Murray first had his vision for this hut in 2012. He wanted to create a wooden structure that would blend in well within the gardens which could be chanced upon by visitors as they walked through the grounds where they could sit and enjoy the views accross the parkland.
The first phase of the project was in the winter of 2012 when with the help of a working holiday group we cleared the area of bramble and removed any trees that needed to come out. We then quickly followed this up by the planting of bluebell bulbs amongst the trees.
We wanted to use wood from the estate and decided to create the main frame out of sweet chestnut. So Stuart and I were sent to Cott wood for a day felling, cutting, bark peeling and hauling back long and very heavy lengths of sweet chestnut. Murray set to work building the roof frame and by the end of the winter we were all set to start. However due to time constraints and Stuart and I getting carried away on Monkey Puzzle Mania, no further work was done on the hut in till summer this year.
We decided to utilise the help of our working holiday groups this summer and began by putting in our main structure in July.
The hut quickly took shape and the phrase, many hands make light work, never rang more true. By the end of the two weeks with our working holidays the main structure was up, the roof on, floor in and our walls had begun to take shape.
For the floor we used large rounds of monkey puzzle wood from a tree which had been taken down by the lake and sweet chestnut logs to fill the gaps. We also decided to use sweet chestnut for the walls, all of which was from Cott Wood.
Hours and hours of chainsawing was involved to create enough log rounds for walls and I am sure our seasonal Ranger Rich would tell you he would never want to cut another log again in his life!
Work began on the path to the hut, it was decided to be a wooden path winding its way to the hut. I must say I was very skeptical about how long this would take us but I am very glad it was created because it is absolutely beautiful. Our contractor Dennis first dug us a path with his mini digger and then we lay in large log rounds with smaller log rounds along the edge. Each log had to be tamped down and made as level as possible. We then back filled with soil, tamping as we went and finished with a stone dressing on the surface.
And for the final phase with our final working holiday we created the green roof and walls, As we had built the walls we had deliberately left small gaps so that we could plant ferns into the walls. A double layer of turf was used on the roof and ferns were also planted into the turf.
The finished product
This project took us hours of time and without all the volunteer hours put in by our working holidays and our own volunteers we would still be working on it now. What began as only as vision by Murray is now a beautiful structure.
A very pleased Murray Sharpe with his completed hut
The hut can now be a place for people to sit and enjoy the view for a quick rest or a long lunch. I even manged to squeeze 22 school children in the hut recently so they could all draw the view.
We struggled and debated with the right name for the hut for a while and it did become the Woodman's Hovel for a while. However due to a sad turn of events in which our oldest cow failed her TB test, it was suggested by Natalie (Visitor Services Manager) that it should be named after Limmy who has been at Arlington and looked after by Murray for the past 9 years. So our hut is now know as Limmy's Lookout and hopefully will go someway to preserving her in our memories.
So next time you are here at Arlington search for Limmy's Lookout and spend a few minutes relaxing and enjoying the views out accross the parkland.
