TWO NIGHTS AT THE NORTH STAR CLUB

At the beginning of the month Ryan took me away for a couple of nights to the North Star Club which is located in Sancton, near Beverley in Yorkshire. We stayed in the Star Suite which Ryan picked based on the dark decor, snazzy copper bath and little outdoor sauna, but there are seven other cabins to stay in located around the forest. We went on a trek and managed to find 7/8 and as we were the only two people staying in the 'complex' during the time we were there, took full advantage and had a nosey in each to check out the competition.

Whilst all the suites looked very nice, I was chuffed that Ryan had chosen this particular one because it was definitely the most to my taste. Our suite had the option to sleep six, however, there were some smaller cabins which came with a slightly smaller price tag if you're watching the pennies. I was very lucky indeed to be treated.

 I was mindful at the onset of this post that I didn't want it to be too picture heavy, however, I think to appreciate how lovely the North Star Club is, photos are a must.

The idea of the Club is that you have your own private cabin, with access to a number of communal activities and areas. We were fortunate enough to be on our own the whole time as I mentioned earlier and so communal was just us during out stay and we were able to wander the, what we were told, forty six acres that the Club was set in without interruption or interaction, save as for upon arrival when a lovely staff member greeted us and showed us around the communal area and to our cabin.

She left shortly after giving us our keys to our cabin and 'The Woodshed', which I'll get onto shortly and we were then alone until morning, when staff arrived, Eddie the dog in tow, for an hour or so before heading off again until our final morning when we handed our keys in to Eddie (yes the dog) who checked us out (yes, it was every bit as amazing as it sounds).

 I couldn't get over how trusted we were, just being by ourselves with the keys to let us in and out of the communal cabin as we pleased and once we got over the initial "wow, we're in the middle of nowhere with no-one around and potentially poor phone signal. This is how we will die. We will be murdered and no-one will hear our screams" - it was actually really cool being alone. Well, alone except for the spiders, who were not cool.

Whilst the whole Club was decorated really nicely (at least from what we could see pressing our noses up against the windows of the other cabins) my favourite part in terms of decor was definitely The Woodshed. The communal area with an honesty bar, if you will, with teas, coffees, sweets, crisps and brownies. It may be a shock to those of you who know me personally, but I didn't have a single item from the honesty bar. I think I will regret not trying a brownie for eternity though.

In The Woodshed, there was a log burner, which Ryan bonded with particularly well, and cosy sofas with throws galore surrounding it. We played a game of chess (chess board included) one evening. Ryan thrashed me, of course.



Going on the trip has definitely inspired us both in terms of decorating for sure. We were big lovers of dark interior anyway, but now Ryan is determined to replicate The Woodshed in our garage. I can't blame him. It was beautiful and if our garage looks remotely like it, I can see us spending lots of time in there.

Also, in terms of communal areas, there was a camp fire to light and sit around on little tree stumps under a big canopy and a pizza oven. The pizza cooking didn't pan out for us. I say us, I mean me. I'm completely at fault. I dropped Ryan's pizza on the floor and let the fire die out when cooking mine. We ended up going out for that meal instead. It was a lovely lunch at a place called Drewton's and so actually, maybe I did us both a favour? We had three courses and whoa can they whip up a mean carrot cake.

There's nothing close to the Club in terms of shops or restaurants, save for one pub a twenty minute walk away which wasn't open when we were there and so everything required a drive out. Including the obtaining of barbecue supplies, as each cabin comes with its own barbecue at the back. Turns out my man can barbecue, who knew?!

 As well as a barbecue, I mentioned earlier that our cabin had a little outdoor sauna. We sat in it for ten minutes- clothes on top of our swim gear waiting for it to warm up. Got too hot. Got too scared that a spider might be lurking and left. It was a nice theory but really we were both too whimpy to give it a proper go.

We did, however, try out the big ol' copper lad. For ten minutes. But it gets hot in a bath and I'm pretty fidgety as a person. When we've been to the spa at Center Parcs I'm in a room for a few minutes and then want to move on to the next thing. Not one of life's relaxers, clearly.

If this bath was in the comfort of our own home, I'd have probably managed a good episode's worth of something, but there are no such things as technology at the North Star Club and whilst I was okay signal wise, Ryan had nothing on his phone. I used my signal to check in with my mum about the cats and of course to do the obligatory 'We're here' post on Instagram, but other than that, my phone was pretty much on hand for photo purposes only. The Club is definitely a place where you come to be off the grid. I wish we'd taken books, but that said. It was nice just being away from the world and having a good old chat around several fires.

We also played a couple of games of Woodland Bowls. In many ways, the North Star Club feels like a step back in time. That doesn't sound like a compliment, but it's meant as one.

I loved reading the guest books and seeing how many people had loved their stays since the opening of the Club. There was one Negative Nelly in there and I can only assume she'd taken issues with the spiders because other than that, there was nothing you could fault the place on.

The guest book was a bit concerning on the first night, seeing many children writing about playing with Eduardo. Ryan joked it was a ghost, we now know it was Eddie the dog, but when you're in the middle of nowhere alone a ghost joke can be somewhat unnerving.



I just  thought I'd mention our little trip to York en route to the cabin. It wasn't really en route, it was about an hour's drive out, but as we couldn't check into our cabin until late afternoon on the day of arrival, we decided to grab some lunch in York centre. We went for Yorkshire's finest Yo! Sushi. We also popped into the museum. It was crap. We popped in for a wee in all honesty, but it was the most expensive wee in the history of the land. No offence any York folk who love the museum. We then found a shop which has stolen my heart. It's called 'The Imaginarium'. It smelt amazing, it was dark and was adorned head to toe in lovely things. I wanted to move in. They only sell soap online, which is a shame as I'd love to buy so many things from them. That said, the lady in there told us about Adrian Higgins, who's prints they were selling, and I looked him up afterwards and have since bought two of his prints. I recognised a lot of brands in there too; Seletti, Quail Ceramics. It really was like coming home. I wish I could have bought directly from the shop because it was so lovely, as was the lady who was working there, but being away and having to wander the streets of York with anything we bought wasn't appealing sadly. If you're from York though, or live close enough by to pop in, go go go!

We didn't find the North Star Club too hard to find from York, despite warnings from the owners of the Club that we might. We followed their directions and found it with no bother. We did, however, get lost on one of our barbecue supplies runs. I put The Star Inn Pub in the sat nav. Apparently there are two, in opposite directions of each other and half an hour apart. Sorry Ryan (who was the designated driver for the trip). Once we'd been lost once though, we soon figured out the best road close by to the club to stick in the sat nav and thankfully didn't get lost again. What I will say though, despite us finding it okay, the Club is definitely out of the way so don't forget to fuel up your car before setting off. It's gonna take the AA a while to find you around those parts. We had a lovely stay, found the staff, based on the minimal amount of contact we had with them, really pleasant and generally just had the best time. Would absolutely recommend. I've just realised upon wrapping up this post that the post title sounds like I've tried to do a bad 'Three Nights at the Motel' song pun. I didn't mean to. Please don't read/sing it like that.