It’s around the middle of the water’s journey that Newmoor Park is found – very much enjoying the rural, rather than urban, riverside scenery. The nine-acre enclave of native trees and colourful shrubs is like a lost pastoral paradise, enlivened by the sound of birdlife and harbouring enough species to fill a cub scout’s handbook. It’s no surprise to discover that the valley has a Wildlife and Otter Centre just six miles away.
To harp on about the greenery of Newmoor Park, isn’t particularly original though. Owners Joseph and Martyn have been welcoming guests here for years, single handedly running the Newmoor Park Guesthouse that’s racked up endless five-star reviews in its time. The gardens, the outdoors and the scenery are all regularly jotted among the many visitor comments. So it only seems sensible that Joseph and Martyn have now begun offering their same much-loved hospitality in the great outdoors.
The Newmoor Park yurts are real things of beauty – a pair of traditionally designed yurts crafted out of latticed woodwork, covered in taught white canvas and all based around a large central ‘crown’ that lets in natural light. They each have their own colour scheme – red and blue – and come complete with all the comforts, including a memory foam king-sized bed, a log-burning stove and kitchen wares for cooking on the gas BBQ outside. In the evenings you can gather around the communal campfire with your fellow yurt guests or, if you’re a larger group, book both yurts and enjoy the whole place to yourselves.
Offsite, the Cornish town of Launceston is just two miles away – the river forming a natural county border between Cornwall and Devon. The valley slopes have made the town a historical defensive base, crowned by a round Norman castle that presides over the houses below like a real-life crumbling sand castle. It’s about a half hour drive to the beaches of Bude, Boscastle and the like, where you can try and recreate it in perfect miniature form. Or stay put and ride around the narrow gauge steam railway instead – a quaint five-mile round trip that can also be used to visit nearby Newmills Farm Park.