Melanie Leyshon visits a cool cabin on a quiet farm

If you’re looking to check out of everyday stress and check into somewhere special to unwind, then Brook Cabin at Lazy T is the place to restore your equilibrium. This ‘faraway’ forest cabin is one of four off-grid glamping options at Tylas Farm, North Yorkshire. It’s a glamorous and romantic getaway for people who don’t normally take to camping, and who like home comforts with a dollop of good taste. The Lazy T site is discreetly set in a woodland wilderness and feels away from it all, but it’s also only five miles from the busy market town and food hub of Helmsley.

Our designer-style idyll hits the sweet spot at first sight – shoulders relax and blood pressure drops. This cabin is a cut above. Outside it’s peaceful and elemental; inside it’s warm and stylish. The doubly insulated, beautifully put-together room has a king-size bed, wood burner to keep things cosy, sofa bed and kitchen area, a separate indoor toilet and screened outdoor hot shower. 

Lazy T is the brainchild of Yorkshire-born Katy and her Australian husband Skot DoMan who’ve sensitively built on woodland owned by Katy’s parents, who run Tylas Farm.The couple incorporated much of the wood from the mountain ash trees they cleared into the interiors. The bed, with its 180-degree views of the surrounding greenery through floor-toceiling windows, has a handmade ash headboard. Curtains fall from rails attached to hand-carved ash planks, while a thicker length of wood has been transformed into a breakfast bar.

The mini kitchen has a hob for reheating and cooking (no oven) and outside there’s a generous-size kettle drum for barbecuing. For our first night, we pre-booked Katy’s supper (£40 for two). The rich autumnal stew of local wild venison easily heats up on the hob and comes with a cob loaf and Yorkshire butter. This is followed by Katy’s sticky pear molasses and ginger cake with butterscotch sauce and clotted cream. On day two, Katy takes us on a leisurely foraging trip. She’s incredibly knowledgeable, steering us away from poisonous mushrooms. We’ve come too late for the ceps (porcini), but Katy has collected ample supplies, which we tuck into later for lunch.

There are plenty of other freebies in Katy’s outdoor larder: she turns rosehips into purées and freezes it to make sweets and houmous; makes ‘rum’ and cordials from elderberries; uses nettles for soups and bread; and even transforms spruce sprigs into tea. This is besides the abundance of seasonal greens, herbs and seeds. Back at the couple’s home, we sit outside for a foraged lunch.

Katy serves spicy elderberry tea, the creamiest cep soup that she heats up in a cauldron over her Kadai fire bowl, and nettle bread. Just what the doctor ordered. Suitably chilled we head to back to relax on that ample bed and plan our next healthy outing. The following morning, we amble along lanes to Rievaulx Abbey. We hit a traffic jam en route, but it’s just a row of sheep making their way single file along a field. No blasting horns or rushing to get anywhere fast here… Bliss!