Yurts for Life

Welcome to the Riverside Yurt – open for teas, coffees and cakes, private functions such as weddings, fundraising events, corporate meetings and even Ballroom dancing. We also hold Boot Camp, yoga and pilates sessions.

Yurts today are modernised forms of the original – they are works of art where every component is individually crafted and put together like a jigsaw. The are truly beautiful and memorising structures that provide a unique and tranquil environment.

The Riverside Yurt is no exception – it sits within the beautiful surroundings of Riverside Cottage overlooking lavender plants and vines. Its high ceilings with clear views to the sky offers colourful and interesting light formations so that every day the Yurt provides a unique setting. Wide open doors allow the outside world to enter in while the wood burner offers coziness when needed. But when shut inside the Yurt you feel completely peaceful and enchanted.

Its well worth a visit.

Wikipedia description of a Yurt: Yurts have been a distinctive feature of life in Central Asia for at least three thousand years. The first written description of a yurt used as a dwelling was recorded by Herodotus, the ‘father of history’, who lived in Greece between 484 and 424 BC. He described yurt-like tents as the dwelling place of the Scythians, a horse riding-nomadic nation who lived in the northern Black Sea and Central Asian region from around 600 BC to AD 300

A Mongolian Ger

Traditional yurts consist of an expanding wooden circular frame carrying a felt cover. The felt is made from the wool of the flocks of sheep that accompany the pastoralists. The timber to make the external structure is not to be found on the treeless steppes, and must be obtained by trade in the valleys below.

The frame consists of one or more expanding lattice wall-sections, a door-frame, bent roof poles and a crown. The Mongolian Ger has one or more columns to support the crown and straight roof poles. The (self-supporting) wood frame is covered with pieces of felt. Depending on availability, the felt is additionally covered with canvas and/or sun-covers. The frame is held together with one or more ropes or ribbons. The structure is kept under compression by the weight of the covers, sometimes supplemented by a heavy weight hung from the center of the roof. They vary with different sizes, and relative weight.

A yurt is designed to be dismantled and the parts carried compactly on camels or yaks to be rebuilt on another site. Complete construction takes around 2 hours.