by Sipping a glass of red wine in the hot tub, warm against the cold Suffolk night, belly full of scallops and venison, I looked at the private swimming lake and thought: This is my kind of wilderness.
Wilderness Reserve is a rambling estate in rural Suffolk, five miles or so inland from Dunloe. Foxtons is owned by billionaire property tycoon, Jon Hunt, and is close to his own home, the 18th century manor house, Heveningham Hall.
Wilderness Reserve opened as a holiday destination in 2013, and includes properties of various sizes, shapes, ages and accounts, spread over 8,000 acres of grassland, woodland and recovering farmland. From wedding-ready manor houses, restored farmhouses, off-the-grid cabins and lakeside cottages, there’s something for everyone. It is only wild in the loosest sense of the word. Rather than starting with a grand plan, Wilderness is expanding more organically, slowly dotting the landscape with properties across its two estates – within the estate, Sibton Park and Chapel Barn.
There are nine new residences opening between now and early 2025, including Yelm, where my family stayed. This two bedroom thatched cottage is situated on a small man made lake which is ideal for a quick dip or drop off in the rowing boat provided. The exterior is dusky peach-pink; inside, there is a double-height sitting room dominated by a striking red brick chimney. Since it has just opened, the cottage already felt harmoniously lived in.
Once we had unpacked, Jon’s son, Harry Hunt, who runs Wilderness Reserve on a day-to-day basis, came to show us around. Harry, 35 and one of four children, began his career as a rally driver, racing in the World Rally Championship and the Dakar Rally, before suffering a serious accident in Morocco. Crawling out of a burning car, with his back broken, he had to rethink his priorities.
“I tried to get back to racing, but I missed that last few percent,” he told me. “I put this in instead.” Joining the family business was an opportunity to immerse himself in the landscape where he spent most of his weekends and holidays as a boy, while helping to put the Suffolk countryside on the map.
“Post-Covid, post-Brexit, everyone has fallen in love with the English countryside a little bit more and is more than happy to explore,” he said. “And there are some cracked places out there.”
Wilderness Reserve is one of a number of properties in the UK that sit somewhere on the continuum between renting a cottage and staying in a house hotel. A cottage has privacy and charm but few amenities. A hotel comes with everything on tap but generally less privacy. Closer to the hotel are places like Soho Farmhouse, where small cabins are located around a central collection of restaurants, shops, a spa and other amenities.
The Wilderness Reserve is quieter and more refined. Prices for the Yelm, which sleeps four, start at £796 per night. For those who want to go completely off the grid there is Hex, a one-bedroom cottage with no electricity, which starts at £392. There is no communal restaurant or hotel so far, although there are vague plans for one in the future. Rushing is not the order of the day here.
The beauty of the arrangement is that guests can take it exactly as they please. The facilities are designed to inspire self-reliance: Yelm comes with a fully equipped kitchen and a Big Green Egg barbecue. Larger properties have private cinemas, pool tables, bars, dining halls and basement rooms that can resemble a nightclub. You could turn up with a car full of supplies and barely see a staff member all weekend. An extended family could divide themselves among several houses, convenient but separate from each other.
Alternatively you could order everything delivered, from masseuses to private chefs, canapés to breakfast. Team going forward in Morris Minors. This flexibility and privacy has made Wilderness Reserve popular with not only the very rich, but celebrities too, including Lionesses captain Leah Williamson, comedian Jack Whitehall and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig.
For those feeling adventurous, there is a whole range of activities on site: yoga, archery, tennis, treasure hunts, nature walks. Although the landscape is still too mature for Wilderness Reserve to be a formal reintroduction project, there is a lot of reintroduction 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 for all kinds of wildlife: deer, moths, otters, badgers, foxes, butterflies and birds including cuckoos and barnacles. owl. “It’s going to be great,” he said, pointing to hundreds of new trees, mostly beech and hornbeam, and thousands of hedges being prepared. “It will be just like it was 100 years ago.” Not a complete desert, then, but inching closer.
Wilderness Reserve is also a convenient base for exploring this part of Suffolk: Aldeburgh is only a 20 minute or so drive away, for fish and chips on the beach or a smarter meal at the Suffolk, the excellent fish restaurant which opened George Pell who used. by the owner of 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 antique shop.
On the second morning, our lovely guide took our daughter on a guided bear hunt, well placed for her age, which ended with her being shown how to build a fire and, more importantly, toast marshmallows. Later, she rode her bike around the empty sidewalks, slept quietly, 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 desert or not.
Basics
Ed Cumming traveled as a guest at Wilderness Reserve (01986 802113; wildernessreserve.com), which offers cottages from around £199 per person per night.
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