Taste of Middle Earth in Braco with hobbit-style holiday homes

Special Lord Of The Rings venue lets fans live just like the Tolkien characters

Lord of the Rings fans can now stay in a hole from home in new underground holiday pods.

Middle Earth has been recreated at Craighead Howff, near Braco, as one of two Hobbit homes is open for business.

The buildings have been dug into the sloping hillside, solely designed by site owner Ian Keir and his son Lewis.

The second home is almost complete, with Ian and his wife Heather working hard to prepare for its first guests arriving next week.

Holidaymakers seeking a glamping experience with mod-cons should look elsewhere as the pods will have no electricity and only a compost toilet.

The only signs of modern living are a shower and a gas cylinder to heat water.

But the pods are not without home comforts as the cosy furniture inside Tolkien’s creations have been replicated.

Mother-of-three Heather said: “We have had three bookings in the first house since it opened, and the response after their visit has been fantastic.

“We wanted to do something different to traditional glamping pods, and they really are unique.

“They’re built into the ground and have bare stone walls, although they have all the comfortable furniture you would expect to find in a hobbit’s house.

“Even the landscape is like being in the Shire.”

The holiday homes are expected to attract fans of The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit but Heather admitted neither she nor Ian has read the books or seen the films.

“We moved to the house 30 years ago and didn’t own any of the land so when the opportunity came up, we bought some land, including the holiday cottage, and renovated that,” she said.

“Then we started thinking about what else we could offer and came up with this. We aren’t massive fans of Lord Of The Rings or anything, we just wanted to do something different.”

Last year, the couple visited Hobbiton, the movie set in New Zealand, which cemented their plans.

Craighead Howf already offers a treehouse, a summerhouse and a cabin but the hobbit houses are the first to be built into the ground.

We wanted to do something different to traditional glamping pods, and they really are unique

Ian Keir and his wife Heather outside one of the hobbit houses. Below: an interior shot.