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Safer Stays Accommodation Cragend Farm has 'Safer Stays' and 'Sues Stay' kitemarks and super reviews about visitors who have stayed with us during the pandemic this summer. We strongly recommend that everyone checks the guidelines but this is a summary which means that staying at Cragend Farm, either at East Cottage or at a our private Bed and Breakfast room , The Armstrong ...

DONATIONS AND SPONSORSHIPS ARE HELPING US RAISE AND PROTECT THESE FABULOUS BRITISH BREEDS FROM EXTINCTION. If you are interested in sponsoring one of our animals as a gift for Christmas, a Birthday or Anniversary please contact us and we will be happy to send photos and updates about life at Cragend Farm. All our animals have official pedigree names and we issue a certificat ...

Farming Friends Forever This summer has been eventful with 2 new Whitebred Shorthorn calves born, who are growing up fast and are a great addition to our rare breed herd. The cows have had a fabulous summer of eating lots of grass and basking in the sunshine.  The cows are  hopefully pregnant and we will be taking care of them throughout the coming  Winter.  Our 3 Bagot Bil ...

Saluki Salutations This is Pepper a beautiful Saluki that came to stay with her family at Cragend Grange. She was such a gentle beautiful girl, and we thank her family for coming to stay in The Armstrong Wing with her. She was definitely star of the show. ...

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 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.

Why seasoned wood?

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