The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Secluded lodges
DAN BROTZEL
ON the staycation front, Lincolnshire is one of England’s ‘forgotten’ counties. It sometimes seems to struggle for attention, especially as it lies just north and west of much-hyped Norfolk, long the province of affluent second-homers and holidaymakers up from the Home Counties.
But, as we were to discover, Lincolnshire shares many of the delights of its flashier cousin, as well as a few treasures all its own. There’s much more to the area than wheat fields, dykes and Skeggy, as a long family weekend based at Bainland Country Park soon revealed.
Once a trailer and caravan park,
Bainland – a 30-minute drive from Lincoln and around five hours from the central belt – has been in the Craddock family for decades. After current owner Simon inherited the site from his dad, he began converting it into something rather more upmarket: a luxury campus of high-end lodges and safari-style glamping tents set in 45 acres of parkland, with enough space and mod cons for couples and families to cocoon themselves away from the hurlyburly for days on end.
The accommodation comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. The so-called Big Beast ‘tents’ are about as upscale as glamping gets, barely tents at all, with built-in kitchens, bean bags, and log burners (though the walls are canvas, so you may need an extra layer of clothes).
The interiors are great fun for the kids, with ladders to clamber up and beds tucked away behind wooden shutters.
Every lodge on the site comes with a wooden terrace to sit out on, a small private garden and at least two hot tubs. Indeed, the park is full of examples of Simon’s quirky personality: life-size sculptures of animals dotted around the grounds, a family of friendly young goats sleeping in a converted railway carriage, arcade games and air hockey.
The majority of the lodges are also petfriendly, and there are lots of great walks in the surrounding woodlands for dog owners to enjoy.
Also on site, in unrestricted times, there’s archery, tennis and volleyball to enjoy, plus a swimming pool and ping pong in a central block.
Bikes are for hire too, and the park is just next door to Woodhall Spa Golf Club, the home of England Golf. These days, the park is busy with bookings year round, and is always very popular over Christmas and the New Year.
We stayed at the very high end of this high-end resort – the English Garden Villa, one of two villas which can take up to 24 people in spacious seclusion (currently booking for groups of 6), with 12 en-suite bedrooms and witty designer decor.
The inside-out, Mediterranean-inspired layout offers a vast living-room area containing pool table, old-school table-top Space Invaders, giant sofas, a huge TV, and an ample breakfast bar alongside a deluxe kitchen area fully kitted out with Le Creuset, right down to the mugs.
Best of all, this area has its very own heated pool with a removable cover, firepits, and of course, hot tubs. Oh, and you’ve got your own exclusive tennis court, about 20 steps away...
For next year, a few more lodges are being built in an unused area, a pack of llamas and petting zoo are on the radar, and a project to rewild the whole area is well under way.
Extensive planting will create even more of a natural oasis feel, and – rather in the style of Center Parcs – attract more wildlife and colour into the park.
Many people come to Bainland with a plan to escape the outside world, and that very much works. But if you do venture beyond the park’s unprepossessing gates, there’s plenty to see and do.
With check-in at 4pm, we arrived early and spent the day in Lincoln.
We wandered around the cathedral which, with its vast early gothic facade, high-vaulted interior, monumental effigies and stunning rose windows, is just about everything you could hope for from a jewel of medieval church architecture that was once the tallest building in Europe.
I particularly admired William Fairbanks’s The Forest Stations, an unusual contemporary take on the traditional stations of the cross carved from different shades and types of timber.
Also at Lincoln, if available you shouldn’t