Fen End Farm Campsite Cottenham Cambridgeshire
The Orchard Campsite at Fen End Farm lies on the fen edge a little way beyond Cottenham village, with Cambridge about ten miles down the road. It is a tiny eco-campsite on a working organic farm, with just two handcrafted yurts, two bell tents and four grass tent pitches dotted among one hundred apple trees. Paths and pitches are mown while the rest of the orchard is left to grow tall with grass and wildflowers, and a perimeter hedge wraps the whole site, so it feels secluded and wonderfully private. At night it is genuinely dark, which makes it a lovely spot for stargazing around the campfire. The campsite is open from May to September.
Accommodation
- Oak Yurt and Chestnut Yurt – two handcrafted 16ft yurts, Oak in white canvas and Chestnut in olive. Each has a king-size bed with sheet provided, a log-burner with fire guard, three fold-up foam bed mats, two battery-powered lanterns, and matches and firelighters. They sleep up to 5 – a maximum of 4 adults, or a combination of adults and children.
- Wren and Cuckoo bell tents – two traditional bell tents, each with a double bed and sheet provided, a small log-burner with fire guard, up to three fold-up foam bed mats and a battery-powered lantern. They also sleep up to 5, with a maximum of 4 adults. Cuckoo is tucked away in its own corner for extra privacy, and Wren sits a little nearer the Apple Hut and washrooms.
- Four grass tent pitches – bring your own tent and pitch among the apple trees. Each pitch is roughly 5m x 10m and will take up to two 2-man tents. The maximum tent width is 5 metres because of the spacing between the rows of trees.
- Outside every yurt, bell tent and pitch – its own fire bowl or fire pit with a wire rack for cooking over the fire, plus two fixed wooden bench seats at the yurts and bell tents.
- Exclusive use of the whole orchard – the entire site for one group of up to 32 people including children, with a minimum two-night stay, or three nights over a bank holiday.
Facilities on Site
- The Apple Hut, a communal log cabin with a small kitchenette, two sinks with hot and cold mains water, three fridges with a small ice-box freezer compartment, two kettles, dining table and chairs, a log-burner, power sockets and USB charging points
- Two washrooms, each with a hot shower, wash basin and compost toilet. The larger one has a baby change mat
- Two further compost toilet cubicles and an outdoor straw bale urinal
- Eco-friendly shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, hand soap and washing-up liquid provided. Only certified biodegradable products may be used in the drainage system
- Pots, pans, crockery, cutlery, utensils, mugs, tea towels and dish cloths in the Apple Hut
- Fire blanket, first aid kit, fire extinguishers and carbon monoxide detectors in the Apple Hut, yurts and bell tents
- Campfires encouraged, with a fire pit and cooking grill at every pitch
- Parking in a grass field next to the orchard, with large wheelbarrows provided to move your things to your pitch. No vehicles in the orchard itself
- All energy generated on site by a 6kw wind turbine and a 40kw solar array, backed by a Good Energy grid connection. Phones can be charged in the Apple Hut
- 117 acres of working organic farm to explore, with barn owls, buzzards, breeding skylarks, a small woodland, hens, Red Poll cattle and ponies
OPTIONAL EXTRAS
- Apple juice from the orchard you are sleeping in – pressed from a blend of ten traditional apple varieties grown organically on the farm. The same trees shade the pitches
- Homemade apple juice ice lollies, made from that juice
- Beef burgers – made exclusively for the farm by the butcher in Cottenham village, using beef from the family’s own Red Poll herd
- Frozen minced beef from the same herd, organic and grass-fed on the farm’s own meadows
- Local cider from a nearby producer
- Kiln-dried firewood and kindling
- Pillows and duvet for the main bed in the yurts, £25, chosen at the time of booking
- Single-ring portable gas stove hire – there is no hob or oven on site, so you will need this or your own camping stove
- BBQ available on request
- Foraging courses from Totally Wild UK, hosted on the farm
Local Area and Things to Do
Cambridge is about forty-five minutes away using the Park & Ride bus, and no visit is complete without a punt along the Cam – take a guided tour of The Backs, hire one yourself, or swap it for a canoe and paddle to Grantchester. The city has an unusual number of free museums for its size: the Zoology Museum with its whale and giant ground sloth skeletons, the Sedgwick Museum for dinosaurs, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Fitzwilliam Museum, and Kettle’s Yard for contemporary art.
Closer to the farm, Milton Country Park is fifteen minutes away with lakeside and woodland walks, playgrounds, fishing and a café, and you can book canoeing or paddleboarding. Cambridge Aquapark and Hannam’s Wake Hub is twenty minutes away for wakeboarding, paddleboarding, open-water swimming and an inflatable assault course on the lake.
Wicken Fen nature reserve is half an hour away and shows you what the fens looked like before they were drained, with boardwalks suitable for pushchairs, bird hides, Highland cattle, semi-feral Konik ponies, a dragonfly centre and a fen-dwellers cottage. Anglesey Abbey is twenty-five minutes away, a Jacobean-style National Trust house with gardens, a working watermill and an adventure playground in the woods.
Ely is thirty minutes away, where the cathedral is the only building in the UK listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World, alongside Oliver Cromwell’s House, Ely Museum, a riverside walk and river tours on the Liberty Belle.
For something different, there are bushcraft experiences for adults and children at Wildly Curious in Bourn, PAUS Scandinavian-style outdoor spa with hot tubs, barrel saunas and plunge pools, and Highland Cow Cottage where you can groom highland cattle and then have afternoon tea – all within about half an hour.
Prices
- Yurts – from £92.50 per night
- Bell tents – from £82.50 per night
- Camping pitches – from £15 per adult per night, teens aged 13 to 17 £9.50, children aged 2 to 12 £7.50, infants under 2 free
- Exclusive use of the whole orchard – from £360 per night midweek and £460 per night at weekends, with a 20% deposit on booking and the balance due eight weeks before your stay
Notes
- Open May to September
- Minimum two-night stay, or three nights over a bank holiday
- Group bookings of up to 6 adults plus children, to a maximum of 12 people, are welcome. Larger groups should book exclusive use of the orchard
- Exclusive use cannot be booked online – check availability first, then contact the site directly
- You will need to bring pillows and duvets or sleeping bags, single sheets for the foam bed mats, towels, torches as the orchard paths are unlit, and a camping stove
- No electric hook-ups, and no electricity in the accommodation. Sockets are available in the Apple Hut
- Sorry, no dogs or other pets. Please contact the site in advance about assistance dogs
- Pitches are not suitable for campervans, and no vehicles are allowed in the orchard
- No drones, as the farm has livestock and an airstrip
- Quiet after 9pm – fireside conversation and acoustic instruments are welcome
- This is a working farm, with tractors, machinery, livestock and electric fences around