I have so much to say about The North Star Club that I feel this will be one very long post or several shorter ones. I’ll begin with one post and if it gets too long I’ll break it down.
I’ll start though by saying this was a gifted stay, we were very kindly able to arrange some photography in exchange for a family stay, but I’m not obliged to share or say anything - all comments are my own.
I did absolutely love The North Star Club, I’m so, so glad I got to share this with my family. It was the perfect antidote to what has been a good but busy year, there hasn’t been any downtime, or just time to do ‘nothing’.
And despite the Yorkshire weather forecast predicting storms and continuous rain, we had glorious moments of sunshine, absolute warmth for this time of year and even when it did rain, it didn’t stop my two little ones from den building and rearranging the forest surrounding Woodville our woodland suite. We spent hours playing in nature, exploring paths, spying other cabins through the trees and both were thrilled to find out what WC meant and it’s one of the prettiest WC’s you’ll see!
Arrival time is between 4 and 6pm and we got there with just enough light to photograph, The Woodland Shed is your welcoming reception and also somewhere you can come anytime to sit by the fire, play games or stock up on forgotten essentials like coffee or marshmallows at the honesty station. (They also found us a plaster when Haven had a woodland injury whilst exploring!)
I managed to have a few minutes alone in Woodville to capture the images below. I can’t tell you how lovely the suite is, a little living room with a sofa(bed) and table for drawing or dining, with a door that leads to the kids room with bunk beds! The living room opens up to the main bedroom with log burner in the corner and a door to the utility room, sink, storage, fridge/freezer and basic kitchen crockery and all important kettle (all cooking is done on the gas fire BBQ outdoors). To the left of the bedroom is the most glorious bathroom, it’s huge! With a walk in shower and toilet hidden behind the slate tiled wall. There were absolute gasps of delight on entering this room!
Short on time planning what to do during our stay, I followed the helpful guides that Carolyn and Christian send out once your dates are confirmed, for our first night after the long drive, I booked in for dinner at The Star at Sancton, just a few minutes drive away, Michelin star (which I didn’t realise when we booked) and my heart sunk thinking how are my two going to behave - but despite Haven throwing ketchup all over me and the floor - the staff were completely unfazed and so down to earth but the quality of the food and presentation was incredible AND the pricing so, so reasonable, I highly recommend a visit. Eden had the best mac n cheese of his life and Michael’s sausage and mash was a thing of beauty. Dessert was (copied from the site because WOW!) Salted caramel set custard with brown sugar meringue, honeycomb, toffee sauce and banana chip crumb.
A pretty great start, no?
The next morning, after several hours of den building, did I mention H wakes up between 630am and 7am? …
… we headed to York, I couldn’t wait to see the real life Diagon Alley! Unfortunately my two are not yet ready for Harry Potter and despite desperately wanting wands, they could not answer even the most simple HP trivia so we left empty handed and the crying had begun. We headed to Waterstones with the promise that they could buy a book instead and found the longest of queues to get in. A kind lady passing said it was for the Winner of Bake Off, HE’S signing his new book…. Eden and I had been saving the final for when we returned… but what a wonderful way to find out and seeing David signing the new Bake Off book whilst we hunted for just the right storybook was very surreal!
I definitely have to come back to York either solo, or when they are older and have read at least a couple of the HP books.
Back at Woodville, to warm up after York, the kids had a GIANT bath, with bubbles up to their chin and a super treat of hot chocolate served with marshmallows whilst they splashed around. They said it was their best bath ever! Then we waited for our 530pm delivery!! Another recommendation from Carolyn, to have a hamper of food delivered directly to your cabin door. We got the BBQ for 2 which comes with a loaf of bread and salad and actually was so huge we were able to have half for lunch the next day. It was fresh, great quality and such a treat not to worry about getting dinner in. Michael cooked away on the Gas BBQ on the covered veranda and we set up the little table inside. Afterwards, we lit the log burner in the main bedroom and sat on the big bed reading stories.
Sunday and Part 2 of our stay will continue tomorrow, there is indeed too many photos to share, thank you for getting this far x