Abbey and Aysgarth Falls are close by), but there are also plans for communal suppers and courses on foraging, wine tasting and forest skills.
You could just come here to do nothing. Cook by lantern light, lie in bed watching sunlight on the trees cast shadows on the ceiling or, now the power tools have been packed away, take a coffee onto the porch and listen to the curlews.
Follow Rhiannon on Twitter @rhiannonbatten
