At the time of writing, we’re just over 7 months into a new phase at Brackenthwaite. Although the property and business have been in the family since 1976, it was only in September 2022 when Matthew and I officially took over the reins in full and ‘the real work’ began.
With our heads down working hard behind the scenes over winter, we now find ourselves in a very exciting position of looking ahead to the rest of 2023 (and beyond) and shaping Brackenthwaite in line with our values and into our vision for the future.
We have 4 incredible self-catering properties onsite that we are extremely proud of and with 9 acres of land that surrounds us, visitors can enjoy a relaxing, rural setting right from their doorstep.
Despite what we have now, we are always looking for ways we can offer more to our guests. We want to create such a wonderful experience for our visitors that the memory of their time here lasts a lifetime – and that’s a pretty bold ambition!
There are a couple of key areas we want to focus our energy on for the remainder of this year and these are as follows:
- Create a puppy playground
- Transform ‘The Ballroom’
- Attract more wildlife
More of us have dogs now than we did pre-covid and many of us like to holiday with these furry friends – we certainly do! So, what could be better for our four-legged friends than providing them with a dedicated play area with things to jump through and over, climb up, run around and generally burn off some energy with?! We like to say that we are ‘more than dog friendly’ and this will surely be a fantastic added bonus to those with dogs coming to stay.
‘The Ballroom’ is an affectionate yet ironic term coined by Harry’s father for a space of 4 former feeding pens in the courtyard area. A ‘Ballroom’ it certainly is not, but the space it could provide would lend itself to being a shared area suited to hosting some group activities. Think yoga or art classes, attending a talk on local wildlife, hosting a gathering for a family member’s birthday or maybe even as a games room.
As it stands, we have 9 acres of grazing land that all but completely surrounds us at Brackenthwaite and we’re keen to do our bit to better support the natural wildlife of the area – both flora and fauna. So, with input from the Arnside and Silverdale AONB and other nature specialists we hope to create distinct patches of paradise for birds, butterflies, bees and other insects, and who knows what else!
It’s certainly going to be an exciting year ahead and if you’re interested in keeping up to date with everything that’s going on at Brackenthwaite you can register to receive our quarterly newsletter.