Penkenna Shepherd’s Hut Is How You Turn an Oldie Into a Gorgeous Tiny House for Glamping

Tiny houses and other mobile homes have become incredibly popular over the past two decades, and more so these past couple of years, when alternative living solutions have become a central point in most conversations. Working from home and the housing crisis, environmental concerns, and the desire to travel more serve as “fuel” for the tiny house movement, while the past offers inspiration whenever needed.

Right at the crossroads of the past and present are vardo-style or gypsy wagon-inspired tiny houses. Vardo tinies are still a rarity, but whatever they lack in popularity they make up for in personality. In countries like the UK and France, gypsy wagon-inspired homes have a beefier and slightly more sophisticated cousin in the shepherd’s hut, which offers a larger footprint and more amenities and which, because of this, is the perfect glamping solution.

Historically, shepherd’s huts are wagons with a metal chassis and a wooden frame, used by shepherds in remote locations during lambing and sheep-raising periods. They peaked in the late 19th century and went out of style in the 20th, as farming became mechanized, and they remain in limited use today in very isolated areas.

Surviving huts or new ones are now being used as glamping units with a solid appeal, because they promise a very rural and nostalgia-filled experience, while not ditching any of the comforts of modern life. It’s a best of both worlds-kind of a scenario, where the paying customer is always winning.

The Penkenna Shepherd’s Hut is a good example of one such glamping unit built new. Located on Pencuke Farm in Bude, Cornwall in the UK, it offers sleeping for an entire family, and fancy features like EV charging, high-speed internet, and a hot tub on the outdoor terrace. Fancy, we told you. At the same time, it retains the vibe of an old shepherd’s hut, down to the shape and the fact that it sits on an iron chassis with iron wheels. Build it on a modern trailer, and you get the perfectly-sized tiny home.

The interior space is optimized to deliver the feeling of a proper home, and the white-painted woodwork and engineered oak flooring help with that cozy vibe. You enter into a living room that can be anything from a lounge to a dinning room or a home office, according to needs.

The kitchen is spacious and well-equipped, with a four-burner gas stove and oven, a large sink, a fridge with freezer, a toaster, and a kettle. You can’t have a home in the UK, regardless of size, and not have a kettle, which must always be on. The bathroom is residential in size and finishes, from the shower cabin to the heated rack, vanity, and storage.

The unit is designed as a family-friendly home, with a master bedroom with a queen-size bed and very cozy bunk beds for the kids at the other end of the wagon. The layout might not be particularly impressive or original – it is neither, to be honest – but the finishes add extra personality to the place and give it a certain dose of chicness.

A chic tiny like this would mean nothing for certain visitors if it wasn’t also modern, and the Penkenna is exactly that: there’s high-speed internet and a DVD player, underfloor heating powered by a biomass boiler, and an outdoor hot tub on a terrace that includes a BBQ pit and dining area. For a more… rural feel, you get a wood-burning stove in the lounge and the ability to walk the grounds of the farm to see the pretty sheep and Alpacas.

“The stuff of Cornish dreams” is how the owners of the farm describe it, and we’re in agreement: the hut is the perfect combination of modern and vintage, with awesome amenities and elegant finishes, and a gorgeous location.

The idea is not to sell the Penkenna Hut to you, because we have a feeling it’s pretty much selling itself. Wagon-based tinies like this one can double as inspiration for those looking to transition to a more mobile, downsized lifestyle, or only to show the rest of us what can be achieved with such a compact space, with the right team and the right budget.

Compared to the vardo-style tinies we covered on previous occasions, a “hut” like this one offers a much larger footprint, which, in turn, means the ability to pack more functionality for an entire family. Granted, this implies a certain compromise in terms of mobility; even with a “have-it-all” tiny, you can’t really have it all.