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Visit Britain International Visitors are welcome to visit our accommodation in the heart of Northumberland. Farmhouse chic  with extraordinary history makes it an ideal resting place on your tour ofGreat Britain where you can stay for a few days or more and take in all Northumberland has to offer. From Hadrians Wall to Bamburgh Castle, beaches and rolling hills and magnificen ...

Visit Northumberland When you stay at Cragend Farm, you are based in the centre of a large county that has many areas  to visit to the north south east and west.  South is Hadrians Wall, Wallington and Housesteads. West is Keilder Forest and the dark skies observatory, falconry and cycle and walking trails. North you can take a trail to anywhere in the Borders within a ...

Tours in association with Historic Houses start  in May 2023. Contact Historic Houses or use our contact form for further information on booking.  Groups welcome. ...

Happy New Year! Ours has got off to a good start with new kid goats born in January.  Well worth the effort! Betty, a hand reared Bagot goat has mothered the first kid ‘ Nanny’  of 2023 at Cragend Farm. A great success story, not just because she is one of only 400 breeding Bagot Nannys in the world, but she was orphaned at 3 weeks old and had to be hand-reared to make sure ...

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