Under Milk Wood
In the end, 2020 wasn’t cancelled – but your summer holiday probably was. Escape the madding crowd clambering for last-minute sun and nourish your mind at fforest in west Wales. Those who live their lives there are wholly good
When we started to emerge from lockdown hibernation in early July and the UK government began tentatively lifting restrictions on travel, many of us rushed to check out the prices of last-minute flights to Greek island boltholes. I know because my wife was five of them.
Not me, however. I set my sights on somewhere altogether wetter and greener, a place decidedly closer to home and yet resolutely far flung. My dream destination was fforest – a magical piece of woodland in Pembrokeshire’s Cilgerran, perched on the lush River Teifi gorge, and a short trek from Cardigan on the Welsh coast. It’s a secret that I feel conflicted in sharing.
How to describe fforest? There is camping, there is fire, there is al fresco dining. There is tip-toeing over damp grass to communal shower blocks.
So far, so typical of the Great British open-air holiday. But there are also organically furnished crog lofts, dome tents with wood burners and adjoining camp kitchens, and a cedar barrel sauna hidden away in a green-canopied corner of the wild, 200-acre site. Food is cultivated and beer is brewed. An old slate and stone crofter’s cottage has been converted into the smallest pub in Wales, Y Bwthyn, a place of such convivial beauty and warmth that it’s enough to bring a tear to a grown man’s eye.
All around are welcoming structures and elevations erected from wood and canvas: a covered firepit over which whole lambs are roasted, a giant hat tipi for hosting bands and screenings. Smoke and flame abound and are symbols of life and hospitality. To stay here is to be away from everything and yet at the beating heart of something. Something good. Whatever you do, just don’t call it glamping. Fforest is not glam. It is special – spiritual, even. Owners James and Sian Lynch are designers and artisans by trade. Having graduated from art school in the 1980s, James began reinvigorating old warehouses in London’s Shoreditch – then a run-down and dilapidated borough – initially turning them into studios and workspaces for fellow creatives, but eventually developing loft apartments for the growing City yuppie scene. By the mid-1990s, when bohemia had fully transitioned into another high-price stretch of the megalopolis, the couple and their young sons set out for a new life in Wales – one that celebrated the outdoors, simplicity, community and creativity. Fforest was born.
“Wake up to a cold, serene and transformative wild swim in the River Teifi”
A Soak with a View
Here’s a typical day in this special place. Wake up early in your onsen dome. Onsen is the Japanese term for hot-spring baths. What this means in a fforest context is that your dome tent is connected to a private, Japanese-style
bath-house with shower, basin and sunken concrete tub, from which you can soak in views of the surrounding countryside. This needn’t concern you now, however, because first you are going for a run through the forest, along the verdant gorge, before joining fellow residents for a wild swim in the Teifi. It is cold, serene and transformative.
Breakfast back at fforest Lodge consists of local bread, honey, eggs and fruit, unless you’re lucky enough to have someone rustling up a bacon sarnie on the wood-burning stove back at your dome’s outdoor kitchen. Plans for the day ahead range from action-packed to active recovery. For those seeking exhilaration, coasteering or kayaking in the Irish Sea more than fits the bill; meanwhile, for some dopamine to temper that adrenalin hit, canoeing down the Teifi is both calming and invigorating. Cyclists will find the woods, valleys and coastal roads of west Wales an endless source of pleasure.
For a more contemplative, rootsier experience, bushcraft courses, drawing classes, sausage-making tutorials and indigo-dyeing lessons all take place at the many events and gatherings fforest hosts throughout the year.
Come 6pm, it’s time for a local brew around the fire outside Y Bwthyn and a chat with James – the “fforestchief” – and fellow guests. Dinner might be pizza from the wood-fired oven or barbecued meats and vegetables grown on site. As the night draws in and kids are diverted by the movies playing in the tipi, the drink and conversation grow a little more serious, the firelight becomes more enveloping and the atmosphere more communal. There will be moments when you look around – at your friends and family, at the moonlit trees, at your hosts – and wonder whether there is any better place on Earth to be at that very moment.
But then again, it’s still really quite clement in Zakynthos at this time of year. Your choice.