Blackdown Yurts - Yurt Holidays in Devon

20% off and the forecast is shaping up!

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 08:22:11 +0000

This weekend we have some last minute availability in the yurts and are offering a 20% discount if you want to pop down to this lovely corner of Devon and enjoy some time away from the hustle and bustle. Grab your family and pop down for a yurt holiday in the devon sunshine and we will get the fire in the yurt going to take the edge of that evening chill. The weather forecast says highs of 15ºC on Saturday and it looks like you could be enjoying a barbecue on Friday evening as the sun sets on your yurt.

Give Amanda a call on 07703 312294 and grab a yurt for your weekend or you can send us an email to blackdownyurts@me.com

The Hinterlands at Blackdown Yurts

admin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:32:16 +0000

Benjamin Chesterton from duckrabbit & Brenda Ann Kenneally © Rebecca Harley

Blackdown Yurts are happy to announce that we are hosting The Hinterlands workshops again this year. The Hinterlands residential workshops take all that we have to offer here at Blackdown Yurts and put it into a learning environment. Founded by photographers Rebecca Harley & Mike Lusmore who wanted to create small workshop groups that could settle into the hills for a week of wood burners, cosy yurts, the great outdoors dining on scrumptious local food whilst learning new skills at their own pace.

This year The Hinterlands is putting on two workshops (29th May – 4th June & 24th – 29th June) which focus on practical learning methods in multimedia and photography. BBC radio producer Benjamin Chesterton who runs production company duckrabbit is running one of his well know photofilm workshops with The Hinterlands. The process produces short multi-layered pieces which are a combination of documentary audio and still photography and are highly effective at getting information across to an audience quickly. Take a look at the Blackdown Yurts photofilm if you want to see an example or head to duckrabbit’s website (www.duckrabbit.info) to see some of their inspriring work with people like the BBC, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Riverford Organics.

Screening with the village in the Big Barn at The Hinterlands 2011 © Mike Lusmore

June sees Blackdown Yurts go international as award winning American photographer Brenda Ann Kenneally swaps the busy streets of New York for the hustle and bustle of the Blackdown Hills. Brenda’s work centralises around in depth stories about family life in New York and she has a passion for sharing hew work. In 2007 she co-founded a multimedia sharing website called The Raw File for documentary storytellers aiming to distribute socially reflective media and to provoke conversations about the work. The workshop at Blackdown Yurts will work with ten participants on their storytelling methods, working one-on-one to look at past, current and future work and find their individual voices as storytellers.

We hope to showcase some of the work that these photographers do in the local community back here on our site after the workshops so keep an eye out. In the meantime if you want to read more about The Hinterlands you can visit their new website at www.thehinterlands.co.uk or email Mike Lusmore at mike@thehinterlands.co.uk with any queries.

BBC get down to the Blackdown Hills

admin — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:24:28 +0000

The BBC’s Matt Baker and Ellie Harrison got down to the Blackdown Hills recently to check out all of the weird and wonderful goings on in this part of the world. See more over at the BBC by clicking on this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bzt32 or get down here and see for yourself!

Availability 20th April with a 10% discount

admin — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 10:10:57 +0000

We have three yurts available on the weekend of the 20th April (20th, 21st & 22nd April) due to a last minute cancellation. Bookings for these yurts will have a 10% discount.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch for more information.

The yurts are up again for another season.

admin — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:31:05 +0000

It’s that time of the year again when there’s a little bit of Spring in the air, the buds are out on the trees and the daffodils are in bloom. It’s been a long winter, but we are once again preparing the site for the season ahead. Mr Mole has put up the yurts up again and Mrs Mole and friends have been busy preparing the insides, making the beds and putting all the furniture back in. We are taking bookings for the year ahead and already the diary is very busy, soon the site will be buzzing again with people pulling us all out of our winter slumber – now all we need is a little bit of sunshine .

Summer rain & Chickens

admin — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 22:15:41 +0000

In the last week we’ve had some much needed rain. The Devonshire fields have been dry and the crops will be happy to have a good watering. The extra moisture in the air has kept our yurters on their toes although the log burners in the yurts have been keeping everyone warm.

The view after the rain today across towards Exeter was the best thing the rain could have brought though. It was so clear I thought for a moment that I was in the French countryside.

The Hinterlands workshop

admin — Sun, 29 May 2011 21:18:22 +0000

We thought a fully booked workshop held at the Blackdown Yurts site would be a great reason for us to blog here on the ‘News’ section of Blackdown Yurts. Please come back to hear about what’s going on in a field near us..

The Hinterlands workshop organised by Rebecca Harley & Mike Lusmore in collaboration with duckrabbit taught photographers the skills to gather material and assemble photofilms (like the brilliant piece on the front page of our site). The workshop took over all four yurts and the field kitchen and resulted in a fifteen very happy participants and six very happy organisers.

The photographers got out in the local community to work on stories at the Devon & Somerset Gliding Club, the South Devon Railway Trust and Yarak Birds of Prey to name a few. They had a great time and after completing their photofilms invited members from the local community to come and review their work over a beer before retiring to the communal bonfire to see the evening in. All in all it was a great success and we look forward to having them all back!

Coming soon..

admin — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 16:31:45 +0000

Coming soon..news from the mole in the hole..