The Inshriach House Spa.

The farmyard has been a scene of hectic activity these last few weeks. For the last Insider Festival we built a wood fired hot tub on an arrows military trailer and a wood fired sauna in a very decrepit horsebox but we never had the chance to finish them properly. With the holiday season starting and our fancy camping business going from strength to strength we set ourselves a very short deadline to make them nice. Jon Panniers is our resident guitar maker and all round expert wood worker, just the man to apply strips of reclaimed oak around the tub and a final layer of the bright red gel coat. I set to putting a new window and another reclaimed parquet floor in the sauna and Sam (Jon's girlfriend) set about the first shed / compost loo transformation by combining a cheap shed with a reclaimed roof and window and its own solar lighting. We had a deadline of Friday afternoon for a guinea pig hen party and on Friday morning our motley convoy finally rolled out of the farmyard towards the march pool. Then we hit ebay for a petrol powered pump to fill it with water, added a tipi as a changing room, put fairy lights in the trees, inset solar lights into the sauna floor and hauled in an ancient land rover to use as the log shed.

On the first firing the hot tub took a day and a half to heat up. Saturdays party turned into Sundays hot tub. The second weekend we had the technique down a bit better and we were in business in a mere 12 hours. By the third weekend a brand new and enormous stainless steel burner had arrived from Germany so now our firing time from not hot at all to sometimes way too hot to use is now down to around 4 hours

The Inshriach Spa will be available from 1st April. If you are staying in the house or one of the Canopy and stars places the sauna is £5 and you can use it whenever we haven't got an exclusive booking and aren't fixing it. If you are staying here and want the hot tub and sauna we can fire them all up for you and look after them for the day for £150. We can also take bookings from people not staying at Inshriach to use it for the afternoon, that will start from £250 but we can add bell tents, massage, food and all sorts, you can even arrive by boat if you want. All of those are a lot cheaper than just hiring a small hot tub for the weekend.

These pictures do no justice to how beautiful the setting is. You can see a gallery of the whole operation over on the Inshriach House Facebook page

Avie-more the Movie.

Thanks to Ollie who stayed here last week for this fine piece of film making.

Avie-more from Ollie Gallant on Vimeo.

Late availability for May - 25% off.

The last 2 weeks we have available on Inshriach House before the peak Summer season kicks in are the weeks starting Monday 5th May and Monday 12th May. We are offering 25% off either full week or weekend bookings on those dates which brings them in at £2100 for a full week or £1575 for a weekend. Email hello@inshriachhouse.com for details.

Jon Panniers - bespoke guitars and joinery.

Jon Panniers has been the main man on the Insider build team for the last 5 years and it took me all that to persuade him to move to Inshriach on a permanent basis. Jon is a trained luthier and builder of custom acoustic guitars and can repair and set up stringed instruments. Until we get that business established he is also happy to turn his hand to a kitchen, some shutters, set building or general high quality joinery.

We have turned over the squash court to become his workshop and are busy wiring it up, fitting the extraction system and installing some mighty tools and he can build pretty much anything in house for very reasonable rates.

If you want a quote for something, however unusual or elaborate, or if you have sat on your guitar, drop him an email to jmpanniers@yahoo.co.uk.

Badger in a hole.

The badgers used to turn up in the farmyard most days at dusk, intent on wreaking merry destructive havoc amongst the chickens. That was until we trained the chickens to put themselves to bed through a high level hatch. Now the bins and compost and any food we choose to leave out are a more achievable target. This fella must have been snooping around the yard and had fallen into the inspection pit in the workshop. He sat tight and unnoticed in a corner for the time it took to me remove an exhaust and I only spotted him when I dropped a spanner and shone my torch at him. This is not the usual fighty flighty attitude I have encountered from cornered badgers in the past so presuming he may have been down there some time I took down some chicken soup and water and some dog food and then made him a ramp and by the morning both the food and the badger were gone.

The Inshriach Shepherds Hut - part II.

This is the shepherds hut out in position. I have been staying in it the last few nights and it is a delicious little nest. Our friend Lucy donated a little Alles stove that does a fine job of roasting the occupants and on which you can cook very small meals. Marcus the smithy folded up some steel to support the steps, Lizzie made the curtains and turned the bed into a ball-pool of cushions, we made some little shelves for pots and pans and once the skirting is painted and the last details are taken care of it will be available to rent through canopy and stars alongside the yurt, the beermoth and the bothy project.

Dune film.

Here is a little film I just came across that was made while shooting this seasons Dune catalogue back in May. Recognise any of it?