Our Story

The Hearn Family

Helen Hearn, founder and owner of Penhein Glamping, lives at Penhein house full-time with her sons Archie and Sebastian. Her mother Ruth, a source of Penhein history and knowledge, lives next door. Two energetic black Labradors, Zandie and Freddie, complete the Hearn family and welcome happy glampers and intrepid explorers to Penhein from March through to November every year.

“Growing up, Penhein was always abuzz with visiting friends and family, who talked about the beauty and magic of this landscape. Sharing my home as a child fed into my vision for Penhein Glamping: I wanted guests to experience the same connection with nature.” Helen

The Hearn Family

“Penhein Glamping is a blend of the collective talent, knowledge and shared values of the Penhein team.” Helen

Helen spent her childhood growing up in Penhein house, on the farm’s rolling Welsh landscape.

The hill farm has been owned by Helen’s family for 150 years and their guardianship has steered the farm’s activities through many lifetimes.

Helen’s parents raised her to understand both the practicalities of farming life and the magic of the natural world. Following University and 20 years working in London – where she honed her business skills, but craved a return to rural life – she moved back home to Wales in 2011.

Helen took on the management of the farm from her parents, Richard and Ruth Micklethwait, and set about distilling her professional experience, ideas, knowledge and family values into the creation of a glampsite. In 2014, Penhein Glamping was launched, and the first adventurous glampers arrived to spend the night under canvas in the semi-ancient ash copse Helen had camped in as a child.

Penhein Glamping is a mix of family influences; the tents themselves owe their Persian influence to another branch of the family: Archie and Sebastian’s paternal grandmother’s family, who were Iranian.  The design, colours and patterns of the ‘alachigh’ tents reflect this heritage.

Over the past 10 years, Penhein Glamping’s working ‘family’ has expanded. The dedicated Penhein team also collaborates with a collective of talented and local foragers, florists, willow-weavers, field archers, ex-military bush-crafters, forest therapy guides, yoga practitioners, bird song experts and night sky wizards, all on hand to shape the away-from-the-world experiences and woodland stays that have consistently reaped awards and praise for Penhein Glamping.