‘Overlooked only by trees’: a calming autumn cabin stay in north Norfolk

As we walked through the orchard to our cabin at dusk, shadowy figures emerged from the mist. We stood stock-still and held our breath. Most of them saw us and fled, but one held its ground, unwilling to relinquish its stolen goods. Muntjac have clearly developed quite a taste for windfall apples.

My boyfriend and I left the little deer to dinner and walked on to the quince orchard, where our cabin waited in the far corner. This is the sixth Red Cabin to open in the UK. The first was on a sheep farm in Kent; others followed on farms and vineyards in south and east England. Ours was on Drove Orchards on the edge of the village of Thornham, on the north Norfolk coast.

On this chilly late October evening, our first priority was to start three fires: one in the wood-fired stove to heat the cabin, the others for the built-in sauna and the hot tub on the deck. It sounded arduous but was actually easy as the stoves were ready laid with starter logs – guests simply have to light the log, then add more wood when needed.

The cabin was soon toasty – its recycled plastic insulation keeps it pretty warm anyway – but it would take a couple of hours for the sauna and tub to heat up. We cracked open the rhubarb cider we had bought from the onsite farm shop and settled down to watch for owls. We heard one or two calling, but only geese passed overhead.

The sauna is at one end of the cabin, accessed from the deck. We started stints in it when it reached a pleasant 40C, but kept stoking it until it got to a sweaty 70C. We waited longer for the hot tub, finally easing into it when it was steaming and the sky was filled with stars. Like all the cabins, the one at Drove Orchards is completely private; we were overlooked only by trees.

After such a relaxing evening, we slept soundly in the kingsize bed with superbly squishy pillows, and woke to the view of woodland through the huge picture window. According to the design notes, the cabins are built for “calm rather than cosiness”, with Japanese and Scandinavian influences. The unfussy design allows nature to take centre stage, as it did on this bright autumn morning. Sunlight streamed into the cabin as we made coffee in the tiny kitchen and drank it out on the deck, listening to the birdsong.

The cabins are all identical, built in Britain by a small team using largely British materials (the sauna components are Finnish). They are built on a wheeled chassis, so they don’t need concrete foundations, and made from timber, plywood, cork, wool and hemp. They are off-grid – electricity is generated by solar panels on the roof and stored in batteries, and the “smart” dry toilet uses a system that bags waste (guests just press a button, like regular flushing). Each cabin has water from the mains supply.

After hot showers in the compact bathroom, we set off on foot. We had driven to Drove Orchards, but actually you don’t need a car – the nearest train station is King’s Lynn, and the Coastliner bus from there stops right outside the orchard. The other cabins are also in secluded but not wild locations, within walking distance of a pub and various attractions. On Uplees Fruit Farm in Oare, Kent, for example, there is a private swimming lake right outside. At Drove, it is a half-hour walk on footpaths and boardwalks across the marshes to Thornham Beach and Holme Dunes nature reserve.

We fancied a longer walk, so we turned right rather than left at the coast and headed to RSPB Titchwell Marsh, then walked along the vast sandy beach to Brancaster. The tide was way out but we still had to take off our boots, roll up our trousers and wade across some icy channels. We continued to Brancaster Staithe before catching the bus back, so we had time to explore the shops at Drove – as well as the farm shop, there are independent homewares, antiques, vintage clothes and a wine merchant, plus a cafe, pizzeria and chippy.

We decided to head into Thornham for dinner, about 15 minutes’ walk from the cabin. The cosy 16th-century Lifeboat Inn serves Norfolk drinks (Woodforde’s Wherry beer, Flint Vineyard’s sparkling rosé) by an open fire, and has a seasonal menu – I had an excellent pumpkin katsu curry (£22).

The Red Cabin’s founder, Tally Rix, aims to help farmers diversify. She works with individual landowners, and with tenant farmers through the National Trust, to select new sites for the cabins. Two more are opening this month and next: at Wyken Vineyards in Stanton, Suffolk, and Rathfinny Wine Estate in Alfriston, East Sussex.

We visited Drove a little too late for this year’s pick-your-own season, when guests can help themselves to 140 varieties of apples, pears, plums, cherries and quinces. Instead, we toasted the harvest with a glass of newly pressed sparkling apple juice. If the delicious drink was anything to go by, I could see why the local deer are so keen on the fruit.

The trip was provided by The Red Cabin. Cabins from £220 a night, sleeps up to four, theredcabin.co.uk