Gill Head Farm

Gill Head is a lovely little working hill farm that’s been run by the same family for several generations. Ensconced within the Lake District National Park, yet far removed from the tourist hordes, it offers space for tents and caravans, as well as farmhouse accommodation, a log cabin and six timber camping pods.

The main camping meadow is wide and flat with space for around 50 pitches (the 21 hardstanding caravan pitches are in a separate field), offering campers grand westerly views to Blencathra – a ridge of six separate fell tops – and the Northern Fells, stretching right down the valley to Keswick.

There are fields and streams to paddle in, an organised play area for children, and decent facilities that include a modern and spacious shower, toilet, and laundry block. For rainy days there’s also a log cabin with a television lounge and undercover barbecue area.

Beyond the farm lie the Lakes and a wealth of hiking, biking and water-based activities (Ullswater is less than a 10-minute drive away) and the campsite owners have a good relationship with a local outdoor adventure company, Reach Beyond Adventure, and can help organise anything from bushcraft courses to ghyll scrambling and rock climbing.

Those ‘who don’t want to feel like they’re on a campsite’, as the owners put it, can ask to pitch in the ‘hidden’ field – over a bridge as if leaving the site altogether – which comes with its own waterfall and steep, wooded banks. You’ll have to walk further to the shower block but it’s a small price to pay for such pleasant, leafy isolation.