This Suffolk celebrity holiday favourite is getting even better
Sipping a glass of red wine in the hot tub, warm against the chilly Suffolk night, belly full of scallops and venison, I looked at the swimming private lake and thought: this is my kind of wilderness.
Wilderness Reserve is a rambling estate in the Suffolk countryside, five miles or so inland from Dunwich. It is owned by the billionaire Foxtons property tycoon, Jon Hunt, and is next to his own home, the 18th-century stately home, Heveningham Hall.
Wilderness Reserve opened as a holiday destination in 2013, and comprises properties of different sizes, shapes, age and accoutrements, spread across 8,000 acres of meadow, woodland and recovering arable farmland. Between wedding-ready manor houses, converted farmhouses, off-grid boltholes and lakeside cottages, there is something for everyone. It is wild only in the loosest sense of the word. Rather than beginning with a grand plan, Wilderness is expanding more organically, slowly studding the landscape with properties across its two estates-within-the-estate, Sibton Park and Chapel Barn.
Nine new residences are opening between now and early 2025, including Yelm, which my family stayed in. This thatched two-bedroom cottage is set on a little manmade lake ideal for a quick dip or jaunt out in the rowing boat provided. The exterior is a dusky peach-pink; inside, a double-height living room is dominated by a striking red-brick chimney. Given that it has just opened, the cottage already felt agreeably lived in.
Once we had unpacked, Harry Hunt, Jon’s son, who runs Wilderness Reserve day to day, arrived to show us around. Harry, 35 and one of four children, started his career as a rally driver, racing in the World Rally Championship and Dakar Rally, before he endured a bad crash in Morocco. Crawling out of a burning car, with a broken back, forced him to rethink his priorities.
“I tried to go back to racing, but I’d lost that final couple of per cent,” he told me. “I got into this instead.” Joining the family firm was a chance to immerse himself in the landscape where he spent most of his weekends and holidays as a boy, and help put the Suffolk countryside on the map at the same time.
“Post-Covid, post-Brexit, everyone has fallen in love with the English countryside a bit more and they’re intrigued to explore,” he said. “And there are some cracking places out there.”
Wilderness Reserve is one of a clutch of properties in the UK that sit somewhere on the continuum between renting a cottage and staying in a country-house hotel. A cottage has privacy and charm but little in the way of conveniences. A hotel comes with everything on tap but generally less privacy. Nearer the hotel end of things are places like Soho Farmhouse, where little cabins are set around a central collection of restaurants, shops, a spa and other amenities.
Wilderness Reserve is calmer and more refined. Prices for Yelm, which sleeps four, start at £796 per night. For those who crave getting completely off-grid there is Hex, a one-bedroom cottage without electricity, which starts at £392. So far there is no communal restaurant or hotel, although there are vague plans for one in the future. Rushing is not the order of the day here.
The beauty of the set-up is that guests can take it exactly as they please. Facilities are designed to encourage self-reliance: Yelm comes with a fully equipped kitchen and Big Green Egg barbecue. Larger properties have private cinemas, pool tables, bars, dining halls and rooms in the basement that can become a lot like a nightclub. You could turn up with a car full of supplies and hardly see a member of staff the whole weekend. An extended family could split themselves among different cottages, convenient but separate from each other.
Alternatively you could order everything to be delivered, from masseuses to private chefs, canapés to breakfast. Staff trundle over in Morris Minors. This flexibility and privacy has made Wilderness Reserve popular not just with the very wealthy, but celebrities too, including Lionesses captain Leah Williamson, comedian Jack Whitehall and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig.
For those feeling adventurous, there is a full range of activities on site: yoga, archery, tennis, treasure hunts, nature walks. While the landscape remains too maintained for Wilderness Reserve to comprise a formal rewilding project, there is a lot of rewilding going on. Harry Read, the resident ecologist, gave me a quick tour: as it recovers from being farmland, the land is becoming a happier home to all kinds of wildlife: deer, moths, otters, badgers, foxes, butterflies and birds including kestrels and barn owls. “It will be gorgeous,” he said, pointing out the hundreds of new trees, mostly beech and hornbeam, and the miles of hedges being prepared. “It will be just like it was 100 years ago.” Not a complete wilderness, then, but inching closer.
Wilderness Reserve is also a convenient base for exploring this part of Suffolk: Aldeburgh is only 20 minutes’ or so drive away, for fish and chips on the beach or a smarter meal at the Suffolk, the excellent fish restaurant opened by George Pell who used to own the Soho institution L’Escargot. Yoxford, the village next to the estate, has a deli with local produce for anyone who forgot to go to the supermarket on the way up, as well as a rambling antiques shop.
On our second morning, a charming guide took our daughter on a guided bear hunt, deftly pitched for her age, which ended with her being shown how to build a fire and, more importantly, toast marshmallows on it. Later, she rode her bike around the empty paths, slept soundly, and learned what a barn owl is. On the soft rug in the living room, our son taught himself to walk. A useful skill, in the wilderness or not.
Essentials
Ed Cumming travelled as a guest of Wilderness Reserve (01986 802113; wildernessreserve.com), which offers cottages from around £199 per person per night.
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