Dorset
Organic farm camping above a private beach, open six weeks a year
Eweleaze Farm is an organic farm on the coast at Osmington, a few miles east of Weymouth, and it opens for camping only from mid-July to the end of August. That short season has given it something close to cult status. The fields run down a slope towards the sea with wide views across Weymouth Bay to Portland, and the farm has its own beach reached by a track down through the fields, which effectively makes it private to campers.
It is tents only, with no caravans or motorhomes, and pitching is informal rather than marked out. Facilities are deliberately simple but well maintained: toilets in every field, free hot showers, solar showers down by the beach, washing-up sinks, drinking water standpipes and recycling points spread around the site. Campfires are permitted in designated spots, which is unusual and a large part of the appeal. There is no electric hook-up and mobile signal is patchy in places.
What lifts it above a straightforward field is the food and the programme. A courtyard of food stalls and a farm shop sell the farm's own organic meat, milk and vegetables alongside pizza, coffee and breakfasts, and there is a wood-fired sauna, a Turkish bath, massage treatments, yoga sessions and children's activities through the season. Dogs are welcome. The site is large and busy, and it is closer to a small festival in atmosphere than to a quiet rural campsite, so it suits sociable families and groups rather than anyone after solitude. Book as soon as dates are released, because the best weeks fill almost immediately.