thistledown farm

Simply the best campsite in the UK. The site is massive and beautifully landscaped. The facilities are excellent and wonderfully designed. It's not cheap but you cant compare this site to a standard site it is in a different league.

Just what we were looking for. Going when the schools had gone back we had the site to ourselves. It is very picturesque with large plots with space for campfires. The facilities are very good with hot showers and excellent washing up facilities. We will def be back and look forward to then trying out the new wood fired pizza cafe that they are currently building.

Stayed for 3 nights beginning of September in a group of ten. The best thing is how far away from other campers you are so no disturbance at all. The second pasture is lovely with composting toilets and very hot very powerful showers, they don't look much but are very good! They provide massive wheelbarrows to cart stuff from car park but it's only a 2 min walk and nice not to have cars cluttering the beautiful scenery. Good shop although check opening hours and lovely woodland walks right from your tent.

We recently stayed at Thistle down farm and thoroughly enjoyed it (even though the weather was poor) . The pitches are large and the grounds are gorgeous!! Staff are friendly and accommodating and the shop is well stocked .All in all a great site thankyou

Wonderful two night stay. We camped in the elderberry orchards and had so much room. The campsite was fully booked but there was still masses of room, so you didn't realise there were so many people there. A truly, unspoilt, natural, relaxing campsite with wonderful woodland walks and even animals for the kiddies to visit. The shop stocks everything you could possibly need but forgot to bring, including marshmallows. The fire wood truck comes round every evening and everyone is so friendly. We loved our break here and hope to come back again soon. Thank you.

This place deserves all the praise it gets on here. We thought the place would be packed when we heard we were staying on a 'fully booked' campsite. But we could barely see anyone else. Great facilities and lovely people. It's well worth a fiver to have your bags brought back up - and if you're lucky you can hang off the edge while they do!

I 100% recommend this site. Following a two night trip. As a family of four including a three year old we had reservations about the lack of entertainment for the children but we were wrong! The pigs alone kept the children amused for hours (they are so well kept and cared for that you can stroke them!), building dens and toasting marshmallows made it an adventure. It felt safe and secure. We really enjoyed watching them playing in the great out doors. The toilets may put some off in principle but actually the composting toilet we used smelt of wood shavings and had views of the countryside. It was clean and always well stocked. Made us wonder why all sites didn't have these rather than events loo's. Our "pitch" was ideal. We were hidden in a corner with a beautiful tree and a fire pit. From the pitch we could only see two tents and they were meters away. The view was breathtaking. We used the £5 buggy to move our things on arrival which was very easy. I suggest everybody does this as it is stressless. We cooked in our fire pit and bought wood from the site for £10 (we also brought some from home as we are local). We had prepared by bringing a dutch cooking pot and tripod; this investment should be made by anybody cooking with the fire pit. The washing up point was clean and tidy and the shop was well stocked. This was the first time we had taken out dogs with us. It was so nice to have them and they really enjoyed it. We had brought a tether and kept them on a lead at all times. We saw a few dogs and all the owners were responsible. It was very dog friendly. Even the owners had a love little dog. The owners were so inviting. They are obviously very proud of their site and who can blame them its wonderful! We have already decided to return next year. I can not tell you all enough that you must go to Thistledown Farm!Thank you so much for having us.

We have just returned from this magical place where the children spent most of the time exploring the woods whilst the parents sat around the campfire having a good catch up! I'm sure the place is huge but it almost felt like it was just us there!! The owners are very friendly and couldn't do enough for us and were always at hand offering logs in an evening or general advice. We actually pitched in the wrong area and the owners were very helpful in moving us! Showers lovely and warm (although there was usually a queue first thing) and toilets not bad for compost toilets!! Thank you!! We will be back...especially since we here there are plans for a cafe serving breakfast and pizza in an evening next year.

Would definitely recommend this campsite. Plenty of pitches that are not on top of each other. Lovely views of the woodland. The staff are very friendly and helpful. Paying £5 for a buggy is definitely recommended as cars aren't allowed next to your tent on the 2&3rd pasture. Xx

I have just returned from a 1 night stay at Thistledown farm. As I was on my own with 2 young girls, I decided to hire a bell tent from 'rosebay bell tents', which was fantastic! Lovely to arrive to a camp that's already set up, ( particularly when the rain is lashing down!). The tent had plenty of space, the bed mats were very comfortable and the fairy lights and candle chandelier made for a very relaxed bed time! I have camped lots in the past and have always 'done my own thing', but I would definitely do this again for a short camping trip as it was so hassle free and relaxing!Thistledown itself was wonderful! We stayed on the badger site, which I believe is a part of pasture three. It was beautifully peaceful, with pheasants wandering past the door in the evening. We were 'delivered' to the site by the ' mule service', which the girls loved, so did I as it ment I didn't have to push a wheelbarrow with all our kit quite a distance and up / down some steep hills. The charge was £5, but once again I went for the way option- but why make things harder than they need to be?The people in the shop were helpful and gave us good advice about the best location and time to see newts etc in the pond. The girls loved the 'night hike' and seeing newts / frogs/bats. They also enjoyed exploring the woods and finding the tree swings.Toilets and washing facilities as mentioned previously, all were fine, with ample hot water for washing / washing up.The wood was delivered to our pitch by for our evening campfire, where we enjoyed star gazing (and spotted a shooting star!)All in all we loved our stay, and it was a great place to introduce my daughter to camping! Hope we can come again soon.

Where to start? What's not to like? From the moment you arrive to the moment you leave it is hard not to smile the entire time. The warm welcome, the great facilities, our lovely fellow campers, all perfect. There's a great attitude at the heart of Thistledown that puts the camping experience at the top of the list and part of that experience is considering your impact on the environment. From the use of water to the amount of campers that the land can accommodate without inflicting damage, is a living demonstration of sustainability over pure desire for profit. I'm sure that the camp site could pack you much tighter and squeeze in more tents and toilet blocks but it chooses not to. It supplies fire wood to cook on and gives you space to cook or play in and creates a feeling of freedom missing in so many sites. The simple act of lying by a campfire with your kids, looking at the milkyway and Intentional Space Station with the near perfect silence of other campers doing the exact same with their kids, is an unforgettable experience that can not be matched by campsites with pools and night entertainment. So stop reading this and pack your tent. Still here?

We have never been to such a lovely campsite before! We stayed in Thistledown for 3 nights and we had a brilliant time! We went last year for 4 nights and we loved it, so we decided to come again! It was great for children to because you could let them go where ever you want them to!We had a massive amount of room to pitch our tent up and we had a massive amount of room just to play and relax! There is no music or loud noises aloud so it was very peaceful and the only thing that you could hear is the sound of the gliders as they went past our heads and the sound or the birds! We camped right by the woods so we could go exploring through the woods when ever we wanted to, there were wigwams and lots of exiting stuff too! While we were there we decided to go to Woodchester mansion, it was about 50 mins to get there but it was worth it! It was a lovely walk to get there, and the mansion was beautiful! It is a unfinished masterpiece! We spent about 3-4 mins in every room, it was really interesting to find out the history of the mansion too! There are lovely toilets that have no flush only sawdust, there are lovely flowers to decorate the toilets to! There are nice hot water showers and hot water taps for washing up and washing your hands to! You had your own fire pit and they were set out with rocks around the side and there was plenty of room to make a lovely, big camp fire.(great for toasting marshmallows!) We had a lift on the mule and we all jumped in! It was amazing! The people there are lovely and polite and there were lots of lovely staff who would always be there for you! We would definitely recommend Thistledown farm as a peaceful calm getaway! We had lots of fun in Thistledown campsite and it was an amazing place, so peaceful, calm and quiet, but if you want adventure then your in the right place!

We have never been to such a peaceful place with so much space allocated per pitch. We arrived at 8pm (after the mule service finishes) so had to cart all our camping kit down the site (very steep descent - but plenty of level pitches in the valley) , but it was well worth it. Our pitch was right beside the woods and had its own firepit. We had masses of space and although the site was quite busy, we almost forgot other people where there! Showers had loads of hot water, only 2 sinks but never had to queue. Compost toilets absolutely fine even in 30 degree heat! Would be even better with a bit of eco air freshener available?Highly recommended and local town a total treat to visit too with great restaurants.

Thanks for taking the time to review our campsite, and I'm glad that you enjoyed your stay.There are actually 4 composting toilets in the 3rd Pasture (they are on the map, on the right), but we would still like to put more in. Unfortunately there are more things that we'd like to do than we are currently able to do! A lot of the facility and parking pressures come from day visitors for groups, and this is something we are looking at for next year.I'm not sure whether you took your complimentary walking map when heading into Woodchester Park? The path doesn't disappear (it's a T junction on the map, so you have to head right), but it is more rutted than normal due to the felling work. You can walk over the deforested area rather than stick to the path, this only takes a few minutes and it's clear where to aim for as you can see the boathouse which is on the map. We do sell OS based maps in the shop which have much more detail on. We don't own the land beyond the campsite, so we are not in a position to erect signage. The National Trust are felling the softwood plantations and returning the park to pastureland with specimen trees (it used to be more like this until the 1950s), so small parts of the valley won't be as picturesque as they could be for the next few years, but that's all part of the changing landscape. I must stress that the National Trust and Priory Angling Club do not allow swimming or boats!The pigs are fine! They are routinely checked-over. Pigs just enjoy scratching (who doesn't?!), some breeds more than others.

Just back from a three night stay at Thistledown with friends over the bank holiday weekend. The site is beautiful, spacious and quiet. It was fully booked but we had a large expanse of space between our group and our nearest neighbours. The campsite is on a steep site with level areas for camping - we paid the extra £5 each way for the 4x4 "mule" to bring our clobber to and from the car and felt it money well spent, but there were wheelbarrows available for those more keen on manual labour! We halfway down the second pasture which seemed quite sheltered and the children enjoyed exploring, playing on the rope swings, visiting the pigs and toasting marshmallows over the campfire. We were a bit anxious about the composting toilets, but they were fine and not smelly and the showers were nice and hot. The surrounding area is very pretty - lots of Cotswold stone and little villages and the adjoining National Trust estate is beautiful with lakes and bluebells aplenty. Would definitely recommend for a peaceful break.