Meet Emma and Rich Liddle – owners of Lydcott Glamping, a year-round glamping site featuring Nordic style cabins with stunning sea views in wild and beautiful Cornwall.
What first inspired you to create Lydcott Glamping as a retreat?
The view! And the peacefulness of the place. We live on site ourselves, and will never tire of the views from here – it changes so much from day to day and from hour to hour depending on the weather. Sometimes the sea looks so intense blue and the fields so intense green – sometimes it’s moody with dramatic clouds and a silver sea. We’re so lucky to be off the beaten track but still so accessible to the beaches and civilisation!
Have you always been in hospitality? If not, what else did / do you do?
No – many years ago I (Emma) used to manage bars and restaurants – but my main career is in marketing. I still work as a freelance marketing consultant from home and manage my hours around running the glamping business and our 3 kids! Rich works in the luxury travel sector and still commutes to London every couple of weeks, as well as travelling abroad quite a lot. We’re both really lucky to be able to predominantly work from home and have the work life balance we were looking for when we moved down to Cornwall.
What’s the best thing about being the owner of Lydcott Glamping?
The reviews! It makes it all so worthwhile when a guest checks out and we can read the lovely comments they’ve left in the guest books inside the cabins – or when we receive an email from TripAdvisor saying we’ve received yet another 5 star review. It genuinely makes us so happy that our guests really do love it here as much as we do.
What’s your favourite feature of the cabins?
Aside from the amazing view (you can see the sea from every window), we love the cosiness of them. The weather can be crazily wild outside (it is Cornwall after all!), and you just feel warm and safe and cosy inside the cabins. They’re really well insulated so guests can come and stay here all year round, and no matter the weather we know it’ll still be a great holiday, as you have everything you need inside the cabin to just hole yourself in and relax. You can literally lie in your huge bed under the duvet and watch the sea or the stars!
What do you love about the local area?
We are really well located to explore the whole of Cornwall here. We have lots of beaches within 5-10 minutes, some great eating places, great access to the coast path for walking, plenty of things to do with kids and even a golf course nearby.
What’s next for Lydcott Glamping?
We have just added a brand new 3rd cabin, the Pilchard, to the site which means that we’ll be able to host multiple families who like to holiday together, or even take bookings for the whole site of 3 cabins which would work really well for 2 families and a couple (great if you wanted to bring the grandparents!). I think this would be a lovely idea for Christmas! At some point we’d also like to add a hot tub to our couples cabin, ‘Prosecco’.
We love that we can work with local businesses to support them too, so look forward to more collaborations locally to add to the overall Cornish experience here for guests. We already collaborate with our neighbouring farms to offer local produce hampers, and we’ve just started talking to a local holistic therapist about offering guests a massage service in their cabin (or on the sun deck if the weather allows) which we think will be really popular.
If you couldn’t stay at your place, where would your ideal holiday be?
We love travelling and seeing the world and everywhere we go we like to experience the local culture as much as we possibly can. We’re an outdoorsy, active family – so anywhere there’s beautiful scenery and culture to explore!
Sum up Lydcott Glamping in three words
Tranquil, unique, beautiful
If you were visiting, how would you spend a day at Lydcott Glamping?
I would definitely order the local breakfast hamper and have a leisurely breakfast outside watching the sea views and the chickens roaming around the field.
I’d visit one of the local beaches – probably Tregantle (below) if it were a sunny beach day, and take a picnic with me. If not sunny, I’d go for lunch at Millendreath Bistro which is right on the beach and lovely food and views.
I’d also want to make a trip to one of the pretty Cornish villages nearby- the coast path walk from Looe to Polperro (via Talland Bay) is breathtaking! That way I could explore Looe first, and have dinner in Polperro the other end before getting the bus back.
Finally I’d spend the evening watching the stars from under a thick blanket on the comfy family sun lounger or around the firepit!
Find out more about Lydcott Glamping via their Host Unusual listing and book a cosy Cornish getaway to remember!
