Campers looking for an alternative look no further, particularly if your into time travel. Tehidy Holiday Park in Cornwall is about to go back to the time of the hobbits. We are building 2 Hobbit round houses on the outer field. At 6m across they are big enough for a whole family. They will look amazing with plastered straw bale walls and timber, sedum covered roofs. These hobbit houses will fit in beautifully to our landscaped grounds. The wood burning stove will be ideal for heating and cooking on, the hobbit houses will be snug and dry whatever the weather.  Free hot showers, laundry play area and games room are all available on site, so creature comforts and then practicalities of a holiday with children are catered for. The sandy beaches of Portreath, Porthtowan, Chapel Porth and Godrevy are between 5 and 10 minutes from site. Being in a sheltered, wooded valley set back from Portreath, approximately half way between St Ives and St Agnes gives us a truely enviable position to explore hidden coves or miles of sandy bays as well as the amazing Cornish countryside on the door step. Woodland walks from site, cycle trails including the family friendly coast to coast trail, surfing, gardens, whatever you're looking for - we are more than happy to help point you in the right direction so that you can relax and make the most of your holiday. Just bring your sleeping bags, cutlery and torches, then you're pretty well set up for a great time. You may not want to come back to the present.

The Park was first established in 1955 when planning permission was given for camping in the valley.

Holiday Caravans were allowed in 1968. The Cottages, Shower Block and Games Room are all recent additions. The beginnings were much more rustic and for the hardy only. The residential area has also been recently developed in the valley above the house. fortunately the developments have kept the Cornish Hedging (walls with hedges on top), the trees and landscape, making the present site sit comfortably in its setting. As one visitor described it 'Tehidy Holiday Park snuggles into the bowl of the valley'. Since our arrival in 1997 we have made every effort to ensure that the site make way for the natural environment. the wealth of birdlife and other wildlife in the valley and on site is amazing. We often find ourselves taking a few minutes to just listen to the sound of nature. On a sunny evening its the perfect backdrop for a BBQ.

Carn Brea ridge and monument can easily be seen as you drive down the A30 towards Redruth. The ridge itself is worth a visit. It looks like giants have been playing skittles with massive boulders that are scattered around the hill top. Our children love to find animal shapes in the rocks. One is called 'Shark Rock' can you find which one it is? Another man made thing to look out for is the carvings in the stones. Some have a set of hollows in them and are probably the remains of 'early board games'. The ridge has been a site of human activity dating back to the neolithic times. The landscape would have been covered in dense forest with most population on or near the coast where travel would have been easier. As the forests disappeared, in the bronze age, more settlements appeared inland. Chysaucster is a lovely example of this. The Cornish Peninsula is thought to have the largest concentration of settlements dating to this period of anywhere in Europe.

The picture is taken looking over old tin works which are on the beautiful 'Great Flat Lode' mining heritage cycle trail which circles Carn Brea. 

After purchasing Tehidy Holiday Park in 2007 we quickly discovered there was a lot of interesting history attached to the site.

Little Tehidy Cottage

The house (Little Tehidy Cottage) dates back to approx 1650. The name seems to have remained the same and we assume it was connected to the Tehidy Estate in some way. The site obviously gets its name from the cottage. The Cottage has a mixed history having been used for accomodation and 'stream milling'. Stream Milling is the old term used for sifting through the sand and grit in the stream and finding the tin ore hidden amongst it. The stream originates in a mine at the top of the Tolskithy Valley and an old mining technique commonly used was to tip the mined stone into the stream and allow the stream to wash it down to the milling area to be sorted and sifted. The milling area proper for the mine is further up the valley and can be seen on our 'Valley Walk'. The milling at the cottage was probably 'unofficialy' carried out. The owner grinding the ore to a dust and selling it for a bit extra beer money. Some old ore grinding stones were found under the kitchen floor and are now exibited in the Truro Museum.

The Reception/ Shop

At some stage in the past, probably around the late 1600's the mines in the upper valley were partly accessed by the now path/ bridle way past reception. The Reception building has been found on a map dating to the 1700's. It is, like the cottage, old cob built walls, over 1m thick in places. The building marked on the map is shown to be a blacksmiths forge, this is probably linked to the horses used for moving the tin ore to Portreath for shipping.

The Site

Traditionally the site was used as a small holding. Old maps show call it 'Little Tehidy Farm'.

Picture of the upper Tolskithy Valley. Part of the route on our woodland walk. It is still used as a bridlepath.