I‘m going to try to cover the main glamping structures used in the UK:
- Shepherd’s huts
- Pods
- Bell tents
- Yurts
We’ll take a look at their advantages and disadvantages and how they all compare to the Shepherd’s hut.
Let’s start with Bell tents.
So, what is a bell tent? Bell Tents were originally used by the Federal Army Colonel, Henery Hopkins Sibley in Texas from 1850 to 1856.
Nowadays they are large family canvas tents that are generally used for the glamping industry. They come in different styles and sizes ranging from 3 metres right up to 8 metres. The life span for one of these tents ranges from 4 – 10 years if maintained. Bell tents are quick and easy to erect and with a little practice can be completed within 20 minutes. These tents are crafted with fire-retardant canvas materials that allow for the use of a wood fired stove inside. Another plus with this canvas material is the very good insulation properties it holds so will retain heat inside on those chilly nights. Bell tents are exceptionally stable in strong winds, if erected properly, and because of the weight of the canvas material you won’t get that flapping of the material when the wind picks up, but some glamp site owners take down their bell tents in the poorer weather months of the year, that’s down to personal choice. Quickly just to note that water and electric can be plumbed into these majestic tents, allowing for lighting and even a cosy kitchen area option to be installed in the larger ones. Toilet and showering facilities are generally based at a more permanent structure on the glamp site. Lastly, if you are on a low budget and looking to start a glamping site this may make your ears pickup, Bell tents are one of the cheaper glamping options out there on the market.
Okay, you now know what a Bell tent is along with some of the pros and cons.
What is a Yurt?
Similar to Bell tents a Yurt is also a descendant from a previous life used by the Buryat Mongolian community as well as being documented as the earliest structure unearthed in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, a bronze bowl unearthed at the same time was dated 600 BCE.
Yurts are a type of tent made from cotton canvas or polycotton, ranging from 5.5 metres right up to 12 metres in size. They have a wooden meshwork structure large enough to accommodate a family on their holiday. Yurts take roughly 30 minutes to an hour to be erected by a single person, but help is advisable. On average, Yurts have a life span of 13 to 14 years before you may need to renew but in general are quite low maintenance. One of the disadvantages with Yurts is that they can be cold in winter and very hot in summer and also in very heavy rain can sometimes leak. The fact that they can be prone to leaking is why some Yurt owners take them down in poorer weather months. With the option to install a wood burning stove winter temperatures can be overcome. Electricity and water can be installed into the Yurts again like the Bell tent, this allows for lighting and kitchen amenities inside. Bathroom areas are, like the Bell tents, placed in a more permanent structure on the glamp site. Again, similarly to the Bell tents the Yurts fall into the cheaper option end of the glamping market with Yurts typically more costly than their family member the Bell tent.
We will migrate to the more permanent structures for glamping, the Pods.
Pods
Pods have become a large part of the glamping market with many different styles and types but the most common is the pointed arched roofed structures regularly seen across the countryside. But Pods started off with a very different purpose. Back in the late 1990’s PODS were known as Portable on Demand Storage with the designed use of storing belongings on their driveways.
Pods are generally constructed from timber with plastic doors and windows and a felted roof. Depending on size they are well placed to house a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and seating area. I must point out that this is only in the larger Pods. There are smaller Pods on the market with just a bedroom and a small seating arrangement inside them whilst the kitchen and bathroom will need to be located elsewhere on the site. I’ve just touched on size there but some of the smaller Pods can be 2 metres by 2 metres ranging up to 6 metres by 3.5 metres and some companies offer larger Pods than this. Electricity and water can be installed into Pods to support the kitchen and bathroom but also give alternative options for heating with underfloor heating, storage heaters as well as wood burning stoves. Pods are generally well insulated although some of the cheaper ones on the market may not have much insulation at all. One of the downfalls of the timber Pod is that the wood requires maintenance annually to keep it in tip top shape and this means work. The lifespan of a Pod is around 10 to 12 years if maintained well but will require replacing over the lifetime of a glamping site. The costs of a Pod vary by size but are more costly than the Bell tents or the Yurts with more involved infrastructure required ahead of installation. Pods are the cheaper option for a more permanent glamping structure.
Shepherd’s Hut
Continuing with the more permanent glamping structures, the Shepherd’s hut is steeped in history with their intended use back in the 1800’s as a temporary home for farmers, or back then known as shepherd’s, to tend to their flocks of sheep out in the fields. Some of you may have come across Thomas Hardy’s novel Far from the Madding Crowd, published in 1874, the film actually came out in 2015, where Thomas described Gabriel Oak’s shepherd’s hut that’s she lived in.
A Shepherd’s hut is typically a timber structure with wriggly tins or timber clad body with a curved wriggly tin cladroof on a steel or timber chassis with cast wheels. Shepherd’s huts are manufactured in many different sizes, styles, and with many different uses, but for the purpose of this article we are going to stick with glamping. Shepherd’s hut sizes range from 3 to 7 metres and some companies craft larger huts or even two shepherd’s huts connected together to create one large hut. The double hut creates a space for families to enjoy the experience of glamping in a shepherd’s hut. Like Pods, Shepherd’s hut can have electrical and water supply connections to support a kitchen and a bathroom. Also like the pods, huts are generally well insulated, they have well-designed space within the Shepherd’s hut itself with decorative painted timber board wall cladding on the internal walls and some huts are very high spec, but the differences come, not only in the shape and style when you start to look at the external cladding, window and door style, but also the longevity of the Shepherd’s hut. Yes, the longevity of the hut is why there is a connection between Shepherd’s huts and their costly price tag. I mean they are still to this day, and I mean “they” as the original 19th century Shepherd’s huts, being renovated and repurposed for glamping, home offices, garden retreats and so on. So, a well-crafted shepherd’s hut will last a lifetime and beyond.
And yes, I am possibly going to be viewed as being biased as we are Shepherd’s hut manufacturers, but my aim of this article is to give a quick look at the comparisons between the different qualities each glamping option holds. Hopefully, I’ve helped give a little more information as to how Shepherd’s huts compare to other glamping options.