Wildflower Eco Lodges - Heron

The one with the hammock platform and the gated deck

Heron is the lodge at Wildflower that has been designed around sitting still. The king bed is raised on a sleeping platform, which frees up the floor for a large L-shaped sofa and a dining table, and there is a second platform with a hammock and a shelf of books on it, which is the sort of detail that either sounds twee or turns out to be where you spend the weekend.

It is positioned for the water and the birdlife on it, with the decking outside gated and enclosed and a bistro table on it. That gate is the practical difference between this lodge and the other two: it is the easiest of the three for a dog.

The kitchen has a hob, a fridge freezer, a kettle, a toaster and an air fryer rather than a conventional oven, which is worth knowing if you plan to cook properly. Heating is two electric heaters with voice and manual control, and there is a smart TV, a smart speaker and wifi throughout.

Good to know

Features

Location

Which of the three lodges

All three sleep two in a king bed, take dogs, have an en-suite with a heated towel rail, wifi, a smart TV and towels and linen provided, and all three are £85 a night at the time of writing.

Where it puts you

Lonmay sits inland from a coast most people never get to. Fraserburgh Beach is ten minutes, the quieter dunes and sand at Philorth about the same, and the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses at Kinnaird Head is genuinely good.

The Loch of Strathbeg, minutes away, is one of the largest dune lochs in Britain and a serious birdwatching reserve, which suits a lodge with a hammock and a pair of binoculars. Troup Head and the Bullers of Buchan have the seabird cliffs, and the Formartine and Buchan Way runs south along an old railway for walking and cycling. Aberdeenshire covers the rest of it.