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Our move to Kent has opened up a new world of opportunities to experience southeastern England. Weekends are invitations for road trips to explore the Kent coastline, farming villages, ancient towns, vineyards, and more. As part of our life update series, we share highlights from our visit to the serene Romney Marsh and our stay at the Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts. This unusual but surprisingly cosy Bohemian country escape proved to us that farm stays can offer much-needed opportunities to retreat and reconnect with nature and with self.
The ‘Fifth Continent’ is less than an hour from our home!
We’re enjoying living less than one hour away from the coast of southeastern England. The M25 and M20 are close enough for us to start road trips without needing to navigate through inner-city traffic. Despite the unpredictability of motorway traffic, we’ve been mostly lucky whenever we’ve set out on our adventures in Kent.
We had never heard of Romney Marsh, a sparsely populated wetland region spanning the counties of Kent and Sussex. We later found out that Romney Marsh is home to some of the most famous sheep bred in England!
“The world is divided into Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Romney Marsh.”
– The ingoldsby legends
So goes the quote from the ‘The Ingoldsby Legends’, a collection of stories written by an English clergyman, Rev. Richard Harris Barham, almost 200 years ago.
The quote goes on to refer to Romney Marsh as ‘the fifth quarter of the globe’ which explains why the strapline ‘The Fifth Continent’ appears on many promotional materials about the area. The Marsh’s unique landscape makes this moniker quite fitting.
Trivia buffs will tell you about a time when Romney Marsh once provided cover for wool smuggling under the cover of darkness. Today those nights (combined with a low population density and minimal light pollution), make the Marsh one of the best areas in Kent for stargazing and sighting the Milky Way.
Visiting the Romney Marsh
Romney Marsh, located just off the M20 Motorway, is a sparsely populated area that stretches across 100 square miles in Kent. It is designated as an ‘Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’. With miles of coastline stretching from Hythe to Dungeness and a predominantly flat landscape, we were more than a little curious about the area.
Amidst all the drama of home projects and dealing with contractors, we decided that we could do with a weekend break. The chance to relax, recharge, and get back in touch with nature in a location that is only a short drive from us seemed like a welcome prospect.
Our itinerary for the weekend would likely include visits to Hythe and Folkestone as they were only a short drive from the Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts where we would be staying.
Timing an after-work departure, after an uneventful drive, we arrived in Romney Marsh just as the sun began its descent. Its dying embers cast a soft orange hue on a pair of solitary shepherd’s huts built on stilts and situated in a sheep field. One of them would be our abode for our weekend staycation. If Mother Nature had intended to welcome us with a captivating view, she certainly delivered.
The Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts company has created a very useful mobile app with all the information guests need for their stay. We read through the arrival information, followed the self-check-in instructions, and were soon inside The Lookerer.
The app includes notes on essentials to bring including all-weather clothes, wellies, trainers or walking boots, and a waterproof jacket. This being Britain, you can expect a rainshower on the best of days! We can’t stress enough that bringing the right shoes is very important. This is a working farm and the huts are located in a field full of sheep!
The Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts
Conceived by husband and wife team Paul and Kristina Boulden, the Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts are located on the family farm on the edge of Aldington (Ashford District, Kent). These huts, Rumwold and Lookerer, echoing the traditional designs of the early 1900s, were skillfully brought to life by a local craftsman.
However quaint they may look on the outside, the inside of the huts demonstrates attention to detail and rather crafty use of space. The interior decor presents the visitor with stylish countryside chic and Kentish charm that goes beyond mere aesthetics.
Both huts are completely self-contained and come fully equipped with a double bed and ample under-bed storage to keep bags and other items out of the way. The kitchen includes a two-ring hob and utensils which, when combined with the outdoor fire pit, provides sufficient facilities for self-catering. Think starry barbeque nights roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.
The built-in toilet and shower room have enough space for one person at a time. During our visit, the shower had decent water pressure and ample hot water supply. Leveraging their heritage, comfortable wool blankets and toiletries were supplied by the Boulden family’s sister business – Romney Marsh Wools.
The doors of the hut open up to a private seating area which extends the utility of the space by combining the indoors and outdoors in one seamless flow.
The option to have your shepherd’s hut stocked with locally sourced breakfast items is an extra perk that can be requested when booking a stay at the Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts. We were pleased to find our mini-fridge contained bacon, butter, milk, eggs, and desserts. Kristina, our host, had kindly accommodated our gluten and dairy-free requests and had provided ‘free from’ options as well.
Ready and excited for the weekend, we stored our bags away hurriedly so that we could sit on the steps of The Lookerer, enjoy uninterrupted views of the Romney Marsh, and finish watching the evening sky painted different shades of orange, pink, and red by the setting sun.
The Looker and the Lookerer
After a warm and comfortable night’s sleep with surprisingly little noise (despite the shepherd’s huts sharing the field with a few hundred Romney Sheep), we got up the next day to enjoy a hearty breakfast, opening up the doors of the hut to set up the foldable table and chairs in the Lookerer’s ‘garden’ area.
The hut’s name, ‘Lookerer’, is a nod to a time when the farm’s Marsh Shepherd lived across the road at Hurst Farm while looking after lambs in this field where the huts are situated.
The job title, ‘The Looker’, itself dates back to the 18th and 19th centuries on the Romney Marsh where shepherds, known as Lookers, were paid by estate owners to oversee vast flocks. Often needing to navigate a large amount of terrain in a single day, intentionally situated huts provided temporary shelter and accommodation for them.
Those weatherbeaten shepherds would have considered our much fancier holiday cottage, with its fresh pinewood scent, soft-touch electric hob, hot water bottles, cast iron fireplace, and woolly comforts (perfect for cosy winter nights) the height of luxury.
HDYTI Tip: We visited in late summer when nights were cooler. Decent insulation and wool blankets kept us warm. There is a cast iron wood-burning fireplace that can add extra heat if needed.
Cycling Romney Marsh
The Romney Marsh Huts app contains guides for exploring the local area as well as links to bookable experiences including wine tours, photography classes, arts, and craft retreats, group cycling tours, and food festivals which we found very helpful.
Our hosts had arranged bicycles from a local bike hire company that provides bike delivery and collection services from the shepherds’ huts. After breakfast, Omo went cycling and spent about an hour exploring the surrounding area.
Romney Marsh is the largest coastal wetland on the south coast of England. The Marsh’s flat landscape, quiet country lanes, and well-marked cycling routes present endless opportunities for self-guided tours of local villages, historical churches, nature reserves, and local beaches.
Cycling and walking are the best ways to really get close enough to experience it in a personal way. Routes take you through flat, green fields and shingle and sandy beaches. Above you are sweeping skies and around you is blissful solitude.
HDYTI Tip: To get around Romney Marsh, local taxi services are available. However, we found it easier to self-drive during our stay.
Rural life is a different pace!
Nights out in this part of rural Kent are mostly relatively quiet and laid-back affairs in village pubs.
Accustomed to indulging in late-night meals whenever we travel (this being a staycation after all), on our first night, we found ourselves somewhat caught off guard by the “surprise” revelation that the handful of pubs in Romney Marsh serving food shut down by 9 pm.
Ignorantly unprepared, we soon realised that unless you’ve arrived and placed your order by 8:30 pm, you’re basically out of options.
After driving around for about 30 minutes and being unable to find anything local, we decided to drive to Hythe (around 20 minutes away), a busier town that, fortunately, had more restaurant options and establishments that stayed open later. However, at the ones still open, we were told that we needed to have booked ahead!
Thankfully, we found a Thai restaurant that was happy to squeeze in one last order for us before closing down their kitchen for the night. Lessons learned, we resolved to be mindful of the different pace of life in Rural Kent the next time we visit.
A quirky holiday cottage staycation in Kent
Our last day at the Romney Marsh Shepherds Huts ended the same way as our first one had begun…with another striking sunset.
Reclining on the wooden bench outside The Lookerer, we felt that we were watching a timelapse video of the changing colours of the sky, sharing the captivating moment with our oblivious woolly neighbours.
Surrounded by such beauty and serenity, it would not have been out of place for shepherds of old who once found shelter in these huts to momentarily take their eyes off their flocks to appreciate the scenery.
The relatively slower pace of life in Romney Marsh took some getting used to initially but as soon as we settled into it, we found ourselves enjoying the opportunity to connect with nature.
Romney Marsh, the “Fifth Continent”, is a quirky but worthwhile holiday cottage staycation destination where farm life can be a welcome retreat.
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Useful information: To book a stay, visit bloomstays.com/property/the-lookerer or call Bloom Stays on 01227 903 404. Also, see romneymarshshepherdshuts.co.uk
A two-night stay in April 2024 in the Lookerer Hut – with two adults sharing – starts from £290. There is a minimum two-night stay per booking. Breakfast boxes curated with locally made products are available from £16 extra per booking. Due to the sheep, dogs are not permitted.
A range of optional add-ons with local activity providers and artisans are also available to book. These include bike hire from £25 per person via Channel Bike Hire (channelbikehire.com)
Declaration: This article originally appeared in House of Coco Magazine in 2021. However, it has been adapted for this blog.
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