About Us
Holly Water Holidays is an off-grid glamping escape in glorious Mid-Devon. A place for peace, quiet, tranquillity, wood-fired hottubs, Shepherd’s Huts and our very own treehouse. There is even a gorgeous wood-fired sauna that you can book for a session during you stay to have a little spa experience. A slice of heaven.
We are Iain and Jane and our family. We are lucky enough to live in beautiful Mid-Devon on a farm. The farm is mainly dairy but this is not the only livestock. In the fields surrounding you, you will see our flock of pedigree Dorset sheep, our pet Kune Kune pigs and our very beautiful small herd of English Longhorn cattle who help to keep our fields in check with their conservation grazing. Also you will meet our alpacas and pygmy goats roaming around and observing you observing them! If you like to create with yarn we have yarn from our alpacas available to buy during your stay. Additionally we keep a motley assortment of chickens and some traditional breed pigs who all help produce our breakfast baskets.
We would like you to be able to spend time somewhere beautiful, having fantastic holidays and recharging your batteries away from the stresses and strains of everyday life. You can enjoy the peace and create wonderful memories to last a lifetime with lots of carefully considered, personal touches to make the whole experience extra magical.
Our two gorgeous Shepherd huts each sleep 2 in comfy handmade kingsize beds and sit at the top of the first field. Venture a little further to find our wonderful treehouse which sleeps 4 in 2 cosy kingsize bedrooms tucked on the end of our bluebell copse in the second field. We can provide you with a wonderful, peaceful retreat to create those memories of time well spent.
Holly Water Holidays is positioned in the most beautiful location in rural mid Devon. It provides the perfect romantic retreat and digital detox – an escape from the demands of everyday life. We aim to be somewhere to enjoy life’s small and simple pleasures while you recharge your batteries.
As you will have seen, we are very proud of our Gold Award for Green Tourism. The site is quite wild and unkempt as we try to support and encourage the wildlife. Our rose hedges by the huts are now well established and thriving. They providing food and forage for our wild honey bees, some hives of bees (elsewhere on the farm) and also other pollinators, birds and small mammals. Native hedging plants, bulbs which we have planted, wild foxgloves and even nettles, thistles and bramble patches also help support these other inhabitants of our fields. We do not use chemical weed killers but hand pull larger weeds and strim the hut and treehouse areas intermittently. Please don’t expect carefully manicured planting as our site is a very natural site and this is how we (and our small friends!) like it.
Glorious Devon
Crediton, about 3 miles away, is our local town and is found right in the heart of Devon. It sits within easy reach of both Exmoor, Dartmoor and both the North Devon and South Devon beaches are within a one hour drive. It is the perfect place from which to explore our beautiful county.
In addition to moor and sea we are well served with a wide variety of attractions and places to visit including numerous gardens, historic houses, open farms, National Trust properties, the historic city of Exeter and it’s many attractions to name but a few. Take a look at our ‘things to do’ section below while you plan your visit.
Crediton town itself is an old market town which now has a lively monthly Farmers Market selling locally sourced products. The high street has the usual shops in addition to independent butchers, bakeries, delicatessen and coffee shops. Crediton also has a swimming pool and sport centre.
Within easy reach of Holly Water Holidays you will find providers for activities such as riding, golf, fishing, climbing and water sports.
As well as Crediton within a few miles distance there are several villages to explore with pubs that serve food, a couple of farm shops and many footpaths and country lanes to explore. Whether you choose to go on foot or to bring your bikes with you to explore you will find large scale OS maps on the book shelf to plan you routes and find your way home.
Things To Do And Places To Explore
Nearby National Trust properties include Knightshayes house and gardens, Killerton house and gardens, A La Ronde, Arlington Court house and gardens and Castle Drogo. T here are several more within easy reach and also a lot of sections of the coast. Find out more at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/days-out/regionsouthwest/devon
Bickleigh Mill is between us and Tiverton and well worth a visit with shopping and eating opportunities and riverside grounds to walk around. www.bickleighmill.com
Also at Bickleigh there is the castle which is open to the public for booked guided tours. www.bickleighcastle.com
Tiverton canal is a pretty unique place to visit with the peace and tranquillity of some of the last horse drawn barges in the country. There is also a visitor centre where you can find out about it’s history and how it was restored. www.tivertoncanal.co.uk
Tiverton has a small museum which often has temporary exhibitions in addition to the full-time displays. It has won several tourist board prizes over recent years and has much of local interest. www.tivertonmuseum.org.uk
Also in Tiverton is the castle which is open from Easter until October. www.tivertoncastle.com
Just about 4 miles from us on the Tiverton road is a really lovely farm shop with pick-your-own fruit through the summer, lots of homegrown and local produce and very yummy lunches cakes in the cafe. They often run taster sessions and speciality evenings so well worth looking up. www.thornesfarmshop.co.uk
In the other direction we head to Crediton and Exeter both of which are worth exploring in their own right. They have a wealth of history between them.
Crediton is an old market town and has a lot of interesting period buildings if you fancy an explore around some of the small streets. It has the most beautiful parish church which is one of the oldest in the county and was once the cathedral of Devon and Cornwall. www.creditonparishchurch.org.uk
Crediton is on the Tarka Line railway line which is a particularly pretty track. In one direction you can travel to Barnstaple in North Devon or the other direction you can go to, or through, Exeter and on down to the coast at Exmouth. Crediton is also on The Dartmoor line which will whisk to the edge of Dartmoor in Okehampton. You can cycle to the train station from the huts and take the bikes with you to explore wherever you choose to go! Trains from Crediton can be found here www.thetrainline.com and buses are through here www.stagecoachbus.com/routes/south-west/5/exeter-paris-street-crediton-or-chulmleigh/xdao005.o
There is a small arts centre which has a variety of shows and displays through the year and you never know what you might find! www.creditonartscentre.org
Exeter Cathedral is a beautiful building and also often has concerts on which are worth looking up. www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk
Exeter also has many other attractions including medieval underground passages, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and the Custom house to name but a few. The city council website is well worth a look. www.exeter.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture
If you feel like a little more activity there is cycle and canoe hire easily available in Exeter on the quay from where you can explore the the city from a different angle. There are a couple of places but guests have found Saddles and Paddles to be helpful. www.sadpad.com
Powderham Castle is near Exeter and as well as hosting a variety of events in it’s grounds through the year it is also open to visit. Their website is full of events and activities so well worth a look while you are planning your holiday. www.powderham.co.uk
We are conveniently based between Dartmoor National Park and Exmoor National Park
www.visitdevon.co.uk is also good for more information about our gorgeous county and ideas for places to visit and things to do.
Also, don’t forget to look up Green Tourism to see which other award holders you might like to visit during your stay. www.green-tourism.com
This is just a handful of ideas and there are many more depending on what type of holiday you have in mind. You might simply choose to leave the car by your Shepherd’s hut and explore the local footpaths or cycle along the lanes. The choice is yours!
We are very conscious of our impact on the environment and try to keep it to the minimum. With this in mind we aim to leave only a positive mark on our surroundings and we were very proud to be awarded the Green Tourism Silver award in recognition of our efforts during our first year open. Not satisfied we saw this as a challenge and worked hard to be even better. Our efforts paid off and we are now absolutely delighted to be in possession of the GOLD award!
Holly Water Holidays is also delighted to be members of the Glamping Association and to operate within their code of conduct.
You can view our Accessibility statement here https://www.accessibilityguides.org/content/holly-water-holidays
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