About Us -

About Us

Where it all started

2012

Long before our doors opened to our very first guest the glamping business was being shaped.
We wanted to create somewhere that our guests could truly getaway to; somewhere they would want to return to again and again. The planning was far reaching – not just the accommodation but the whole environment.
The idea took shape using Permaculture principles (a method that seeks to integrate human activity with the natural surroundings so as to create highly efficient sustaining ecosystems). We aimed to develop a place where everything felt in the right place and visitor’s could forget the outside world for a while. We wanted it to feel effortless, beautiful and sustainable. This meant putting in a lot of upfront effort! For several years we visiting other hospitality businesses, analysing what felt right and what we could improve.
Most importantly planning and developing the forest garden around our 3 different accommodations to create a lovely spot that showed off our view whilst ensuring privacy.
Our farm has been in our hands since 1998 and the now forest garden was originally our plant nursery. The planting of the forest garden started 2013, and allowed to mature over the next 3 years before opening our doors to our first guests in 2016.

Making it special

We didn’t want anyone visiting to thinking it is just another glamping sight. We wanted each hut to have a distinct personality. Having come from a career in rug designing the accommodation interior was very important to get right. We aimed for a relaxed look with antique furnishings selected for the hut, and individual colour schemes. No two interiors look a like. We also wanted to keep it very small and private – so there are just 3 accommodations in total.

Since opening our doors in 2016 we have each year continued to evolve our business around our guests and what we have gleaned from an ever changing requirements.

Visitors who have returned year after year have noticed marked changes as the forest garden and surrounding facilities have grown to make our guest’s stay ever more special.

The Team

Tracy Oldfield

Creator

James Oldfield

Partner

Rachael moss

I’ve been an organic gardener for nearly 20 years, and am passionate about creating spaces for wildlife to thrive, microcosms of biodiversity, through micro-habitats and plant diversity. It takes surprisingly little to create homes for myriads of little creatures. I gained a Bsc in Environmental Science back in the 1990s, and travelled for 6 years, volunteering on organic and biodynamic farms in Australia, New Zealand, the Phillipines, and the UK, before settling in West Dorset. I am an ecology volunteer for The National Trust, and help undertake surveys for varying species; plants, fungi, lichens, inverterbrates, birds, bats, and trees. I feel that we as humans, are part of this ecology too, and I am currently in my fourth year of a five year accredited training course to become a medical herbalist. I feel it is important to re-connect plants and people, whether through medicine, food, touch, taste, smell, or on a more deeper level, as well as empower people to be responsible for their own health. I feel that the natural world is our kin, and the more we become acquainted with it, the greater our sense of belonging and wellbeing. At Dorset Forest Garden, I aspire to create a medicinal herb garden as an educational and meditative space where guests can come and sit, touch, taste and smell the herbs, and learn about their medicinal benefits. I also hope that, through this, a re-connection to the plant world, the natural world as a whole, and to sense of self within it, can be re-kindled.