About
John and Alison of Craven View Farm make a strong case for simply opening your window, looking out, and breathing deeply. The view across to the dramatic southern section of the Yorkshire Dales shifts and changes according to the season and the weather, but it never gets stale. It's classically, quintessentially English — rolling green fields, dry-stone walls, timeless villages, a distant skyline of peaks and plateaus — and from your cosy shepherd's hut vantage point it seems like you've been given your own personal panorama as a wake-up call.
Inside either the 'Journeyman' or the 'Herdsman', it's as cosy as cosy can be, with coordinated furnishings, a smart, country-style kitchen, gleaming, modern en-suite bathroom, and luxury extras that make this a cut above regular hut glamping: underfloor heating, light and power, and even a Nespresso coffee-maker. If all this makes it a home from home, the set-up outside steps it up another gear, since the wood-burning garden stove is the sort of designer kit you probably don't have unless you're mates with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
The thing about the view is that sooner or later — actually, definitely sooner — you're going to want to stop looking at it and start exploring it. The farm is on the Lancashire/North Yorkshire border and overlooks the small town of Barnoldswick, ten minutes' walk away. Footpaths take you up to the local summit of Weets Hill (at 1,300 feet) for sweeping views of Lancashire, the Ribble Valley, and the southern Yorkshire Dales. Just that short roll-call of names tells you all you need to know about the grandeur of the location.