Our Green Credentials

Here at Herding Hill Farm Camping & Glamping Site we take our environmental responsibility seriously. Our objective is to respect the landscape in which we are lucky enough to live and reduce our use of energy and water and our generation of waste. We are committed to helping our guests reduce the impact of their stay on the environment through the facilities and the information we provide. Our Environmental Policy Statement also helps to shape our 5-star ranking which we are very proud to have achieved at our Northumberland campsite. We are a dark sky campsite.

Our Natural Landscape

We are corporate supporters of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust.

Our Northumberland campsite has been designed to ensure that what we do compliments the beautiful rural countryside in which we are located. Our campsite is a peaceful, green sanctuary for people and wildlife alike. We currently have a variety of birds on the site together with several families of hedgehogs, wild ducks and bats. Our touring pitches are separated by hedges to provide privacy and encourage wildlife. 

There is a wildlife pond in our Castle Pod glamping area, surrounded by wildflowers to encourage a wealth of habitat to make it their home. As a dark sky campsite we are lucky to see bats.

We have a wildflower meadow dog walk providing wonderful views down the Haltwhistle valley. ur dark sky campsite is surrounded on all sides by farmland, used for the grazing of local sheep. 

Dark Sky Campsite

We offer amazing dark sky glamping and take proactive steps to ensure that our actions and those of our guests do not jeopardise the beautiful dark skies for which Northumberland is so famous and the stargazing our guests come to us to enjoy. To minimise light pollution and energy use, we use low level LED or solar lighting, with motion sensors.

We have several ‘stargazing’ boxes for hire, which include binoculars, information books, blanket and hot drinks to encourage engagement of our guests with the dark skies. We have a telescope for use around the site for those occasions when we have a particularly good night sky.

We have dark skies activities and stargazing books for sale in the campsite shop. Check out our blog on the "Best spots for stargazing in Northumberland". 

There are regular stargazing events in the local area including Twice Brewed.

Minimise Energy Usage

Our taps have automatic shut offs to minimise water usage and we use aerated shower heads and dual flush toilets. We have increased the number of serviced touring pitches with water hook-up points to help prevent water waste. Our well-insulated glamping pods have black-out blinds for increased efficiency and there are low energy air hand dryers in the Luxury Amenities Building. Our Reception and amenities building have solar panels which help heat the hot water for use in our showers and wash hand basins and reduce our gas consumption.

Our cleaning products are eco-friendly, we order what we can in bulk to minimise deliveries to site and we use micro-fibre cloths to ensure we are using as little chemicals as possible when cleaning. We are stocking ‘whogivesacrap’ toilet paper in our shop together with Eco-friendly washing up liquid and cassette toilet liquid.

We have an electric golf buggy for use around the site as well as an EV charging station for guests to use.

Supporting The Local Community

We are members of Haltwhistle Matters, Haltwhistle Chamber of Trade and Heart of Hadrian’s Wall Tourism Association.

Our shop sources produce from local suppliers including bread, milk, beer, meat and gin and we promote local providers on our website. We encourage our guests to order food from local food partners who offer a delivery service to site.

Our Book Exchange allow guests to re-use and re-cycle where possible.

We are happy to offer free stays at the site to support charity raffles and auctions or local fundraising initiatives. We support both the Great North Air Ambulance and North of Tyne Mountain Rescue asour preferred charities, with collection boxes and 2 fundraising weekends per year where activities are provided for children and adults for donations with match funding from WCF. We also support fundraising activities for our local community with collection boxes and prizes for fundraising events. 

We operate a low noise policy after 10.30pm and do not allow radios or electronic music on the site that can be heard outside of the accommodation.   

Recycling Waste

We work with local company North West Recycling who remove everything from site. The waste then undergoes numerous processes to produce many products that can be used again in the building and manufacturing industries and to ensure that as much as 95% of our rubbish is recycled. This is higher than it would be in individual bins where guest knowledge about what is recyclable may be low and is also convenient for them as it prevents them from having to worry about what rubbish goes into which bin.

We re-use materials wherever possible from around the site. Wood from the dismantled decks is being used to re-build fences and as framework for the decking for the Wigwam cabins, to make hedgehog houses, bug hotels and bird boxes. Shredded paper is used in the rabbit and guinea pig houses.

We use biodegradable doggy bags which are located with the dog bins on the site.

The waste from our animals is used either by ourselves for compost on our flower beds or is collected by a local farmer for use on his fields.

Carbon Conscious

We allow our guests to bring one car to site only which reduces their carbon footprint. There is a Hadrian’s Wall bus, the AD122 which stops at the campsite entrance and allows guests to visit the Nearby Attractions without needing to take their car. The local train station is within walking distance. We actively promote local businesses, walks and attractions to encourage guests to stay local and reduce their fuel emissions. Check out our BLOG for some ideas around "Car-free glamping at Herding Hill Farm".

We have extended our amenity block to provide additional indoor facilities for backpackers, walkers and cyclists.

We will be moving to environmentally responsible disposable sanitary disposal, reducing our carbon footprint for unnecessary visits to empty bins.

Leave No Paper Trail

Our website, Camping App and online booking system contain comprehensive information for our guests. All booking details are emailed prior to their arrival. Our office paper is recycled. The majority of our marketing is digital rather than leaflet based. Our Camping App contains all the information our guests need to know about the site accommodation, campsite facilities, FAQs, nearby attractions and what's on in Northumberland.

Our Future

We continue to look at additional ways to reduce waste, particularly plastic and eliminate all single use items. The hand sanitiser and shower gel stations in all accommodation is refillable and the cups in our vending machine are paper not plastic. We stock glass milk bottles from a local dairy in our campsite shop. There are water points throughout the site for guests to re-fill their own bottles. 

We continue to look for ways to encourage more birds and insects by ensuring our habitat remains a rich source of food even in dry weather. We will increase the numbers of bird feeders and bat boxes located around the site and plant additional flowers and shrubs which are native to our local environment to encourage butterflies, bees and other wildlife.

We will continue to promote the benefits of Herding Hill Farm being a dark sky campsite.