Hooke Court Reviews
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Hooke Court, with its extensive grounds, is nestled in tranquil West Dorset just 15 minutes from the coast. The site's two bell tents boast views of the pastures and hills beyond, whilst the Iron Age round house and Saxon long house have their own secluded gardens. Whether you choose the glamour of a bell tent or one of the site's two more unique options, you can be certain of a peaceful, relaxing and enjoyable stay.
4.58 /5
12 reviews
83%
would recommend
The roundhouse
Recommends site
Nicola B
0
2
A wonderful and unique glamping experience. The roundhouse was lovely and accessories provided to use were functional and unfussy. Wood and kindling provided to use at firepit but no matches. Nice toilets and shower on site but a good walk away from accommodation. Disappointed by plastic coffee stained mugs when glasses provided. It's a shame China mugs weren't as it would have been nicer. Accommodation decorated nicely but no information sheet inside and a very quick tour around, I didn't realise there was a heated blanket and heater until the last day, not that we needed it, we took extra blankets with us. We had a good night's sleep as there's no indication except from the crow chorus that its morning, which was nice and a real escape from the alarm clock. A lovely experience overall, just lacking the little extra attention to detail to really elevate it to equal its price point. probably more noticeable as we stayed somewhere equally unique the previous night and had a small hospitality hamper left for our arrival. I'd recommend purely for the experience of unique accommodation..
Bell tent stay
Recommends site
Laura C
0
3
We had a lovely stay at Hooke Court in one of the bell tents. Our children loved it. Particularly staying so close to the sheep and pigs. The kitchen tent was a great extra space full of everything you would need to cook inside and outside on the fire. The bed tent was comfortable. Unfortunately, I think a family with a dog must have stayed previously as the bedroom tent had a really strong odour of dog. The toilets were less than ideal. One portaloo with questionable flushing and one blocked toilet. No contact from hosts after a three minute show around, even when requesting more wood. All in all a good stay.
Amazing family experience
Recommends site
Stefani R
0
2
Had a fantastic two nights at Hooke Court in the Round House. We experienced fabulous service and enjoyed cooking over the fire and meeting the animals! Fantastic location and the Round House was so peaceful. Thank you!
Great first experience of glamping
Jenny W
0
1
First time glamping with kids and we had a great weekend, despite the unfortunate stormy weather. The bell tents were sturdy despite 50mph winds and lashing rain. We were cosy and the electric blanket was a welcome addition. We had brought hot water bottles for the kids so everyone was warm and slept well. Host very helpful and gave us use of a fridge, brought ice packs each day for the cool box and extra logs. Good location with Bridport, Dorchester and Charmouth in easy reach. Beaminster is a lovely village 10 mins away with good restaurants and a Co-op.
Beautiful
Recommends site
Sarah R
0
1
Lovely site for all the family.
Lovely site!
Recommends site
James M
0
1
Great location for a wild adventure. Beautiful and remote site.
Fantastic Setting
Angela B
0
1
Fantastic location and setting for our short break away! Surrounded by fields the bell tents has everything you needed and it was a huge benifit having 2 tents, one for sleeping in, one for the day / cooking / eating in (and shelter if it rained). The site was beautiful with a little lake which you could hire kayaks for the day to use. There was also a little.low ropes obstacle course and a field to play cricket and football on. Behind our bell tents there were pigs and sheep, all very beautiful! Dylan was incredibly accommodating, helpful and friendly and shared with us they also cater for educational school trips during term time which sounded amazing! There were 2 pairs of bells tents so it would be ideal to book both and come as a group so you would have your own field to yourselves. I would have preferred a flush toilet (one set of tents had this but ours had a little compost one). This was very modern and clean and fine for a short stay (and added to our mini camping adventure!) but had we been there longer it would have been nicer had this been a flush toilet like the other pair of tents. We all really enjoyed our stay (my boys 6 & 8 loved it) and I'll be recommending to others as well as my sons junior school for a school trip there! Thanks so much Dylan and team for our lovely stay!
Amazing facilities in a peaceful setting
Recommends site
Paul D
0
1
A fantastically equipped glamping experience. The heated blanket was an unexpected pleasure on the cold nights with a super efficient team to help make our stay as relaxing as possible. Great to be so close to nature and in such a peaceful setting (minus the early morning wake up call from the sheep in the field next door). I would certainly recommend it if you want to get away from it all for a few days.
Iron Age Roundhouse living at its finest
Recommends site
Sam S
1
1
What a unique and memorable experience. Just lying back in bed looking up at the beautiful thatched ceiling was worth what we paid for it. The roundhouse had everything we needed - lovely, atmospheric lighting (just having the uplighters on at night gave it a really cosy glow), a decent-sized fridge, water cooler and a one ring induction hob plus all the cutlery, crockery, pans and utensils needed. The nearest toilets are a few mins away across the lawn (which is a consideration at night - bring a torch) and in the main building you have a private shower room with toilet. The only slightly awkward bit was walking to the toilets down the pathway shared with the Longhouse next door when they were around their firepit, but you could take a longer route if you wanted. The roundhouse has it's own large private garden that's got a high beech hedge around it. In the garden are a table and chairs, a couple of apple trees (cooking apples, but an eating orchard is the other side of the fence which you can help yourself to) and an outdoor cold water washing up sink. But, best of all, there's your own firepit with a grill, tripod and hooks with it's own cauldron. It weighs a ton, even when it's empty, as it's cast iron, but it is surprisingly effective and supremely satisfying! It comes with a bag of wood (you can buy more, but we brought charcoal with us), a long-handled lighter and a pair of thick heatproof gloves, which were invaluable. The walls were too thick to get WiFi in the roundhouse and it also affected 4G coverage at times. We could get about 2 bars in the garden area, which was best near the firepit and later in the evening. There were a one or two spare plug sockets, but we brought a couple of extension leads, which were useful for charging things. There was a smoke alarm mounted high in the ceiling and a fire extinguisher next to the kitchen area. There's a floor-level Go Ape type playground for the kids and a pond teaming with carp that you can feed, and you can also hire kayaks to paddle around it. There are sheep and geese around that you can stroke. Daryl and Chris were so friendly and bent over backwards to help. They even installed an electric blanket when I wanted to be even cosier at night (although there are 2 radiators we could have used). However, the roundhouse holds it's temperature well and was cool inside, even in the midst of a heatwave. Hooke is a quiet little village but it's only 10 mins from Beaminster, which has a Co-op (open 7am-11pm and 9pm on Sundays) and other shops, including a specialist butcher and bakers, but these shut at 2pm so we were never in town at the right time. There is a small museum there and a restaurant, but this also has odd opening hours so check in advance. Hooke is about 25-30 mins or so from the coast and other attractions - follow main roads not sat nav unless you enjoy driving down tiny lanes with small passing spaces!. We'd recommend Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, which is about 5 mins from Chesil beach (not too busy but pebbly - wear trainers), West Bay (more gravelly than sandy) and Charmouth Beach, which was very popular and sandy. We pre-booked a fossil hunt which was fun but not very productive, but there's a good fossil shop next to the visitor centre. The Cerne Abbas Giant was about 30 mins away. You can't get close but there's a free car park at the best viewpoint. We really can't recommend it enough as a romantic break and only wish we'd known about it when the children were younger so they could have enjoyed it too.
Campsite of the year
Recommends site
Robert K
0
1
Great, spacious campsite. Friendly welcome, also to our dog, although we were a lot later than expected and arrived late in the dark, they kept in touch with us, prepared our tent etc- really super! Beautiful tent with all supplies you need, including a great fire pit/ bbq with firewood etc, so we could even bake our own bread. Also great and very quiet surroundings, we just thought is was a little far from towns and the coast but if you don't mind that, it's a perfect spot.
Wonderful stay
Recommends site
Brian T
1
1
We had a wonderful stay in Hooke Court. Our bell tent was so comfortable with plenty of room for our family of 4. The separate designated kitchen bell tent with space for eating was an unexpected bonus. We were lucky with the weather, but if we had rain this second tent would have been perfect for hanging out as a family in the evening. Hot and clean showers were great also. Very friendly and welcoming owners. Looking forward to our return
Beautiful secluded setting and fully kitted out
Recommends site
Leonie D
0
1
We stayed at Hooke court in July 2022 and had a lovely time. It was a beautiful, secluded setting looking over a field with just 2 pairs of bell tents: one used by my family and the second pair used by my sister's family. Each pair of bell tents had a kitchen tent (fully kitted out with everything we could have needed: crockery, cutlery, bbq utensils, pots, pans, induction hob, cool box with ice packs) & a separate bell tent for sleeping with a king size bed and 2 single camp beds (with bed linen, pillows, blankets etc). There were hot showers, a compost loo, and a proper flush loo on site. There were bbqs & equipment (including wood supplies) provided with each pair of tents. There was a pond nearby with kayaks (for rent) and a rope walk in a nearby wooded area which my children loved. The owners and their staff were super friendly and laid back. This is such a gem of a place - we will definitely be back! Thanks so much, Dylan - we had a brilliant time!!