A rare gem!

 From a recent review on Airbnb: "Very rare to find a place in the UK that is absolutely silent with no light pollution. Beautiful star lit skies at night and absolute silence! A rare gem of a spot."

You can find out more about the autumn dark skies festival here. 

Summer upgrades

 We are pleased to say that there is now a new TV, a spacious new fridge and a new washing machine in the Shippen. And most of all there is an excessively comfy new sofa, introduced following feedback about our last sofa. The TV is a Smart TV and combined with a wifi signal will give you access to your favourite streaming channels. There is also a recently introduced freezer, so plenty of space for organising cool drinks and  keeping food fresh.

We still have openings for some reservations over the summer - and with temperatures continuing to run high, what better place to be than up in the cool hills of Exmoor in a stone building?

Dark Skies Festival dates

 There is no better place to see the Milky Way on a clearish night than The Shippen!

Exmoor National Park has announced that the Dark Skies festival this autum will last for two weeks, marking its tenth anniversary. That's from October 16th to November 1st. We will be only using the cottage for a few days during this time - so get your booking in!

Here are details: https://www.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk/exmoor-for-everyone/stargazing-and-dark-skies/exmoor-dark-skies-festival

The Tarr Steps walk

A confession: Yesterday was the first time I completed the round trip walk to Tarr Steps, returning via Varle Hill. The total walk took about 2.5 hours and was not as difficult as I feared on a mild evening. Here is a rainbow over Varle Hill, painted with bluebells.

WiFi!

The WiFI has now been fixed and should be more reliable! A new washing machine arrives today.

Easter!

 Easter was a mixed weekend, you may remember, starting with storms and ending with a heatwave. It was no different at the Shippen - and a chance to see Exmoor "four seasons in a weekend". The wildflowers are out, we went to a sunrise gathering on Anstey Common on Easter Day and a Sunday afternoon walk on Winsford Hill - and, of course, there was time for a chat with the local Exmoor ponies.

After the rain

 Even on a wet weekend, as we just experienced, the changes of weather create wonderful patterns of light on our mountainsides. The above panoramic picture was taken on Winsford Hill whilst I managed to capture some of the following photos outside the cottage:

And the free range chickens are out and about. Here they are in a not very well focused zoom shot at the top of the road. The flowers are snowdrops.