Many people now look for eco-friendly holidays, but how about camping on a private nature reserve?

Steve Hounsham and Lynn Thornborrow have created just that - after buying an unloved smallholding near Tregaron in 2021, they transformed 25 acres into a reserve complete with woodland, wetland, wildflower meadows with native orchids - and a glamping site.

The couple turned their love of nature into a business by sharing their small paradise with others via just three glamping options - one yurt in a meadow, a ‘glampervan’ in an orchard, or a Welsh cottage annexe next to their vegetable garden.

Steve Hounsham and Lynn Thornborrow have been transforming a patch of unloved farmland into a nature reserve complete with an establishing broadleaf woodland, wildflower meadows, native orchids, a wildlife pond, wetland - and glamping options
Steve Hounsham and Lynn Thornborrow have been transforming a patch of unloved farmland into a nature reserve complete with an establishing broadleaf woodland, wildflower meadows, native orchids, a wildlife pond, wetland - and glamping options (Cambrian News)

Steve, an ex-press officer for an environmental pressure group, said: “We combine farming, food production, nature conservation and tourism.

“This might sound like a tall order, but it can be done.

“We produce a lot of our own organic food, we're more or less self-sufficient for fruit and vegetables, which we share with our guests.

Guests have the field to themselves when staying in the Red Kite Yurt in the wildflower field at Orchid Meadows
Guests have the field to themselves when staying in the Red Kite Yurt in the wildflower field at Orchid Meadows (Cambrian News)

“Our meadows are managed to increase the population of our orchids.

“We harvest hay from the fields, sold to a horse training centre.

“We use our glamping income to finance our conservation work.”

The couple left Yorkshire for Wales mid-pandemic and began to transform the farmland, which previous owners had tried to plough but found the land unsuitable.

Guests have free rein to explore the 25-acres
Guests have free rein to explore the 25-acres (Orchid Meadows)

It turned out to be a hotbed for one very rare thing - native orchids.

Of the three species found on the site, one is classed as ‘endangered’ whilst the other two, the Broad-Leaved Helleborine and Heath Spotted-orchid, though not endangered, are now a rare sight.

The endangered Lesser Butterfly Orchid is now in decline due to the use of agricultural chemicals.

The first flower on the head of a Heath Spotted-orchid in the 'evening meadow'
The first flower on the head of a Heath Spotted-orchid in the 'evening meadow' (Cambrian News)

Three years ago, the couple started the planting of 3,500 trees to establish a six-acre broadleaf woodland, growing in the meadows and increasing the orchid population by 69 per cent (counting 2,270 flowering heads of Heath Spotted-orchid in 2024).

The fields they cut late in the season to help the flowers and orchids grow.

But they’re not bogged down in the work - instead re-establishing a sphagnum peatland on the south end of the site, something that, if done right, can store more carbon than trees, increase the area's resilience to floods and encourage biodiversity.

What’s more - guests have free rein to explore it all.

Steve in Cors Caron Fach - the bog they are starting to re-establish
Steve in Cors Caron Fach - the bog they are starting to re-establish (Cambrian News)

The couple have established a nature trail that guides guests across boardwalks on Cors Caron Fach (a nod to Cors Caron wetland nature reserve nextdoor), taking visitors from ‘sunrise corner’ to ‘sunset bench’, given complimentary organic veg and eggs from their garden and wood for fires from trees felled to re-establish the bog.

In case it doesn’t sound cosy enough, Lynn, who ran a tea shop for 40 years, welcomes you with freshly baked goods, whilst a tuck shop offers a range of home-grown and handmade preserves.

Though the couple are just at the start of their journey, their woodland currently waist high, Steve says, “Hopefully in 20 years, it will be a paradise both for nature and people.”