There’s nothing rustic about Rusty, says William Gray. Forced to share a field with a couple of blousy safari tents, he’s the non-conformist, heavy metal sibling at Chymder Farm near Mullion. Half tin, half tent, the converted shipping container hunkers down in the grass beneath a rakish canvas awning.
First published in Conde Nast Traveller
Inside, Rusty is industrial yet inviting. Bed frames and dining table are forged from scaffolding poles; walls are panelled with chipboard – but there’s also a wood stove, luxury duvets and scatter cushions. Out back you’ll find a minimalist kitchen, flush toilet and a wet-room lined with corrugated tin.
If you did the tipi/yurt/Feather Down Farm thing when your kids were younger, Rusty will make glamping cool for them again now they’re teens. Ours happily flopped, wifi-free, in the hammock, fiddled with the fire pit and trotted off to the farm’s honesty shop for sausages and ice cream.
A mile down the lane from Rusty, Poldhu Cove is one of Cornwall’s surf secrets – a sandy nick in The Lizard’s serpentine cliffs with a trendy, barefoot-and-bacon-baps café perched in the dunes. Champion surfer, big-wave veteran and all-round cool dude, Dan Joel runs the local surf school.
Book via Classic Glamping (www.classicglamping.co.uk). A week in Rusty the Tin Tent, sleeping up to four, costs from £428. Bed linen, towels and logs for the wood burner included. Dogs welcome. Two-hour lessons with Dan Joel Surf School (www.danjoelsurf.com) cost £25.