Dowlais Farm Holidays

Liked: We loved this small site with a laid back approach.
The location was great to get to the pier to pier cycle route. The friendly owner met us and showed us to our pitch, although if he hadn’t spotted us, there was a board showing our pitch for us.
Compost toilet was cleaned regularly, showers hot and face wash facility basic, but fitted perfectly with the site 👍🏻
The orchard was a lovely setting. We loved our time here and will be returning.

Disliked: Nothing - a great little find

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Liked: Lovely site. Easy arrival and good communication prior to arrival. Facilities good and showers hot. Our 4 year old had a great time. On the pier to pier cycle route to Clevedon and Weston so ideally located.

Disliked: Hard stony ground means you will need strong tent pegs.

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Liked: Orchard camp site was lovely, the farmer makes his own cider but not available on this trip but I’ll definitely be back to give it a try

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From the manager: Thanks for taking the time to leave a review, we are pleased that you think our site is lovely and can't wait to welcome you back next season!

Liked: Absolutely fantastic site, we loved the setting within the orchard, although on a working farm it was very peaceful
There was a board on the gate at the entrance to the site allocating your place which was helpful when arriving and the pitches were well marked
We met the owner David who was very helpful
This was the first time we had stayed on a greener camping club site and loved the concept, we will be back

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From the manager: Thank you for taking the time to leave a review of our little orchard campsite, we are pleased that you found the site peaceful and with adequate signage and also that you love the concept of the greener camping club! We look forward to welcoming you back next season!

Liked: From the ease of booking and payment online, to arriving at the picturesque orchard the whole experience was magical.
My name and pitch was written on a white board attached to the gate of the pretty orchard where we pitched up.
The green toilets were well built and beautifully adorned with picked flowers from the lovely adjacent border filled with a colourful array of Many varieties.
A scoop and fresh smelling sawdust in a small dustbin kept everything clean and odourless.
With a good supply of toilet paper and hand wash outside.

Plenty of very hot water available for washing up and showering.

We walked from the site along the lane, then alongside the river towards the harbour, over towards the beautiful church with its glorious gardens, up to the coastal path.
Great views across to the pier and arriving by the out door swimming lido.
Stopping at the Salthouse pub, ( as you do), before the walk through the houses and back towards the site.

The sunshine was glorious next morning and as we cooked our breakfast outside we enjoyed the birdsong and watching the swifts circling above us in the blue skies.

I appreciate the weather makes a huge difference to any camping experience and we were lucky.
But it’d been cloudy the day before when we arrived.

However this little gem of a site is simply lovely.
Thanks to all who run it so efficiently.
Well done.

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From the manager: Thank you for your wonderful review of our little orchard site and surrounding area. We are over the moon when people enjoy staying here! We really hope to welcome you again next season!

Liked: Beautiful little site, close to local amenities, shop and golf club. Clevedon is around 2 miles away via the peir to peir cycle route. The walk is full of beautiful scenery, it’s flat and easy for those that are mobile. This is a small site on the back of an established farm. Access is through a suburban area, 3 miles from j20 m5, making it an ideal stop over. Facilities toilets, showers and washing up area. Having never used a compost toilet and I have to say it worked well, the showers were pipping hot too! Central fire pit was a really nice feature and would be great if you were camping with friends. Best bit for us was location and easy walk to Clevedon with the proximity to cycle track.

Disliked: There isn’t an Elsan which we’d clearly missed in the write up. Site facilities are more than adequate to use so not a massive issue but I do like a night time toilet visit without having to go outside, which would limit the time we could spend on the site.

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From the manager: Thank you for taking the time to leave a lovely review for our site. We are happy to hear that you found all of our facilities adequate and were able to enjoy the surrounding area too!
We will be researching our options and the feasibility for implementing an Elsan disposal for next season and would love to welcome you back!

Liked: Very pleasant 2 night stay, a friendly and welcoming site with good level ground to pitch our tent,clean facilities and hot water, nice to have camp fires in evening with logs provided, local walks into Clevedon, also a great cycle way would recommend and will be looking forward to going again soon

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From the manager: Thank you so much for your positive review, we are always so happy to hear that our campers enjoy what we have to offer. We'd love to welcome you back soon! :)

Liked: Quiet, tidy, spacious pitches.
Amazing Showers. Atmosphere was pleasant and chilled,
Great facilities and info about the area. Will definitely look to come back again.

Disliked: Not really a dislike as the site was lovely... but an improvement... having a roof / shelter over the hand washing sinks like the washing up sinks do would be helpfully in damper weather.

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From the manager: Hi Guys
Thank you for your review. We are delighted that you enjoyed your time here in our orchard and found our campsite to be pleasant and well equipped.
You are the second person to have commented regarding a roof/shelter over the hand/face wash sinks and this is something that we aim to add over the winter months ready for the 2025 season!
We look forward to welcoming you back!

Liked: Little campsite in the orchard, close to seaside, bars and shops. Clean toilets and showers with plenty of hot water.

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From the manager: Thanks guys for leaving us your review, we are glad that you had a good time here and would love to welcome you back in the future :)

Liked: It's clear someone has put some good work into setting this place up. It's a pity there's so much to spoil the experience.

Disliked: Unfriendly owners. Ok, we arrived after office hours and checked in by text - no problem there, but no-one followed up to see we had the info we needed. The men could barely raise a grunt in response to "Good morning" and the only actual conversation we had was telling us to keep our kids out of their fields (it was other kids that went in btw, not ours).

Misleading description. "Walk to shops" means a mile to Asda down narrow country lanes, dangerous because people drive too fast and visibility is poor. There's a sort of pub-and-fried-chicken place near there, possibly an in-store cafe but hardly a good range of interesting restaurants.

Lack of site info. There was no map of site facilities and as above, no-one came to check we'd found everything. As a result it took us far longer than it should have to find the showers and wash-up (see also below). This isn't a fun holiday game and we aren't mind-readers, just make it easy.

Toilet emptying? If there is one we didn't find it and that would be against all health and environmental regulations for a site allowing caravans and motor homes with own toilet facilities. There again, this gets complicated with the greener camping club side of things (see below) because it means fixed facilities which aren't allowed under their rules. Oh what a headache!

"Greener Camping" essentially this means a £12 membership fee (which auto-renews annually, please note) for the privilege of toileting into a plastic dustbin. Yes, fine, I accept it's a composting loo and I don't have a problem with that but what else do I get for my compulsory £12? Nothing I actually wanted is the answer. HOWEVER, by running the site as a "members only"green camping club, the owners manage to swerve planning permission. At my expense. Clever. A couple of other things: to comply with "greener camping" rules, they aren't allowed a permanent shower block. So they've sited one just off the edge of the orchard and labelled it "shower available". Clever again.

Surroundings: this site is sandwiched between the crowded suburbs of Clevedon and the acres of mud that form the shores of the Severn. There is a Severn-side walk/cycle way from Weston to Clevedon seafront and it's accessible just a few hundred yards down the aforementioned dangerous, narrow lane. Aside from that the countryside is in scant supply and inaccessible to visitors. It's About a two mile walk on a level path to Clevedon seafront. We had an ok day out walking there and back with a five and ten year old and paying for the various expensive treats and activities available there but I wouldn't bother again. Can't speak for Weston.

Dowlais Farm Premises - you get to the site by driving through a farmyard featuring derelict barns and active industrial uses. All very hazardous for any young kids that wander, as young kids will, especially when on holiday, and right next to the campsite. I do understand about working farms, the working countryside etc and if that's ok for you then fine, but it does mean you're immediately in trouble if you (or your kids) step an inch out of the half acre of the campsite. See also access to the fields, above.

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From the manager: Thank you for your review - I will attempt to address all of your grievances in a respectful and factual manner.

Normally our campers will call or text us if they are struggling to find any information that isn’t on the website or information board. We are always delighted to help them. I refuse to respond to your comment about the unknown ‘men’ as not only do I not know who you are referring to but I just don’t think your rudeness warrants one.

There were 4 children registered on the entire campsite on the morning where a local dog walker came in and told us she had seen 4 children playing in and around the HUGE fire pile which is situated far beyond our ‘no campers past this point’ sign. We would hate for any children exploring the wider area to get into any danger, especially as no adults were with them! We do not have insurance that would cover such an incident (hence the signage to not enter areas that aren’t the campsite)

We are sorry you didn’t feel safe walking to the supermarket. There is absolutely nothing we can do about this.

We have never been asked for a map of the facilities within the campsite and assumed that this was down to the compact nature of the orchard - you are the first to require such a map.

We do not offer toilet cartridge emptying facilities. This is because we are not on the mains sewage system here and use cesspits which must be carefully managed. We ask all campers to use our toilets and we deem this reasonable due to the size of the orchard and the close proximity of the toilets to all campers. As a matter of fact we have lots of positive comments about our toilets. The Greener Camping Club (GCC) Do NOT dictate anything about this or ‘fixed facilities’ so no headache here!

GCC membership does not automatically renew yearly (where do you get your information from exactly??) For your £12 you become a member of the GCC and have access to all of their licensed sites. The rest of your paragraph on this matter is utter nonsense and is full of incorrect assumptions and therefore doesn’t warrant any further explanation.

Your paragraph detailing the things you strongly disliked about Clevedon is more about you than us and but does feel very personal and unnecessary. I am however at a loss to understand how a town of less than 22000 people can have crowded suburbs.
Thankfully the residents and regular visitors of Clevedon as well as our loyal campers feel very differently!

All campers are asked to respect our site, including the rules and signage and of course, goes without saying, are expected to keep an eye on their own Children!