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Woodland Lodge Park
Thirty charred-timber lodges hidden in flat Northern woodland, each with a private tub deck facing the trees, around a farm shop and restaurant.
The sheet
the card's own material, at page scaledrawing 064 / Real things
Woodland Lodge Park
The brief
rendered · rev AA holiday lodge park for thirty lodges in flat, mature woodland in the North of England. It is a business idea rather than a home: designed, drawn and rendered, with the money side researched only as far as public figures go.
the idea
Every lodge is the same long, low, charred-timber box, and every one turns its back on the track. The front door, the car and the boots stay on the track side. The other side opens onto a private deck with a round hot tub, closed on one side by a tall timber arm and on the other by a planted earth bank, so the deck faces only trees.
The defining moment is the tub at night, under a gap in the canopy, lit only by lanterns and the glow from the lodge. The rest of the site is laid out to protect that moment: lodges never face each other, car lights never cross between the two tracks, and nothing on site lights the sky.
There are no stoves and no chimneys. The glazing is the focal point inside, and lamps rather than ceiling lights keep it clear at night, so guests see the trees rather than their own reflection.
the brief
| Topic | Decision |
|---|---|
| Setting | Flat, dense, mature woodland of oak, birch, beech and Scots pine, North of England |
| Lodges | 30: six 1-bed, fourteen 2-bed, ten 3-bed |
| Unit | One factory-built twin unit, 20 × 6.8 m, 136 m² gross, on a gritstone skirt |
| Roof | Shallow gable, 12 to 15 degrees, dark grey standing-seam metal, no chimney |
| Cladding | Vertical charred timber (shou sugi ban) above a skirt of dry-laid Yorkshire gritstone, about 50 cm high |
| Anchor moment | A round hot tub clad in charred timber, set into the deck so only its rim shows |
| Deck | Weathered oak, enclosed by a site-built timber arm on one side and a planted bank on the other |
| Interior | Oak, undyed wool, heavy linen, waxed leather, gritstone and aged bronze. Lamps at 2200 to 2700 K, no ceiling downlights |
| Dogs | Welcome in every lodge, with a gated, dog-proof deck |
| Access | One accessible lodge of each type |
| Hub | Reception and farm shop, restaurant and bar with a south-west terrace, parking and the sewage treatment plant |
| Lighting | Low and amber, below knee height on the tracks, nothing pointing upward |
the site
The site is a long rectangle, about twice as wide as it is tall. Measured off the scale bar on the site plan it is roughly 650 × 320 m, about 21 hectares, but that is read off the drawing rather than a survey.
The entrance is halfway down the west edge, straight into the hub. From there the track splits into two loops that never meet again. The upper loop serves the ten family lodges, five on each side of the track. The lower loop serves the fourteen 2-bed lodges, seven on each side. Between the two loops is the dark belt, a strip of woodland with a 2 m earth bund along its centre. At the east end, past a quiet belt of trees, six couples lodges sit in a crescent, each turned outward to the boundary on its own short drive.
The site page has the tracks, the belts and the lighting in full.
the lodges
All three types are the same factory unit: 20 × 6.8 m, 136 m² gross. What changes is how the rooms are split and how big the deck is.
| Type | Lodges | Where | Sleeps | Deck | Opens onto the tub |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A · 1-bed | 6 | East crescent, adults only | 2 | 77 m² | The bedroom |
| B · 2-bed | 14 | Lower track | 4 | 106 m² | The living room |
| C · 3-bed | 10 | Upper track | 6 | 96 m² | The living room |
At full occupancy that is 128 guests: 12 in the couples lodges, 56 in the 2-beds and 60 in the 3-beds. The sleeping numbers come from the bed layouts on the plans (a king, doubles and one twin room), not from a stated capacity.
Each type has its own page, and a fourth page covers what they all share: the shell, the deck, the dogs and the accessible lodges.
the hub
Two buildings at the entrance, in the same charred timber on a gritstone base as the lodges. The reception and farm shop is the first thing guests see. It is where they check in and collect the hamper that waits on every kitchen island. The restaurant and bar sits below it, with a stone terrace on its south-west corner facing the evening sun. Staff and visitor parking and the sewage treatment plant sit behind them, so nothing on the lodge tracks has to serve the public.
the money
None of these numbers are quotes. They are estimates built from published figures, which were thin. Where I couldn't find a figure, the gap is left open rather than filled in.
what a night costs
Published rates for comparable hot tub lodges in 2025 and 2026:
- Drum Mohr, near Edinburgh, lists hot tub lodges from about £190 to £370 a night for 2026, depending on season and size. Its 2-bed Lothian Lodge runs from £190 off peak to £310 at peak.
- WPH Group says a 2-bed hot tub lodge in its parks rents for £150 to £320 a night.
My estimate for this park, anchored to those figures:
| Lodge | Off peak | Peak | Midpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-bed couples | £180 | £300 | £240 |
| 2-bed | £190 | £320 | £255 |
| 3-bed | £240 | £370 | £305 |
The 3-bed figures are the least certain. Neither source gives a 3-bed rate on its own, so I set the peak at the top of Drum Mohr's range. Weighted by the number of each type, the midpoints average about £270 a night.
how often it is full
No neutral source publishes occupancy for luxury lodge parks. The nearest figures:
- Self-catering in Scotland averaged 41% occupancy across 2025, down from 41.6% in 2024 (Savills).
- PriceLabs, measuring its own Scottish listings, puts 2025 at 59%. It's a different sample and method, so the gap between the two shows how loose these figures are.
- Summer peak occupancy was 77% in Suffolk (Best of Suffolk, part of Sykes) and 78% in South Devon (Coast & Country Cottages), both for 2025.
- WPH reports 70% to 90% at peak weekends in its own parks. That figure is self-reported.
A hot tub lodge park with a restaurant should beat a 41% all-year average for general self-catering, but I found nothing to say by how much. So the case below runs three assumptions: 45%, 55% and 65% across the year.
what it might take
Thirty lodges give 10,950 lodge-nights a year.
| Case | Occupancy | Average rate | Nights sold | Takings, with VAT | Takings, before VAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 45% | £240 | 4,928 | £1.18m | £0.99m |
| Middle | 55% | £270 | 6,023 | £1.63m | £1.36m |
| High | 65% | £300 | 7,118 | £2.14m | £1.78m |
This is lodge income only, before any running costs. A park this size will be VAT registered, so a fifth of the price a guest pays goes to VAT. I found no benchmark for the restaurant, bar or farm shop, so they aren't in these numbers.
what it might cost to build
There is no total yet, and the gaps are big.
- The lodges. New luxury lodges retail at roughly £120,000 to £350,000 each, from buyer guides. Thirty at those prices is £3.6m to £10.5m. A park buying direct from a manufacturer would pay less than retail, but these lodges are bespoke, with charred cladding, a stone skirt and three custom layouts, and I found no manufacturer that publishes a price for that.
- Pitch works. Buyer guides suggest adding 10% to 20% of the lodge price for the base, delivery and connections. That's £0.4m to £2.1m across thirty lodges.
- Not found. Roads, the bund, drainage and the treatment plant, power and water, the hot tubs, decks and timber arms, and the two hub buildings. None of these had a published benchmark at this scale.
The next step is quotes from two or three lodge manufacturers for the three types, and a groundworks estimate from a quantity surveyor.
planning and licences
- The unit is right at the caravan limit. A twin-unit caravan in England and Wales can be at most 20.0 m long, 6.8 m wide, and 3.05 m from the lowest floor to the highest ceiling inside. Each lodge is exactly 20 × 6.8 m, and the plans assume a vaulted ceiling about 3 m high. There is no margin on any of the three, so a design change that adds length, width or ceiling height takes the lodges outside the caravan definition and into full planning permission for buildings.
- Planning comes before the site licence. Under the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960, land can't be used as a caravan site without a licence from the council. The council can only issue one once planning permission for the use is in place. Council guidance asks for a 1:500 layout of the roads, units and facilities with the application.
- Whether a lodge counts as a caravan. The definition turns on whether the structure can be moved. A lodge that is fixed in place may fall outside it. That needs checking with the council and a planning consultant before relying on the caravan route.
the hot tubs
Thirty tubs are a water-management job, not just an amenity.
- HSE's HSG282 guidance covers any hot tub hired out to more than one party. It is best practice rather than law, but ignoring it leaves the operator exposed under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
- One council's guidance for holiday lets requires the water to be changed weekly or after each group, whichever is sooner, with monthly microbiological samples and quarterly Legionella samples tested at an independent lab. That is Scottish guidance; English councils may differ.
- If English councils ask for the same, every changeover means draining, cleaning and refilling the tub, across thirty lodges. That has to be planned into staffing, water supply and drainage from the start.
the sewage
The site plan puts a sewage treatment plant in the south-west corner. At 128 guests plus staff and the restaurant, it's the same order of size as Castledene Holiday Park in County Durham. Castledene's plant was designed for about 250 people and a peak flow of 37.5 m³ a day. I found no published price for a plant this size. Discharging treated water needs a permit from the Environment Agency.
where the sources disagree
- Floor finish. The interiors notes specify engineered oak with a matt lacquer, chosen to stand up to dogs. Several render prompts ask for oiled oak floorboards instead.
- Ceiling lights. The interiors notes rule out ceiling lights in living rooms and bedrooms. The family dinner prompt puts a linen pendant over the table, and the render shows one.
- The stone skirt. The brief runs the gritstone skirt round the whole base of every lodge. Several renders show it only as a short low wall beside the doors.
- Wall lights. The prompts keep outdoor light to lanterns and candles at deck level. Most deck renders still show small wall lights on the cladding.
- The shot count. The render prompts page says twenty-two shots but lists twenty-three. The renders page here uses twenty-three.
sources
- Caravan Sites Act 1968: twin-unit dimensions (Scottish Government impact assessment, which gives the England and Wales limits)
- Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 (Designing Buildings)
- Caravan site guidance (Calderdale Council)
- Drum Mohr hot tub lodge prices
- WPH Group: log cabin holidays with hot tubs
- Best of Suffolk market insights 2026
- Coast & Country Cottages market insights
- Savills research on short-let occupancy
- Scotland vacation rental market trends (PriceLabs)
- Holiday lodge prices for sale in the UK (WPH Group)
- Spa pool guidance for holiday lets (East Ayrshire Council)
- HSG282 for holiday home owners (Hanna Instruments)
- Castledene Holiday Park treatment plant case study (Premier Tech)
The plates
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The model
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