The Cottage of the Charcoal Burners (Ninfa) was built in the period 1580-1610 on the old parish road over the Blorenge to Blaenavon. The barn dates to the same period according to the design of a feature on the end of one of the beams.
Twenty five years ago we converted the old barn into a 6-bedded bunkhouse. Soon afterwards we started the campsite with widely separated pitches on terraces scattered across the mountainside.
Middle Ninfa Farm is located just two miles from the historic market town of Abergavenny. It is reached by a steep, winding tarmacked road from Llanfoist, crossing the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal which once served the iron works of Clydach Gorge and Pwll Ddu. The 23 acre farm lies in a historic and beautiful landscape, within the Brecon Beacons National Park on the edge of the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape World Heritage Site.
The small unspoiled campsite is rated in the top category by the Tiny Campsite Guide. The site is also featured in the Guardian newspaper’s guide to the best 100 camping sites (2011).
This is excellent walking country and there are fine views over the Usk Valley of the Skirrid and rural Monmouthshire. The upper third of the land, which abuts the Woodland Trust owned Punchbowl, has been planted to broadleaved woodland. In May this is a sea of bluebells. There is also an acre of withy beds, orchards, vegetable garden, grazing for Fly, our elderly and characterful horse, and two donkeys, ducks, bees and a tennis/croquet court.
We aim to practise and demonstrate sustainable land use through ecotourism, tree planting, rewilding and promotion of biodiversity, and so far as we can, to produce as much of our vegetables, fruits and other farm products as we can, usually with a surplus to sell. Surveys by Gwent Wildlife Trust and RSPB indicate that we are succeeding in our aim to increase biodiversity on the farm. We keep a notebook in one of the campsite toilet sheds in which to record sightings and other observations of interest. We are also grateful to receive copies of photos of wildlife.
Read a recent review of the area and our site by some recent happy campers to find out all we, and the local area, has to offer!
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Sayaka was a Wwoofer from Japan who volunteered with us a number of years ago. Many other Wwoofers have helped on the farm over the years and we hope more will come to us in the future. Www.wwoof.org.uk
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