COTSWOLDS LUXURY FAMILY SAFARI TENTS, GLAMPING PODS & HOLIDAY COTTAGES

ADVENTURES & ACTIVITIES AVAILABLE AT NOTGROVE

We have teamed up with some local experts to offer some brilliant outdoor adventures and some health and beauty activities straight from your doorstep here at Notgrove. With our clay pigeon and rifle shooting, bee keeping courses and bee experiences, nature walks and forest bathing, laid back yoga, exercise and fitness classes, exhilarating quad bike rides, relaxing beauty treatments, photography workshops, forest school, foraging walks and drystone walling courses, your own private falconry experience and sponsor a tree, we have something for everyone. See below for our full range of activities and how to book.

Electric Quad Biking Adventures

Here, in the heart of the picturesque Cotswolds, QuardQuest is delighted to invite you to try our Electric Quad Biking Ramble or the more Extreme Course.  Suitable for adults and children 7 years and older, it’s great fun for all.

Our track is situated around the beautifully Notgrove Estate which guarantees an experience like no other. Our instructor will take you for a few miles ride around the farm, with twists, turns, humps, bumps and ditches, guaranteeing you will not get bored! Along the way, you will get immersed in the wonderful, natural surroundings of Notgrove.

COVID-19 precautions: Each quad bike is cleaned after every use with an alcohol-based antibacterial spray. Helmets, goggles and waterproofs are sterilised after every use. We have disposable gloves, face masks and hats to put under the helmet.  For more information call 01451 885150.

Clay Pigeon & Rifle Shooting

A private clay pigeon or rifle shooting experiences are a great way to enjoy the stunning Cotswold countryside and are suitable for all abilities.

The Cotswold Clay Club is based at Notgrove and can host single shooters, couples, families and groups of any size, with no prior experience required.

There is no legal minimum age to use a shotgun, but we do recommend shooters are over 12yrs old – younger shooters can take part but will require a little extra helping hand from our instructors who are all helpful, friendly and fully qualified.

Your shoot will take place here at Notgrove on Monday to Saturday or at the Cotswold Clay Club on Sundays, which is only a 10 minutes drive away.

Pricing:

25 shots for children under 14 or groups larger than 10 per person: £45

50 shots per person: £75

75 shots per person: £97.50

100 shots per person: £130

All prices included full tuition, gun hire, all clays and cartridges.

Rifle shooting: POA (for 17 yr olds and over only)

To Book:

Why not have a go and call Andrew on 07805 481421 or email info@cotswoldcc.co.uk today!

Nature Walks & Forest Bathing

Our Notgrove natural mindfulness walks and forest bathing experiences are run by Ian Banyard who is a Natural Mindfulness Forest Bathing guide, guide trainer and local wellbeing author.

These mindful walks/experiences in nature take around 1.5 to 3 hours and are available from April to November 2023. These are gentle, immersive, wellbeing walks allowing us to escape into nature along beautiful countryside foot paths and secluded woodlands.

Walking in the Cotswold area of outstanding natural beauty, helps us begin to become fully present and aware of the natural world and our relationship with it. Using natural mindful and contemplative practices, we deepen our awareness of our connection with nature and our inner selves, our true nature.

Sheltered within one of Notgrove’s peaceful woods, we practice Natural Mindfulness while bathing in the atmosphere of the forest, tuning into the health benefits of Forest Bathing and intuitive life lessons from the natural world. This simple yet powerful practice can energise a tired body, relax a busy mind and lift a weary spirit.

These walks/experiences are held in pre-arranged, small, intimate groups or as private or group individual experiences.

Prices: From £25 per person and include a free copy of Ian’s Natural Mindfulness Guidebook & Journal (RRP £9.99).

To find out more and to book, please email ian@natureconnection.world or call 07812 675549.

Bee Keeping Courses & Bee Experiences

Are you thinking of keeping bees or just want to know more about them? Join experienced beekeeper Harry of Harry’s Honey for a one day bee keeping course or a bee experience to learn about the bee’s life and how they make honey.

Bee keeping course are from 10am until 5pm and cost £150 per person and you’ll have the knowledge to start beekeeping with confidence.  Bee Experiences are half days for £75 per person you’ll find the queen an discover why bees swarm.

To book onto the bee keeping course click here and to book onto the bee experience click here. For more information about both click here

Drystone Walling Courses

At Notgrove we are passionate about the countryside and keeping traditional countryside skills alive, especially the art of building and maintaining the Cotswold dry stone walls.  As Notgrove is right in the heart of the Cotswolds National Landscape, we are delighted to be able to offer dry stone walling courses for beginners to learn how to build and repair dry stone walls over a two day course run by Dry Stone Walling Association qualified instructors.  Courses run throughout the summer and autumn and are £185 per person.

Foraging Courses

Wild Food UK have joined the Notgrove team to offer foraging courses to our guests to help teach people about tasty edible wild plants, mushrooms, fruits, roots and flowers and how to identify, pick and eat with confidence.

We are fortunate in Britain to have a climate that provides us with plenty of food all year round, all you need to know is how to find and identify it.  During the course you will learn some “skills for life” and what you can safely harvest from mother nature’s larder. Not only is foraging fun and interesting for all ages; you never know when being able to pick your own food might come in genuinely useful or even life saving!

Forest School (weekdays only)

If you are looking for a family or children only adventure, why not spend a morning or an afternoon at forest school and learn some bushcraft skills too. Mindy Pickering who runs Badger Wood Adventures is a qualified forest school instructor and is available on Wednesdays during term time and Fridays during school holidays in Quarry Wood at Notgrove.  Sessions are 10:00 am until 12 pm or 2:00 pm until 4:00 pm and cost £25 per person.

For more information call Mindy on 07840 186816, email mindy@badgerwoodadvantures.co.uk Please quote NOTGROVE when booking and book a week in advance.

Fun Creative Workshop

We are all born with creativity, so we have teamed up with the lovely Alexandra Woods who is an artist and teacher to help you realise your own creativity through some fun workshops you can book whilst you’re staying at Notgrove. You could create your own wrapping paper, learn some easy drawing techniques or make a colourful collage. If you have your own ideas, Alexandra can even tailor her workshop to suit.

To find out more and to book see her flyer here or call her on 07771 903436 or email hello@alexandrawoods.com

Photography Workshops & Tours

Notgrove is surrounded by beautiful countryside, has stunning views and an abundance of wild animals including hares, buzzards, red kites, deer and owls but capturing them on camera is a real art.  Andrew at Cotswold Photography runs a number of different photography workshops here at Notgrove and more wide-ranging photography tours of the north Cotswolds.  The workshops and tours are both designed to help novice photographers and those with more experience to take great still life, landscape, nighttime, and creative images.  Workshops can be for a half or a full day, private or for a group, here at Notgrove or on a tour around the Cotswolds.

To find out more click here for the full list of options or call Andrew on 07946 305063 or email info@cotswoldphotographytours.co.uk

Falconry – Truly Unique Experience

Luke, who is a very experienced falconer, is passionate about falconry and has nine beautiful birds of prey including a Barn Owl, Eagle Owl, Goshawks, Harris Hawks and a Peregrine Falcon.

You can either have a private display here on the estate, handling experience or falconry walk; or combine them all in a half day package.

Contact Luke on 07955 630684 to book quoting NOTGROVE and for more information click the button below or visit www.wyevalleyfalconry.co.uk

Yoga Classes

Yoga classes are held at The Nuttery in Notgrove every Wednesday morning from 9:30-10.30am and are run by advanced yoga teacher Jo Fellows.

Suitable for everyone, this is a calming, fluid class that connects breath with movement as we move from posture to posture. It’s perfect for those who want to leave feeling centred rather than sweaty (and beginners too!). Classes are £10 each and space is limited, so they must be booked in advance, using the following link: http://www.momoyoga.com/prana-sanctuary/member/setup/490467

Please do bring your own mat if you have one, or let Jo know to bring a spare one for you.

Private one-to-one and group classes are also available on request.

For more details, please call Jo on 0788 431 4972, or email jofellows@me.com or see Jo’s instagram @jofellowswellbeing

Relaxing Beauty Treatments

You can book one of Phoenix Rose Beauty’s mobile therapists to visit you in the comfort of your Barn, Pod or Safari Tent so you can Indulge in an Indian head massage, facial or a relaxing foot massage.

If you’d like to treat yourself or a loved one, simply contact Sadie on 07859 052 668 (call/ text/WhatsApp) or email sadie@phoenix-rose.co.uk – please try to book with as much notice as possible to avoid disappointment.

Fitness & Exercise Classes

The lovely Kate Hovey at Cotswold Wellness runs her weekly fitness and exercises classes at The Nuttery in Notgrove and which Notgrove Holiday guests are welcome to join for just £12 a class.

Her class timetable:

Tuesdays 9:30 am to 10:30 am – Cardio Blend

Tuesdays 10:45 am to 11:45 am – Strength & Stretch

Thursdays 9:30 am to 10:30 am – Circuits

Kate’s personal training sessions and great classes are relaxed and friendly so suitable for most people.

To find out more click here for the full list of classes.  To book, just quote NOT23 and call Kate on 07779 121447 or email kate@cotswoldwellness.co.uk 

Cycling & Bike Hire

Being keen cyclists themselves Harry and Diana have mapped out some of their favourite cycle rides for you to enjoy. We have miles of lovely country lanes you can cycle.  Shorter routes include visiting the local coffee shops in Guiting Power, Winchcombe or Sherborne (or the pub of course!) For those who are more ambitious, we have routes visiting Bourton on the Water, Stow on the Wold and Cirencester. Else cycle along the Windrush Way to Burford or the Coln Valley to Bibury and Cirencester. Each cottage has a cycle map with our favourite routes mapped out. Harry cycles on a Saturday morning – all are welcome to join him!  Only one rule applies and that is that you have to find somewhere to stop for coffee and a bun.

You can also hire electric bikes for the duration of your stay through Far Peak, click here to see hire prices and book.  They will deliver and collect from a secure location near your Barn, Pod or Tent. When hiring a bike please put down the Barn/Pod/Tent Name and NOTGROVE HOLIDAYS for the delivery.

Tennis Lessons

There is a lovely hard tennis court at Notgrove that any of our guests are welcome to hire for £5 an hour.  But if you are looking for help with your serve, backhand, or general play, you could book a private tennis lesson with local LTA Accredited coach Geoff Vaughan. Geoff can teach all ages and abilities and has over 20 years’ experience. Just ask and he will be happy to come and help for just £35 per hour.

To book in advance please call Geoff on 07812 142463 or email him at notgroveaces@hotmail.com and he will tailor your lesson to suit your needs. All lessons are Covid 19 safe.

Walks around Notgrove & the Cotswolds

Notgrove is an ideal spot for people keen to enjoy the countryside and enjoy a Cotswold walking holiday. Three national walking trails cross and border the Estate: The Macmillan Way, Diamond Way and Gloucestershire Way. If you are looking for a guided walk we are happy to help you arrange this.

In addition to this, we have set up marked walks around the farm, along tracks and open grassland – click here to view.  For those wanting a nice leisurely walk to the pub, you can amble to The Plough Inn at Cold Aston or the Black Horse at Naunton. Our Barns and Tents are dog friendly, so do book in your four-legged friends to come on holiday with you.

For more information on local walks and things on, visit the Cotswold Conservation Website www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk

Sponsor a Tree

Here at Notgrove we are passionate about the environment and preserving the countryside and nature. With this in mind, and to support the Green Canopy initiative for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022 we planted over 3,500 native trees next to Notgrove village to create a 3-hectare wood.

The wood has been named in the Queen’s honour and is known as Elizabeth’s Wood.  Each tree in Elizabeth’s Wood is now available to sponsor and would make a wonderful wedding gift, birthday or Christmas present.  Or you could sponsor a tree in celebration of a birth, event or achievement, or in memory of a special person.