DREAM LOG CABINS
In this modern digital age, many people are tempted into the countryside to find peace in secluded log cabins. What is this growing trend for simple living, what makes the perfect hideaway and how can you experience one for yourself?
Build your own retreat from the world, in woodland or your garden – or simply stay in one for a joyful getaway.
Picture the scene. You’re cradling a steaming enamel mug of tea, wrapped in a blanket, seated on a wooden deck and looking out into a wooded wilderness, mist enveloping trunks and dappled sunlight breaking through the upper canopies to illuminate bracken on the forest floor.
All is calm, all is quiet, save for the rustling of branches or the call of a bird. No phone beeps to disrupt the peace, you’re not swiping on an iPad or frustrated at the weak wifi signal – there isn’t any. There’s only you, the surrounding natural world and, behind you, a small timber hut constructed from trees that grew a few feet from this spot.
Every day, more of us are seeking out sanctuaries such as this, whether to holiday in or by building our own. As modern life becomes more hurried, more technological, we are escaping into nature; craving secluded spaces disconnected from the rest of the world.
Log cabins have long been the reserve of large forested areas such as Germany and Scandinavia, as well as North America after the European pioneers imported their building style to the land of the free
(Little House on the Prarie author Laura Ingalls Wilder comes to mind). In these parts of the world people talk of their grandparents’ cabin set in vast sweeps of the Canadian wilderness or perched on a Norwegian mountainside. But now log cabins are a big trend in the UK and have become more than garden offices or extra storage space.
Woodsman and carpenter Ben Law built a cruck-framed home in Prickly Nut Wood, an ancient woodland in West Sussex, which featured on Grand Designs. He now builds structures for other nature lovers looking for an escape and says demand is higher than ever. “As our population grows and escaping to wild places becomes more challenging, there is a growing demand for woodland retreats,” he says. “I believe spending time in
a woodland cabin helps unlock a latent primal instinct, it takes us back to our roots. Building a log cabin or woodland retreat has a sense of connecting back to wilder times when making our home from what was around us was not a choice, but the only option.”
And if crafting cabins by hand isn’t your strong point, many beautiful structures built in the UK are available for all to enjoy. In Dorset, woodsman Guy Mallinson has built a treehouse in an ancient oak, which is available for people to stay in and try their hand at green woodworking courses. In Sussex, groups of up to six people descend on a frontier-style cabin to channel their inner pioneers, while in the Lake District, romantic couples queue up to book a stay at the Love Shack, a gorgeous treehouse overlooking Lake Windermere (see over).
And you can’t ignore the impact of the hipster trend – not just the lumberjack look with its impressive beards, tattoos and check shirts but the slow living, the spoon-carving and log-chopping, the lake swimming, the stargazing and the campfires. For anyone looking to join the dream or simply marvel at the designs, there is a plethora of literature and beautiful imagery on the subject, from Zach Klein’s book Cabin Porn to Foster Huntington’s inspirational treehouse near the Oregon border, pictures of which are followed by a million people on Instagram.
In Britain, could these simple, more affordable structures provide the answer to housing troubles? A couple near Hereford built a cabin on the outskirts of the town for £1,000 using scrap materials as a way of getting on the property ladder. Whether you dream of building your own cabin retreat, or want to stay in one for a few