Why is having a cabin in the woods not a thing in the U.K.?

[OutComeTheWolves]

So often on movies set in the US, people head up to the cabin for a few days. And someone I follow on Instagram has recently bought an A-frame cabin 'upstate'.

I'm very envious, I'd love to just have a cheap property in the middle of nowhere that I could take the kids to at the weekend. I've googled various version of 'cabin in woods U.K.' 'cabin in forest for sale' and it seems to me that the British version is buying a static caravan on a caravan site. I don't really like other people so this isn't really what I what. Surely it could be more of a thing here, there must be some sort of market for it? Or is there just not enough forest for it to happen here?

(Quote fail above)

We have family in norway and it's a thing there too. But they have a heck of a lot more open space per head of population than we do.

@mybrainhertz

Vandalism.

We have woodland and you can't erect any sort of cabin because it would be vandalised by feral people and teenagers. They set things alight as well.

The council is also very controlling about what goes on in the land as well.

And even footpaths can and do turn into public nuiscance scenarios quite quickly too, in the UK.

It's a beautiful idea, although I'm not sure the exact reasons without further research.

There was a thing in Private Eye about the National Forestry Commission planning a luxury development of getaway cabins in woodland they owned. I think there was a lot of protest and it didn't happen in the end.

Here's the link: joanna678s.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/private-eye.pdf (bottom right of the page)

There's also a big cultural aspect. North American culture still has embedded ideas about exploration (and colonisation) of wild land. Also about freedom to live remotely and off-grid. A residual idea that camping, water and wilderness survival skills are important. They are, if you want to hike or camp, because everything is bigger and more remote.

The Little House on the Prairie era was only 130-150 years ago, late Victorian era here. Britain was long-since urbanised and industrialised by then. Long before that, it was all settled agriculture.

We don't have the same cultural connection to ideas of wilderness, exploration or wild survival, within our own country anyway. To the extent Brits did it, in the Scouts etc, it was more about preparation for exploration, colonisation and fighting elsewhere.

Living in an area where the local moorland frequently gets burned and all the wildlife killed because of people that don’t think and light bbqs I’m quite glad they don’t let unknowledgeable people wander off to stay in the woods.

And yes shepherds huts definitely need planning permission- they’re not that mobile when you need to plumb in the bathroom and hook up to electric. Most planning authorities are well aware that people try things like buying a few animals to try and gain permission to live on their land too.

@FindingMeno
Ha! Re the zombie apocalypse I'm thinking my street can be blocked off and if we all combine gardens can be self sufficient. Need to get some solar panels in though and no one has had the foresight to get a few pools dug for water!
The cabin in the woods just makes me think of chainsaw massacres, but I do have a Californian friend who often goes to hers!

People talking about US culture: that is only a tiny slice of well-off, white US culture. Most of the millions of people who live in the US never have a cabin in the woods or the lakes, never go deer hunting, have no ancestors who were pioneers in the 19th century.

My friend has a cabin on her allotment...... Thats about as good as it gets here.😂😂😂

@Ylfa I wish we could, I would like nothing more than for everyone to love, enjoy and respect nature. But the sad reality is many people see nature as something to tidy up, to concrete over, to provide a backdrop for selfies, a place to dump their litter, their feces, a nice place to get pissed and leave all their tents and bottles behind, a place to have bbqs no matter whether it starts a mile wide fire. Dartmoor has been burning this week for miles.
The reality is that many people in our country only care about their own pleasure and convenience. We cannot even get basic societal behaviours right here. In Germany or NL it is rare to see even a few bits of litter by the side of the road or in nature areas let alone bbqs, feces etc.

Our few remaining natural habitats need protecting from humans. Even the lovely ancient protected bluebell forest near me has suffered from lockdown, new or wider paths have been trodden to accommodate the greater numbers walking there, instragrammers lying down in bluebells for the lols, a large number now trampled (it takes years for them to recover). It is good that people appreciate these places but we need to have balance too. There are so many of us! We need to leave wild areas alone!

Oh and I grew up in America and tons if kids go to summer camp which are frequently cabins around a lake! I think that's where the passion for it starts. I'm much less convinced it's just part of American's 'pioneering and exploration' psychological make up.

Well yes, we're talking about those people who do have cottages in woods and by lakes, not the ones who don't. The comparison is to equivalently well-off middle-class Brits, who don't have weekend cottages, for all the reasons given.

In NZ there is a high ratios of wilderness to people, and in the early days it was very common for people to build a "bach" - a really simple hut / cabin, usually alongside a lake / river / coast. At the time the land was cheap, not easily farmed or developed, often inaccessible. The property rights weren't always clear - often people just built where they wanted to as there were no obvious landowners, or did questionable deals to secure the land. So many parts of coastal / river /lakeside NZ are dotted with small, ramshackle, structures where families would go for a simple outdoorsy holiday in the bush.

Now though, these areas have become more accessible and highly desirable and property prices have gone through the roof. Rich people buy the land and the bach, knock the latter down and build a big fancy house on the site. It's a way of life that is passing / has passed sadly.

Not enough woods here? You could get one in Sweden or Finland - its not that far and can be relatively cheap?

realting.com/property-for-sale/finland/cottages

[quote Sparrowsong]@Ylfa I wish we could, I would like nothing more than for everyone to love, enjoy and respect nature. But the sad reality is many people see nature as something to tidy up, to concrete over, to provide a backdrop for selfies, a place to dump their litter, their feces, a nice place to get pissed and leave all their tents and bottles behind, a place to have bbqs no matter whether it starts a mile wide fire. Dartmoor has been burning this week for miles.
The reality is that many people in our country only care about their own pleasure and convenience. We cannot even get basic societal behaviours right here. In Germany or NL it is rare to see even a few bits of litter by the side of the road or in nature areas let alone bbqs, feces etc.

Our few remaining natural habitats need protecting from humans. Even the lovely ancient protected bluebell forest near me has suffered from lockdown, new or wider paths have been trodden to accommodate the greater numbers walking there, instragrammers lying down in bluebells for the lols, a large number now trampled (it takes years for them to recover). It is good that people appreciate these places but we need to have balance too. There are so many of us! We need to leave wild areas alone![/quote]
Legislation hasn’t worked then, people need education too. We can’t expect anyone to just know these things after generations of enforced separation from their own land! I did my first wilderness camp over the weekend and apart from some flattened grass you can’t tell we were ever there - just poured water into the trench we used for fire and rolled the turf back over it. It was easy and anyone who was interested could learn to do it.

It’s so fucked up that you have to spend years cultivating friendships with landowners and encouraging them toward rewilding etc in order to access wild places. But I live in an intensively farmed region which is a depressing monoculture in more ways than one.

Be careful on airbnb. So many of these cabins look secluded and lovely. Until you read the reviews and find it's a shed on the back of the family's house, with really clever pictures to disguise that.

Has anyone seen that show about Ose Mountain? About a man who decided to trek into the wilderness one day and build a cabin in the middle of nowhere. We could only dream of that here.

The whole American wilderness ideal draws on Thoreau’s Walden. What he doesn’t say is that his isolated cabin was half a mile outside of town and he got his Mum to do his washing and cook him hot dinners. Fucking Incel.

@FindingMeno

I know. My zombie apocalypse/ emp/ financial collapse plan always falls at the first hurdle on this very point

Head to a remote Scottish village, hold up in an older, stone built farmhouse with shutters on the windows and an enclosed farm yard that's all outbuildings and 5 bar gates. They're surrounded by dry stone walls, fences, often woodlands (for cutting down trees for strengthening fencing, and other defences) often a nearby stream, own septic tank and private warmer supply. You gotta put some thought into this!

Personally I wouldn't like a wood cabin in the forests in the UK. With our weather it would be rotten by your next visit. I can't see one lasting. Centerparcs are a whole different type.

Not enough space here, and woodland habitat needs to be protected. People tramping about to hang out in their huts would damage fragile habitat, with disturbance and light pollution .

Would I be right to assume that in the US, unlike the UK, if you have a Winnebago-type hut on wheels, you can park it up pretty much anywhere accessible?

Land ownership.

The lakeside summer camps discussion is exactly the same of course. We don't have those everywhere because of land prices, population density, lack of lakes, unreliable weather etc.

Just as with holiday cottages, equivalents exist but are less ubiquitous, mostly more expensive and you often have to travel further to get to them.

summers spent at sleepaway camp (why isnt this a thing in the UK? It's amazing for kids)

Because we don’t have three months of school summer holidays.