There's a new way to sleep among the apple trees of north Norfolk. The Red Cabin, a small British company that places handmade off-grid cabins on working farms, has opened its sixth site at Drove Orchards near the village of Thornham, right on the coast. Reviewers who stayed in late October describe an evening that involved lighting three separate wood stoves — one to heat the cabin, one for a built-in sauna, one for the deck-side hot tub — before sinking into steaming water under a starry sky, watched over only by trees.
The cabins themselves are an interesting piece of design. Each one is identical, built in Britain from timber, plywood, cork, wool and hemp (with Finnish sauna parts), and mounted on a wheeled chassis so no concrete foundations are needed. They're genuinely off-grid: roof solar panels charge batteries for power, waste is handled by a bagging dry toilet, and only the water comes from the mains. The look is deliberately unfussy — Japanese and Scandinavian influences, a kingsize bed, a big picture window framing the woodland — designed, in the company's words, for calm rather than cosiness. Insulation from recycled plastic keeps them warm even before the stove gets going.
The Thornham setting earns its keep. The cabin sits at the edge of a working orchard — muntjac deer famously raid the windfall apples — and it's a half-hour walk across marsh paths and boardwalks to Thornham Beach and Holme Dunes nature reserve. Keen walkers can push on to RSPB Titchwell Marsh and the long sandy beach at Brancaster, then bus it back. Back at the orchard there's a cluster of independent shops (homewares, antiques, vintage clothes, a wine merchant) plus a cafe, pizzeria and chippy, and the 16th-century Lifeboat Inn in Thornham does a solid seasonal menu — pumpkin katsu curry, local Woodforde's beer — about 15 minutes' walk away.
Practicalities are refreshingly simple: you don't need a car. King's Lynn is the nearest rail station and the Coastliner bus stops outside the orchard. Cabins sleep up to four and start at £220 a night, and the sauna, hot tub and stove all come laid and ready to light.
Founder Tally Rix's model is about helping farmers diversify, and more sites are on the way — two opening imminently at Wyken Vineyards in Suffolk and Rathfinny Wine Estate in East Sussex, joining existing cabins in Kent (one with a private swimming lake) and elsewhere in southern and eastern England. In pick-your-own season at Drove, guests can help themselves to 140 varieties of apples, pears, plums, cherries and quinces.
This one's for slow-travel types: couples or small families who want seclusion, a wood-fired sauna, dark skies and good walking, without giving up a proper bed, hot showers or a pub dinner.
