For over 40 years, Dunfield House has been bringing together families, friends, schools, churches and other organisations to experience fun, friendship, learning and lasting memories within its beautiful environment.
Accommodating up to 90 guests, the Grade ll listed building stands in 15 acres of gardens and parkland with stunning views of the Border Countryside offering opportunities for children and adults to relax, explore, learn and play together.
Sue, Paul and their team offer a personal service to ensure that a warm, welcoming and well fed environment is always available to enable you to relax and concentrate on running your own programme.
Please take a moment to have a look at what we have to offer and feel free to contact Sue & Paul for further information or to discuss specific requirements.
This letter was left in the kitchen by the girls from Bablake Junior School on the second day of their visit:
To Cooks,
Thank you for cooking such mouthwatering food. Especially the chocolate cake! keep up the good work.
from room 6 girls [Avni, Ruby, Prashanti, Jessica & Cherie]
20 new photo’ s have been added to the flickr page. Some were taken during the recent snowy weather and the others are of some of the snowdrops that are in flower at the moment. Spring is on the way!!!!
Dunfield has switched over to three phase electricity to enable us to develop the site even further. The work was carried out smoothly and efficiently in a very confined space.
Trustees of the Dunfield Board and Executive Committee are meeting at Dunfield this weekend for trustee training with Jim Hammett from Christian Camping International.
We are looking forward to an informative, information sharing meeting that will ensure that Dunfield is in safe hands and equipped to move forward into 2009.
Gigne Music is staying in the main house for a weekend of rehearsals, relaxation and fun.
Barton Training Trust held their children’s Christmas camp at Dunfield at the end of term. Children were able to play and share together in traditional christmas fun.
The children wrote a song appropriately to the tune of the twelve days of christmas which the staff ‘performed’ for them. The stockings around the fire were made by the children and were filled for them to open on the last day, father christmas was very generous and the children had great fun opening and playing with their presents just before they left. I like the 5th & the 11th day!!!!!
You are welcome to sing-a-long:
On the First Day Some swimming in the pool
On the Second Day 2 Christmas trees
On the Third Day 3 Flashing lights
On the Fourth Day 4 Games of sport
On the Fifth Day 5 Hot Chocolates
On the Sixth Day 6 Wrapping papers
On the Seventh Day 7 Games of Uno
On the Eighth Day 8 Sheep a dancing
On the Ninth Day 9 Adults singing
On the Tenth Day 10 Cooks a cooking
On the Eleventh Day 11 Helpings of pudding
On the Twelfth Day 12 Christmas trees
Dear Sue & Paul,
At last a lull in the ‘Christmas’ rush to write and thank you once again for the lovely welcome at Dunfield and super Christmas dinner, pastries etc; not least the musical accompaniment to our attempt at carol singing - lovely!.
Thank you so much on behalf of all the ladies of Kington Trefoil, and a Happy New Year,
Kind Regards
J. Adamson
A family spent the weekend together at Dunfield on the 5th - 7th December 2008. It brought three generations to Dunfield to celebrate a birthday. The log fire, comfortable welcoming ambience and beautiful weather all played their part in making it a really good weekend. A packed lunch on the Saturday allowed for trips out to local villages & Christmas activities whilst a party [sit down meal] on Saturday was rounded off with traditional party games - the game of sardines was enjoyed by all!!!!!!
Feedback from the family included ‘Dunfield feels like home’, ‘all ages were catered for’, ‘very friendly staff’, ‘cleanliness of the whole site’, ‘freedom of space’ and ‘excellent food’.
If you would like to arrange a family get together then why not look at what Dunfield has to offer, Sue & Paul are more than happy to chat with you about the possibilities and opportunities to meet together.
We would like to welcome both new visitors and friends of Dunfield to our updated website. If you are new to the site, welcome to Dunfield House , we hope the pages will give you a taste of what we can offer. If you have visited Dunfield before we hope you enjoy the changes and new features.
The site is easier to navigate, if you know what you want to look for then use the search engine to take you directly to that part of the site. Take a moment to follow links to the local area, photographs on flickr or become a fan of Dunfield on Facebook. Download wallpaper for your computer.
New to the site, is a dedicated area for group leaders to add information personal to their trip. This area will be password protected [issued when booking is confirmed] it can be used both prior to during or after your stay to share information to members of your group visiting Dunfield. Your page can also act as a point of information for parents and/or family members at school and home while you are away.
Our aim is to build a resource section to help group leaders with their planning, using good practice already established by groups who have visited Dunfield. The opportunity to share photographs and comments following your visit will help us build an interactive site and encourage guests who visit to share their own unique story about being at Dunfield.
We look forward to the development of the site as an interactive resource for new enquiries, group leaders visitors and friends of Dunfield.
Sue & Paul
Please bear with as we identify and sort out any glitches that may occur in the new siteTo get your Dunfield wallpaper click here.
Dunfield House Winter 2006/2007
Sue and Paul Norton have completed their first year and are now becoming “old hands” at running Dunfield. They have, of course, got to know many customers in the past year – and found on the whole that they are not a bad lot! It has worked both ways; the customers have got to know Sue and Paul and we hope have found out that they can work with them comfortably and easily. New faces among the staff have not impeded the ongoing good service which they deliver. Sue and Paul are very conscious of Health and Safety and similar issues. For example, the path from the house to the swimming pool will be improved in the next few days before the main 2007 influx of visitors, so that it is much more level and user and wheel-chair friendly.
Other improvements continue to be carried out. Outside painting of the house was completed in 2006, and, wonder of wonders, the recreation hall now has heating and air conditioning – much appreciated by those groups who use our facilities in the Autumn/Winter months. The hall has been painted inside and curtains are being put up. There will also be a sink for the groups who use the hall for craft sessions – in total it amounts to an all round improvement!
The Mews is ideal for small groups. Once a stable block, this charming building has been converted into a self-contained unit with all modern conveniences and is available as either full board or self-catering accommodation.
The Mews sleeps a total of 25 people, in bedrooms on the Ground and First floors. The rooms usually accommodate 2 to 4 people, and all have hot and cold. There are two shared shower and toilet blocks to serve all guests within The Mews.
The kitchen provides all necessary equipment for self-catering while the adjacent dining room can also be used as a break out space, study room or craft area if necessary. If you have booked the Mews on a full board basis we arrange for you to take meals in a separate dining room in the main house.
A pay phone is also available. The telephone number of the pay phone is 01544-230946.
Some of the facilities of the house can be made available to users of the Mews. Because of the possibility of another group using the house and wanting facilities at the same time, the house will have priority use of two of the following main facilities (Chapel, Pool or Recreation Hall) and the third will always be made available for people staying in the mews. Liaison with the House Manager will be necessary. This does not normally pose a problem. (Click here to find out more about our facilities )
Click here to see a layout plan of the Mews.
Parts of the house are being re-decorated and given a much fresher ambience, and old bedroom furniture is being replaced with new. If you come you will be impressed with how spruce and clean the place is kept – not a bad thing when so many groups come through the place in quick succession.
Many have commented favourably on the food and cleanliness of Dunfield during their visits in 2006. Changes have been made to increase the range of healthy and freshly prepared meals whilst retaining the high standard we have come to associate with Dunfield House, a highlight of any stay.
More improvements are under consideration. We are always ready to listen to customers who visit Dunfield, or who consider visiting, as to their individual needs and wishes. If there are things which you would see as improvements to the facilities at Dunfield let Sue or Paul know. The most frequent request to date has been for additional classroom/rehearsal space to be provided and we are looking at this. There are limits to what we can do with a Grade II listed complex and, of course, finances are always a consideration - especially for any Charity.
Much research has been done in the year on the History of Dunfield and we have now updated our History page. This work is continuing so watch for further updates as we find out more.
