Barnharrow Holiday Pods – How It All Began

Background

I'm Emily and along with Andy, my husband, we set up and run Barnharrow Holiday Pods. Our guests often ask how long we've been running and what inspired us to set up, so we thought it was high time we shared our story!

Emily and Andy Gaw, Barnharrow Holiday Pods, with views of blue skies and sea behind

Andy grew up in Port William, a small fishing village situated on the coast of Luce Bay and once home to naturalist and author Gavin Maxwell. Andy’s family has lived and farmed here for over 100 years and, as you probably can imagine, the roots are deep.

 

We married in 1995 and moved to the area, settled down and had four children, Calum, Jack, Gregor and Natalie. After selling our house in 2005, we moved into an old farm cottage that we completely renovated – no mean feat with small children! Five years later, obviously not content to just sit back, we decided to build a new house to live in. We also completed a barn conversion and successfully ran the barn and cottage as holiday accommodation for the next six years.

 

Andy always likes having a project on the go and was itching to do something new. I guess I must be just as bad, or else a bit mad to do so much building work whilst raising a young family! We’d talked about having some additional land and in 2018, we found Barnharrow, a farm that needed a huge amount of work. No one had lived here for over three years, so there was plenty of work to keep Andy busy!


A New Venture Begins 

Barnharrow was the perfect opportunity to utilise all of our skills and do something different with our newly acquired 100 acres of land!


In 2019, we applied for planning permission to install glamping pods and at the end of that year, we purchased our first two pods, Chestnut and Willow. Having looked at various pods, we fell in love with My Shire Houses which are based in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire.


My Shire Houses is run by true craftsmen and the company was featured on George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces television show. The pods are beautifully made and, with kitchen and bathroom already installed, simply had to be positioned into a base and connected to the electrics and plumbing. Needless to say, Andy project-managed the land work and installation.

 

We planned to welcome our first guests in April 2020, but our timing couldn’t have been any worse – the Covid-19 pandemic hit! Like everyone else, we had to put life on hold and postpone opening until July. Despite that setback, we had a busy and successful first season and we added another pod in April 2022.


Spruce was made locally by Shennanton Sawmill, a joinery based near Kirkcowan – a sustainable business, with most of their timber sourced locally and a Forestry Management Plan means new trees are planted.

 

Of course, the pods take up only a very small part of the land. The rest is used by a local farmer who grazes his sheep here. Visit us in the spring months and you’ll have the wonderful experience of lambing time – there really is nothing quite like seeing a field full of lambs cavorting around!

 

Looking forward to this season and beyond

 

For the 2023 season, we have three more pods and, wait for it, hot tubs! Shennanton Sawmill and local trades have again been involved and it’s great that local businesses are helping us to grow ours. We’re also in the process of creating several new features. There will soon be a children’s play park with swings, slides, goalposts for ball games and picnic tables. And we’re also creating a dog park for our four-legged visitors – as well as being completely secure, your dog can also enjoy some rustic agility fun!

 

We look forward to meeting you soon. You’ll certainly see me, the chief meeter and greeter and Andy is usually around doing something maintenance related! The kids (not so little any more) also help out, with grass cutting, log chopping, even the cleaning when they’re not working or are back from university!



Take care,




Emily & Andy


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