Frequently asked questions

Check-in is from 4pm and check-out by 10am, so we have time to turn each place around properly. Earlier arrivals and later departures are sometimes possible outside peak weeks — just ask.

Booking directly through this site sends your request straight to us with no platform fees in the middle, and it's how we can be most flexible on things like arrival times and longer stays. Our calendars sync with Airbnb and Booking.com automatically, so availability shown here is the real picture.

Because our calendars also sync with Airbnb and Booking.com, we double-check every direct request against the very latest picture before confirming — it protects you from the rare double-booking. You'll normally hear back from us within 24 hours, usually much faster.

Once we confirm your request, payment in full is due to secure your dates — we'll send payment details with your confirmation. Please book with confidence in your dates: confirmed bookings are non-refundable. We're a small estate and an empty cottage on a booked night is a night lost, so we'd recommend travel insurance for peace of mind. If your plans change we can't refund, but tell us as early as you can and we'll always try to help you move to other dates where the calendar allows.

Lower Hawksfold Cottage welcomes well-behaved dogs (there's livestock and ground-nesting wildlife about, so leads on the estate paths please). Each new stay will say clearly whether it's dog-friendly. Dogs can't come into the bird hides, for reasons the birds would explain if they could.

Yes — this is a proper countryside holiday for children: space, mud, wildlife and torch-lit walks. A travel cot and highchair are available at Lower Hawksfold Cottage on request. Do note the estate has ponds and working areas, so little ones need supervising outdoors.

Every stay with a woodburner comes with a starter basket of our own estate kindling and logs. More is available to buy on site or from the online shop — it's the same wood we sell for delivery.

Not yet — there's no charger on the estate, so arrive with charge or plan a top-up at a public charger. If you're coming by EV, mention it when you book and we'll point you to the nearest options.

Yes — good Wi-Fi in the cottage and good mobile signal across the estate. Whether you tell your inbox where you are is entirely your business.

The hides are being built now and none is open yet — register interest on any hide's page and you'll be the first to hear when its sessions go live. Once open, each hide is booked by the day session through its own page — choose a date on the calendar and send a request. Sessions are private: the hide is yours (and your companions') for the session, no strangers' elbows. Morning sessions start before dawn in season; evening sessions run to dusk.

Not at all. Each hide page tells you honestly what you might see and when. Photographers get sensible working distances, clean sightlines and morning or evening light by design — but a flask, binoculars and patience are all you actually need.

No — and be wary of anywhere that promises otherwise. What we can promise is honest, current information (we post recent activity in the journal), hides sited on real flight lines and feeding areas, and habitat managed year-round for the species on the label.

Yes — staying guests can use unbooked hides, and get priority on session bookings. If a hide matters to your trip, book it when you book your stay.

The short version: arrive on time by the marked route, keep voices low, no flash, no playback of bird calls, no baiting beyond what we manage ourselves, and no dogs. Full etiquette notes come with your booking confirmation.

It's Sussex ash — dense hardwood, not the usual spruce or pine — planted and nurtured here in the South Downs National Park, hand-split and then aged for 24 months in our traditional barns. Never kiln dried. It burns hotter and up to three times longer than softwood kindling, with a cleaner, low-smoke flame, and it comes in a plastic-free printed box that's good enough to give.

Yes — two years of barn air-drying takes it below 20% moisture the slow way, with no kiln energy spent, stored under cover. It's certified under the Ready to Burn scheme [PLACEHOLDER: cert number].

£16.99 a box with free delivery, UK-wide, from the online shop — twin and four-box bundles work out cheaper still. You can also collect from the estate at Fernhurst, and for logs and larger loads get in touch and we'll see what we can do.