Experience Cragend Farm is linked to Cragside, The National Trust Property, literally by steel pipes joining the Blackburn reservoir to the farm buildings. When you book a holiday in Northumberland and stay at Cragend Farm, you are able to explore the history of the Armstrong family, who aslo have a castle at Bamburgh. ...
East Cottage
Tilly and Wynn came to stay with their fabulous owners on what has been one of the sunniest weeks so far this year. Simon, Rhys and Linda have been looking at gardens in Northumberland and visiting castles and beaches. There certainly are plenty of those to visit in this amazing county. ...
Frogs
We go to our wildlife pond nearly every day and see something new. Our boys had a friend to stay and we went for a walk there and saw hundreds on tiny frogs leaping about. The boys were amazed that there were so many. We are pleased that they all survived the cold winter as the spawn had been frozen, and also the heron and visiting geese who think tiny frogs are a tasty treat! ...
Open Day 2018
Wednesday June 6th 2018 Cragend Farm Open Day: Cragend Farm opened its doors to the public on the 6th June to celebrate the progress of the farm to date. The Grade II* listed Silo was open and tours where held every hour to see the turbines and machinery within it. The gardens and house were also open to visitors to see the buildings and discuss our links with Cragside, the ...
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to your fantastic farm on the Historic Houses tour on Tuesday. We both agree that it was the most interesting HHA visit we have ever done - and we have done many over the years! We had no idea of the extent of the Armstrong connection or what you have there, having visited Cragside on so many occasions in the past 50 years or so. And indeed looked down on the farm from the walks at Cragend quite recently. We particularly enjoyed ascending and descending the ladders to look at the hydraulic equipment and get an idea of how it all functioned, the beautiful and unusual buildings which had housed the cattle, and were intrigued by the contents of your "underground " loo! Peacocks and chicks, hens and a beautiful pet lamb added to the feel of the farm.
Shaun & Lou Renwick are keen to harness the farm's natural resources, using wood to heat their water, to cook with on a wood burning range, and to heat the houses on the Farm. Even if your house is not equipped to totally run on wood there are things you can do to make sure you are using the best quality wood for your fires.
Why seasoned wood?
Why use Seasoned Wood?
Seasoned wood is a definition for 'wood drying'. About 5% of the energy of the log is wasted through evaporation and heating the water vapour of damp logs.
Moisture effects the burning process with unburnt hydrocarbons going up the chimney, which can in time create 'sooting' in the chimney, with the possibility of a chimney fire, all of which requires specialist sweeping.
Drying the wood before burning reduces moisture content in the wood before it is used for burning,
Air drying is the most traditional method, and it takes time. usually over and above 2 years! The fire will use less energy to burn the log if the water content is below 20%. Therefore is can give OUT more energy in the form of heat!
Cragend Farm endeavours to provide their customers with the best seasoned wood possible.
if you would like further information on the process of burning wood please contact us and we will be happy to help.
Thank you so much Lou and Shaun for a great holiday break on your farm at Cragend last week. East Cottage was a super place to stay. Very comfortable accommodation with everything we needed for self-catering and situated next to the beautiful Cragside National Trust gardens. It was super for our dog with fields to walk across as well as a secure fenced place for her to run off lead! Such interesting history too about the farm and how you have restored the buildings, the Victorian silo and so much else of the past farming life at Cragend. We look forward to returning! J&M Nottingham.
Award Winning Accommodation