Daisy Bank Camp: A Wild Yorkshire Escape Above Hebden Bridge
High up on the moors above Hebden Bridge, where heather banks tumble away to vast skies and the wind carries the song of curlews, you'll find Daisy Bank Camp. Six hand-built, timber-clad eco cabins sit on a permaculture smallholding run by Angie and Andrew, who have turned their corner of West Yorkshire into something quietly remarkable: a true breathing space — adults only, dog-friendly, and beautifully removed from everyday noise.
Each cabin takes its name and colour palette from the birds that share the land. Curlew, Kestrel and Tawny make up the larger Honeycomb cabins, glass-fronted with enclosed decks. Lapwing, Linnet and Skylark form the cosier Stable terrace. Inside, you'll find Hannah Nunn wallpapers, original artwork by Kate Boyce, underfloor heating, neat micro kitchens and sparkling wet rooms. Outside: a private deck, a picnic table, and the Calder Valley falling away beneath you. There's no Wi-Fi — and that, frankly, is the point.
Daisy Bank Camp is a place for people searching for something a little more, whether that’s switching off, reconnecting or being inspired. Angie and Andrew’s intention is to help people leave with a fresh perspective on their wellbeing and the world around them. They began building Daisy Bank Camp in 2019, and despite having no background in hospitality, Angie’s 25+ years designing customer service operations, and Andrew’s background in engineering, brought together decades of considered customer experience right from the inception. Their starting point was to think about their own customer experiences, both positive and negative and to design in the very best throughout, from underground services to the volume of the radio! They spent time physically in the spaces at each stage of the design, from standing knee high in mud to assess views from the Honeycombs before foundations were dug, to the height of USB charging points in relation to a shelf, all the way to designing the heating system to enable instant hot water – the little things that add up to an awful lot.
Walking straight from the door
This is walking country at its most atmospheric. The cabins sit on the Long Causeway above Blackshaw Head, with the Calderdale Way and the Pennine Way close enough to step onto without driving anywhere. Strike out for Stoodley Pike, the gritstone obelisk visible for miles, or descend into Hardcastle Crags — a wooded National Trust valley laced with paths down to Gibson Mill. Head north toward the Brontë moors above Haworth, or west across the open expanses around Heptonstall and Widdop reservoir. You can roam the landscape of Ted Hughes and the Brontës straight from your front door.
Or take to two wheels
Sustrans National Route 68 — the Pennine Cycleway — threads through the high country nearby. The riding is honest: long climbs, generous rewards, and the gentler Rochdale Canal towpath waiting at the bottom for an easier roll between Hebden Bridge and Todmorden. Daisy Bank's on-site bike wash is a thoughtful touch for the return, mud-spattered and smiling.
Towns worth wandering
Ten minutes' drive (or a properly earned hike) drops you into Hebden Bridge — an old mill town turned independent- art minded haven of bookshops, galleries, vinyl and canalside cafés. You will need at least half a day here if browsing is your thing! Heptonstall, perched on the hill above, feels older and quieter still: cobbled streets, two churches, a cracking tearoom and Sylvia Plath's grave in the churchyard. Todmorden brings the brilliant Incredible Edible community garden project, a lively weekend market and a grand Victorian town hall. Half an hour east lies Haworth, with the Brontë parsonage and the Keighley & Worth Valley steam railway.
Where to eat
The food scene punches above its postcode. In Hebden Bridge, COIN plates elegant small dishes and natural wines inside a converted bank. Vocation & Co pours its own brewery's beers alongside Slap & Pickle smashed burgers. Leila's Kitchen does Persian-inspired brunches with real heart, while Marco's is the place locals send you for proper Italian. For a long Sunday lunch with a view, The Stubbing Wharf sits right on the canal.
In Todmorden, Frederick's is the destination — contemporary Italian, regularly listed in the Good Food Guide's top 100 local restaurants. Walkers swear by The Top Brink Inn at Mankinholes for proper pub food after a Stoodley Pike loop, and the White Lion back in Hebden Bridge serves refined pub classics worth lingering over.
Slowing down
What stays with you isn't any single meal or a particular trail. It's the rhythm Daisy Bank Camp gently insists on: tea on the deck at sunrise, a long walk through bracken and wind swept hills, a leisurely lunch somewhere local, a book read with the bi-fold doors open, and the deep dark of a moorland night. Yorkshire wildness with a soft edge — exactly as Angie and Andrew intended…
