Adventures at Penhein Farm

Adventure Playground

Our exciting children’s natural playground is one of our most popular adventures for our youger guests. They particularly love the balance bars, tunnel and bridge. It has been rigorously tested by our in-house design team (aka Bastie and Archie) and has been deemed ‘brilliant’. Nestled in the glampsite itself, this is the perfect way for children to while away some happy hours while you enjoy a relaxing cup of coffee.

Archery at Penhein 2025

If you want to try something new or develop a new skill why not give archery a go? The wonderful team from Wye Valley Archery are offering courses at Penhein for the first time and we are thrilled to welcome them. They cater for all standards, so if you want to try it out here is the perfect opportunity. By the way, aside from being a great hobby and hugely enjoyable, archery boasts a lot of health benefits too! These include keeping your mind sharp and improving your upper body strength, so you can have fun and improve your health, what’s not to like?

Note the archery is outdoors so sensible footwear and suitable, weather appropriate clothing is necessary. No shorts or high heels please. Booking subject to availability.

Build a Den

Find the stacks of wood and coils of rope within the glampsite which are all you need to start building your Penhein den.

Bushcraft for Adults 2026

Ever wanted to go wild and learn to live off the land? Fed up with hearing about Bear Grylls?  Then our bushcraft course is for you! Under the expert tutorage of our ex-military instructors you will make waterproof shelters with just the wood available in the woodland, you’ll build fires and light them without matches and then you’ll cook campfire bread over your campfire.  Afterwards you’ll know how to survive in the wild!

Bushcraft for Juniors 2026

Our Junior Bushcraft course is specially aimed at the children – a fun way to learn survival skills and give mums and dads a few hours off! They will learn about – and have a go at – building different shelters and lighting fires without matches (multiple different ways) in the woods on our farm. A great way to experience what nature has to offer and one of our most popular courses at Penhein!

Bushcraft for the Family 2026

If you are looking for something you can all do together, why not sign up for a Family Bushcraft session?  This wonderful course (ideal for families with younger children) means that both adults and children will learn how to build a shelter, light a fire multiple different ways (but without matches!) and make some campfire bread on a stick to be enjoyed with a cup of hot chocolate, both made over your own fire. For three hours of fantastic family fun it can’t be beaten (and children who are 5 and under go free!).

Campfire Cookery Classes 2026

Join the wonderful Chloé Newcomb Hodgetts to learn how to get the best out of your outdoor cooking adventures.  Chloé will arrive with a hamper full of fantastically fresh seasonal produce for you to turn into delicious dishes to cook together over your fire pit. Many of the ingredients are those that can be foraged on the farm. She will work with you in advance to decide on your ideal menu for your campfire meal, using a combination of traditional fire-cooking techniques. There are a variety of recipes which lend themselves to different methods of campfire cookery including grilling, boiling, searing and baking, over flames and embers, to produce a memorable and unique meal with that unrivalled open-fire taste!  All dietary requirements can be catered for.

Clay Pigeon Shooting 2026

Clay pigeon shooting is a wonderful way to have a great time at Penhein. Starting with a safety talk, you will then have tuition with practice clays. The group will then be divided into teams (or if a smaller group, individuals) for an exciting competition to see who can shoot the most clays. The sessions are run by Nigel and Stuart Hart of Hart Events. They frequently represent Great Britain in European and International championships and are members of the Welsh Clay Target Shooting Association so you are in truly experienced hands!
*If less than 6 in your party are interested, contact us and we will see if other guests are interested in joining in.

Discover the Lime Kilns

See if you can find the 18th Century lime kilns on the farm.

Explore our Nature Trails

Explore our farm and nearby Wentwood Forest from the top of Gray Hill to the Castroggi Stream 300 feet below with woodlands and meadows galore in between.  For the spring we have a trail featuring the very best of the garlic and bluebells which will be at their best in April and May.  Please leave the gates as you find them, open if open, closed if closed.

Family Pottery Wheel Classes 2026

Go potty at Penhein, and try your hand at throwing your own pots in a creative pottery wheel class run by the fabulous Melanie Van de Velde!  Melanie (from the wonderfully titled Melanie Made Mud) will bring enough wheels for everyone to have the use of one to learn how to centre clay and throw a pot. With five beautiful glaze colours to choose from you will be able to throw up to 3 pots each and the best news of all is that they will be taken away to be glazed and fired for you. Your pots can then be posted on to you if you would like a lovely memento of your stay at Penhein (postage £10 per head).

Family Stargazing with Dark Sky Wales 2025

A unique opportunity for you and your family to take a tour of the night sky thanks to the expert team from Dark Sky Wales.  From the comfort of Penhein, Dark Sky Wales instructors will help you view familiar and unfamiliar constellations of the northern hemisphere, discovering various deep sky objects such as the Orion Nebula. Hear the stories of the constellations before using binoculars to navigate the stars. No prior knowledge or equipment needed, but feel free to bring both! Bookings subject to availability.

Visit Website »

Flavour Foraging - 2026

Join Chloe from Gourmet Gatherings for a fabulous, flavour finding forage around the woods and fields at Penhein. This wonderful edible treasure hunt will lead you through Penhein’s idyllic woodland, meadows and streams, in search of a multitude of wild edibles – from fruits to fungi, foliage to flowers, herbs, vegetables, roots, spices & more!

Flower Crown Making 2026

Enjoy a fabulous Flower Crown making session with the wonderful team from Wye Valley Flowers. They will teach you how to create a stunning flower crown, using locally grown flowers and foraged foliage. The price includes all materials and a range of fabulous blooms to complete your own crown. Wye Valley Flowers use no chemicals, plastic or air miles – just beautiful flowers grown with sun, rain and love. This relaxed and friendly workshop is suitable for all abilities and is the perfect way to spend happy time with friends and family.

Forage and Feast Day 2026

Set off to explore the wild wonders of Penhein, searching the woods, meadows and streams where your wild harvest will be added to your feast of pre-prepared delicious dishes provided by your forager for the day (either the wonderful Adele or Chloe, brilliant and well known foragers both!). Some components of your meal will be cooked over one of Penhein’s firepits while you hear more about foraging and fabulous foods, and it will be washed down with some wild cordials or tea. Your foraging chef will liaise with you ahead of the day to ensure you enjoy your meal and any dietary requirements can happily be catered to. Children always welcome!’

Geocaching and Walking in Wentwood Forest

Our farm adjoins Wentwood Forest (which is over 1,000 acres, and the oldest forest in Wales) so you won’t even need to get in the car to enjoy this beautiful area for Geocaching or just walking.
Wentwood Forest comprises of some areas of ancient woodland (at least 400 years old) as well as some conifer plantations. It was once a hunting preserve of Chepstow Castle and stretched from the River Wye to the River Usk. It has a long recorded history and a number of heritage sites that give clues to the past uses of the forest, so while you’re looking for the caches there’s lots to see.

Gourmet Forage and Feast for Couples 2026

Exclusive to Penhein! We are so excited to offer this fantastic couples package of a Gourmet Forage and Feast experience with acclaimed forager Chloé Newcomb Hodgetts. This is fully immersive foraging at Penhein, showing you as wide a variety of edibles as possible in our woodland, meadows and hedgerows, with a fabulous foraged feast at the end! You will start by exploring wild edibles around the farm, enjoying foraged refreshments along the way. Depending on the time of year and what is available, you will be introduced to a variety of wild wonders, from fruits to fungi, foliage to flowers, herbs, vegetables, roots & spices. You will learn how to find, identify, sustainably harvest and use all the incredible, flavour-packed wild ingredients you unearth. You will then retire to your own fire pit outside your tent where Chloé will serve you a feast of a myriad of pre-prepared foraged dishes she will bring along, complemented by your fresh pickings. Chloé will liaise with you ahead of the day to ensure you enjoy your meal and any dietary requirements can happily be catered for.

Hearn Hideaway for Children

A place to play, a place to dream, a place to relax – Penhein is a magical world made for children and our  awesome den in the woods – the Hearn Hideaway – is the perfect place for them to find their own space where they can make up exciting games and adventures!

Meadow Yoga 2026

The wonderful Miranda Shaw is Penhein’s yoga guru. Having trained as a classical hatha yoga teacher Miranda’s personal style has evolved, in particular influenced by her time in America practising vinyasa flow. Miranda is also trained to teach pre and postnatal yoga.

Our intention will always be to run the classes outdoors in our beautiful Wildflower Meadow. However, if the weather doesn’t allow this, Miranda will use either Chehal Sotoun, Petro or we can hire a local hall – we will discuss with the group if this arises.  Mats are included but you are welcome to bring your own if you prefer.  If there are individuals who would like to book a session but want to share the cost, let us know and we are happy to contact other guests to see if they would like to join in. All classes are subject to availability – booking in advance is essential. To find out more about Miranda why not visit her website.

Visit Website »

Mini Adventurers Club 2026

Even on a family holiday it is nice for parents and children to have their own time and space for a while! So here we are with our own Mini Adventurers Club – 2 ½ hours of perfect peace for parents and exciting adventures for children. On request sessions will be run by Sophie (a qualified level 3 childcare practitioner) starting at 10am. Children will be taken on a variety of nature based activities including a fabulous fairy walk, with a magical story to listen to as they go, bug hunts with a magnifying glass, twig frame building, mud pie nature cooking, scavenger hunting and making leaf collages to name but a few, all adapted to be age appropriate. Each session will include a healthy snack and a fruit juice to keep the intrepid explorers going. If demand requires we can run a second session in the afternoon starting at 1.30pm.

Mushroom Foraging - (Seasonal, August to November) 2026

Join the wonderful Chloé Newcomb Hodgetts for a marvellous mushroom hunt! Penhein is home to a remarkable variety of mushrooms in the height of the season and you will explore our ancient woodland, meadows and copses to see what you can find. You will learn about the incredible kingdom of mushrooms, how they grow, where they grow, how to find, identify and enjoy eating them, as well as how to recognise poisonous species. If you are lucky, Mother Nature might bless you with some edible wild mushrooms to harvest, which you can then enjoy by cooking over your campfire.

Paddle in Castrogi Stream

Head down to the stream at the bottom of the valley for paddling, poo sticks and dam building.

Penhein Treasure Hunt 2026

Our treasure hunt takes you across the farm, testing your map reading skills and posing a classic blend of general knowledge clues and creative tasks which are designed to get you thinking out of the box and off the wall…the keyword here is fun! This is a true test of teamwork, creativity and problem solving skills, making it one of our most entertaining events for adventurous and determined teams. The adventure begins the moment the teams open their sealed envelopes and fire up their team’s collective brain power!
This is for a maximum of seven teams, six trails are for older children and adults, the seventh trail is for younger children (age 8 and under) and follows the same route as one of the adult trails so both adults and children can compete in answering their questions!  With a maximum of six team mates, each team gets to explore the best of Penhein Farm.
We’ll start you off and be there at the end to judge who is the best team and present the prize!
*Don’t worry if you are just one team, you can have just as much fun working all the clues out amongst yourselves.

Penhein Wildlife and Bird Hide

We receive so many lovely comments about how wonderful it is to be so close to nature and how much wildlife guests can see, so we thought what better way to help you get up close and personal than a Wildlife and Bird Hide in the centre of the farm, for all our guests to use. It is just getting its final workover and then will be set up in the perfect spot ready for all our guests this season. With benches by the windows and camouflaged to make spotting deer, foxes, hedgehogs, owls, buzzards, hawks (and more) as easy as possible, we think this will be such a serene natural way to enjoy the sights and sounds of nature – all you need to do is remember to pack your binoculars!

Penhein Wildlife Challenge

A wonderful way of seeing all that Penhein has to offer, the Penhein Wildlife Challenge is perfect for anyone of 9 or over to test their wildlife knowledge or learn more about the wildlife to be found on the farm. The pack that goes with the challenge contains a quiz based on what you will find on fact sheets called “Penhein Wildlife Wonders” which will be dotted throughout the glampsite and wildflower meadow. There will also be three wildlife spotter sheets to help you keep a track of what you see.  The whole pack will be presented in a plastic folder with a pack of crayons for when inspiration strikes!  A perfect adventure for all the family.

Penhein's Spooktacular Halloween Party 2026!

Book a stay at Penhein that includes Saurday 31st October 2026 and you can be part of our annual Spooktacular Halloween Party! The party starts at 4.30pm with a crafting session to make a jam jar lantern and decorate your trick or treat bag ready for trick or treating. There are happy Halloween games, our fancy dress competition and traditional Trick or Treat session all around the glampsite. As if this isn’t enough, then comes the Halloween After Party (starting 6.30pm, £25 per tent). Think hot dogs, ghost stories (age appropriate) and hot chocolate (mulled wine for adults) around a lovely campfire, with a final encore of toasting marshmallows over the flames…

Visit Website »

Play or picnic in our wildflower meadow

Just below our woodland glampsite is the 8 acre wildflower hay meadow that you can play around in, enjoy a picnic or simply lie back, watch and listen as nature goes by.

Stargazing and Astrophotography with Dark Sky Wales

Take a tour of the night sky, viewing familiar and unfamiliar constellations of the northern hemisphere, find various deep sky objects such as the Orion Nebula and learn the correct use of binoculars and navigation via star maps. You will also be shown how to set up a telescope correctly before viewing and then photographing some of the magnificent sights in the night sky. No prior knowledge or equipment needed, but feel free to bring both!  Contact Dark Sky Wales for further information.

Visit Website »

Walk up Grey Hill

Grey Hill adjoins our farm and is a lovely walk, finishing up with magnificent panoramic views across South Wales from the summit.

Wild Walks at Penhein 2025

Daytime

Get close to nature by day with a Wild Walk at Penhein, exploring the farm, searching the woods, fields and stream for butterflies, birdlife and wildflowers.  Penhein is home to a variety of exciting wildlife, with the woodlands of particular interest as large parts are recognised as being of national importance through their protection as a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest). Local naturalist and birdsong expert, Ed Drewitt, will be your guide, helping you search for whatever seasonal treats there are, including our larger residents such as Fallow Deer. You will be taught how to look for tracks and signs of wildlife and then identify the animals and plants you find. Ed will tell you more about their lives, and answer any questions you may have. Best times: Morning up to 10:30/11am or afternoons after 2pm.

Dusk

Experience the excitement of the hidden world of Penhein at night. Bats, deer, hedgehogs, owls and colourful moths are just some of the wild things known to roam the estate after the daytime creatures have gone to bed. Ed will be your guide at dusk, when you will listen to the echo-location of bats on specialised bat detectors and see what else is at large as the sun goes down. He will explain how all these creatures have adapted to their nocturnal lifestyle and be more than happy to answer any questions you have. Dusk Safari starts will range from a 19:30 start at the beginning of May to a 21:00 start in late June, to a 19:00 start at the end of September. They will also be weather dependent as rain, strong winds or low temperatures would mean the bats particularly won’t be active.

Young Explorers Activity Pack

Let the children go off exploring around the site with this great fantastic Young Explorers Activity pack to help with the fun.  Filled with lots of things to do, see and collect there’s plenty to keep them occupied and interested. The pack includes a Scavenger hunt, Word search, Dot-to-dot, an Eye Spy chart and a Woodland Letter Search (spot the letters dotted around the glampsite and make the word). It is all based on nature, and it comes in a practical plastic folder with a set of crayons that they can use as their creative juices start to flow!