Pressing a big green button while snuggling down into a duvet with the love of my life might suggest to you that I’m getting ready for some serious bedroom fun, and you’d be right.
The button operates hydraulics that cleave apart a lofty roof revealing, above the double bed, the inky black Northumbrian sky and the sort of starscape it’s now impossible to view in light-polluted cities.
We’re in a bedroom on stilts, the highest part of the Sky Den, a £180-a-night three-part cabin/treehouse combo designed in 2013 by cubbyhole connoisseur George Clarke. This celestial-focussed self-catering property featured in the second series of the Channel 4 programme George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces.
The Sky Den, a £180-a-night three-part cabin/treehouse combo designed in 2013 by cubbyhole connoisseur George Clarke. It is made up of three different shapes, a circular, square and triangular.
Sky Den featured in the second series of the Channel 4 programme George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces
Up, up and away: Carlton takes off from his Sky Den bedroom’s duvet.
A bedroom pod is visible in the trees just 20 m (66.5 ft) from a loud burn. This noisy stream of North Tyne water runs through it.
If any eco-conscious, small-is-beautiful James Bond baddies of the future ever fashion themselves a micro lair, they could do worse than mimic the Sky Den’s roof-cracking design: it’s simply astounding.
Perched above the burbling Cranecleugh burn on the forest campus of outdoor activities charity the Calvert Trust, the Sky Den was built to take advantage of the literally stellar night-time views in Europe’s largest Gold Tier Dark Sky Park. This astronomy-based designation for the Kielder Water and Forest Park – shared jointly with Northumberland National Park – was awarded by the International Dark Skies Association.
The Sky Den is made up of three different shapes: A circle, a square and a triangular. Unlike in the blockbuster Netflix series Squid Game, the shapes don’t signify anything other than Mr Clarke’s desire for geometrical symmetry.
It is the triangle that is used as a bedroom, and it is almost 20 metres (65.5ft) high. This is above the noiseful burn which is a North Tyne tributary.
With glass doors leading onto the balcony, the square forms the living area. You can also see the massive corrugated motorway drainage pipes in the circle. It’s an alfresco space with a log burning stove, blankets, and a fold-away table.
Wake up and see the Sky Den sunrise. The Sky Den’s bedroom has space only for a double bed
If any eco-conscious, small-is-beautiful James Bond baddies of the future ever fashion themselves a micro lair, they could do worse than mimic the Sky Den’s astounding roof-cracking design, says Carlton
A repurposed motorway drainage tub is used to make the circle, which houses a wood-burning stove
The Sky Den’s bedroom has space only for a double bed, and the main living space is also on the small side, although the glass doors can be folded away concertina-style to bring in the outdoors.
The Sky Den is small enough to comfortably accommodate four persons, with two sleeping in the upper pod and two others in single wooden wooden beds.
The living space is sparse when you enter, and it’s an intelligence test to work out how to construct the stools, slide out the dining room table or fold-out a wall to partition the living space from the kitchen.
The Sky Den was built to take advantage of the literally stellar night-time views in Europe’s largest Gold Tier Dark Sky Park
Sky Den comfortably accommodates four persons, with two sleeping in the upper pod and two others in single wooden wooden beds. (Photo: Sky Den)
Jude, Carlton’s wife is pictured right, checking out her fold-down bed. You can see the components for the Sky Den’sstools embedded in the walls.
You can find parts for the stool in the walls. They are held in position by latches. (We didn’t happen upon the space hiding the gin glasses until we tidied before leaving – gin and tonic, however, tastes fine from mugs.)
Sky Den guests are primarily focused on the sky, although we did open our roof to see the sunrise one morning. Although the view from the duvet was briefly spectacular, I decided to extend the experience and launch my drone from my bed. Although the sunrise of red and gold was quickly over, it was still visible in my bedroom. I was then able to follow the sun with my eye’s-in-the sky.
My iPhone screen allowed me to see Kielder Water, which I was tethered too, in the distance. It featured bobboats silhouetted against pinkish-purple waters. (Kielder Water is Northern Europe’s largest artificial lake, created in 1981 by flooding a remote valley close to the border between Scotland and England.)
Jude can be seen here riding over the bridge crossing a Kielder Water Inlet.
Kielder Water’s sculpture trail features Silvas Capitalis (a play on the Latin for ‘forest head’). This head is a watcher. It’s an imaginary presence that has watched the changes in the environment over the past 100 years.
Jude riding down the Osprey Trail – an uphill mountain bike trail for intermediate riders – above Kielder Water
Beautiful landscapes: Kielder receives a lot of rain so that the forest is lush and green.
Jude and Carlton are pictured in Janus Chairs. These are made from laminated Douglas fir from the Scottish borders, with polished stainless-steel backs, the three one-piece chairs – approximately three metres high and one metre wide – can be rotated or moved around
The 28-mile trail that runs alongside the lake was followed by us later in the day. The Bike Place, which is a former hunting lodge, had provided electric mountain bikes for us.
Following the Osprey Trail, a hilly mountain biking track suitable for intermediate riders, we detoured through woods. (A small population of ospreys nest in the forest, which is also home to half of England’s native red squirrels.)
At the waterside we explored the numerous sculptures scattered around the lake. On the drive back to our treehouse/cabin combo, we passed the dirt road to Kielder Observatory, but we decided to give it a miss – we could pop open the Sky Den’s roof and stargaze at our leisure.
See the complete-length version Carlton’s Sky Den footage Click here.