Cedar Hollow Dorset
Pinwheel Treehouse
Four rooms turning off a glass-topped centre, set in a ring of mature oaks. In late April the floor of the wood beneath it turns entirely blue.
The plan is a windmill. Four rooms pinwheel off a central living space roofed in glass, each one ending in a full-height window facing a different point of the compass — one-way, so the wood can never look back in.
- Sleeps
- 2 adults
- Bed
- One king-sized bed
- Bathroom
- Shower room, separate dressing room, en-suite flushing loo
- Outside
- Square hot tub, two-person swing, wood-fired pizza oven, fire pit, hammock
- Built
- 2020, by Guy Mallinson with Keith Brownlie
- Setting
- A ring of mature oaks in the bluebell wood
Four rooms, four views
Pinwheel is the most quietly clever of the three. Rather than one room with windows, it gives you four separate arms — bedroom, sitting room, shower room, dressing room — each turning off a central space lit from directly above through a glass roof. Stand in the middle and you can see north, south, east and west at once, through four full-height windows, without any of them looking into another.
The glass is one-way. From outside, the building reads as concentric rings of timber sitting in the oaks; from inside, it is almost entirely open to the wood. The effect at dusk, with the ceramic stove lit and the four windows going dark at slightly different rates, is difficult to describe and very easy to sit still for.
The bluebell wood
Pinwheel stands in the oldest part of the woodland, where the oaks are widest apart and the ground is undisturbed. For two or three weeks in late April and early May the whole floor beneath it comes up blue. Those dates book first, and we would not pretend otherwise.
On the deck there is a square hot tub, a fire pit, the pizza oven, and a swing built for two people to sit on facing each other, which is exactly as good an idea as it sounds.
Inside
- King-sized bed with dual-control electric blanket
- Ceramic wood-burning stove
- Separate sitting room
- Separate shower room and dressing room
- En-suite flushing loo and heated towel rail
- Fully equipped kitchen with appliances
- Nespresso machine
- Full-height one-way glass to all four compass points
- Glass-roofed central living space
- Mains water, drinkable, and on-demand hot water
- Mains electricity with USB sockets by the bed
- Dyson hair dryer, cooling fan, books, games, no wifi
Outside
- Square hot tub on the deck
- Two-person swing
- Wood-fired pizza oven
- Fire pit and barbecue
- Hammock
- Deck within the ring of oaks
- Bluebells beneath, late April into May
- Logs, kindling and firelighters supplied
- 4G signal throughout
Pinwheel in pictures
Two adults only, 18 and over. No children and no dogs. Self-catering. Arrival from 4pm, departure by 10am, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Five minutes’ walk downhill from the car park.
Stand in the middle and look four ways
Pinwheel sleeps two in a ring of oaks. Late April, when the bluebells come, goes first.