John Lewis is the third generation to farm the 130-acres at Nant Y Gelli near Llanbister, Powys after his grandfather bought the hill farm in 1966. Surrounded by an open 900-acre hill named Maelinaidd, the remote farm was uninhabited until John’s parents, Raymond and Bethan, moved to the farmhouse in 1986.

John and his wife Laura moved into a converted barn next to the farmhouse in 2013 where they now live with their two children, Charlie who is six and Bertie, three.

The vision

Alongside running the flock of 400 improved Welsh ewes, the Lewises knew they needed to diversify to help keep the farm business sustainable in order to support the family. It was John’s vision of a treehouse that made them investigate further.

“We’d been looking into diversifying for a couple of years. I researched the market for some time, considering all types of accommodation. I trawled through booking agent sites, looking at what stood out, what had lots of bookings and would stand the test of time. I knew then that I wanted to build a treehouse on the farm, something that was going to stand out and be different.”

A carpenter by trade, John said there wasn’t really a plan on paper for the first treehouse before they worked with an architect. “The ideas were in my head and so I worked closely with the architect to put these ideas into practice.

“I went to college in Newtown where I trained as a carpenter and I have mainly been involved with building oak framed houses, so to me, building treehouses was something totally different.

Something cool and unique

People would think you were a bit crazy if you did some of the things we’ve done here in a standard house, but we wanted something that was a bit cool and unique.

“We picked a private tree in a secluded area of the farm, and it went from there really. The planning process took around eight months and we eventually started building the first treehouse, Trawscwm in the autumn of 2017. My dad and I built the first one together using locally sourced oak, larch and western red cedar; it had its moments, but it could have been a lot worse. During the build, we used old boards of silage feeders and just bits and bobs of wood we found around the farm, making it quite unique. Sadly, my dad passed away at the start of the first lockdown in April 2020, so it was great for us to have been able to do that first treehouse together.”

In-keeping with the farm's history

Laura, who looks after the marketing for the treehouses, said that there is so much history on the farm: “We named the first treehouse ‘Trawscwm’ after what was a very small holding located near the treehouse. From research we found that Nant y Gelli was actually made up of a few little farms, including Trawscwm, but over the years, have merged. It was good to get a better understanding of the farm’s history.”

Six months after Trawscwm was up and running, the couple put in planning permission for a second treehouse, later to be named Cadwollen. Laura said: “We never expected the business to take off like it did. We hoped people would want to just book weekends, so we were really pleased to see the number of bookings that came through in such a short space of time.

“The history of the name Cadwollen dates back to Norman times when Maelinaidd Hill was inherited by Prince Cadwallon. The struggle for the rule of the hill continued until the 13th Century, involving the king of England and Llywelyn the Great and Llywelyn, son of Gruffudd of Gwynedd.

The second and third builds

“Cadwollen Treehouse was built in 2019 and in 2020 we built Prince Llywelyn, again named after the local history.”

When it came to building the next two treehouses, John said things were a bit more organised and they knew logistically how it worked, how long things took and the delays on certain items. The first two are around 25sqm but the most recent one, Prince Llywelyn, is over double in size at nearly 56sqm.

“In Prince Llywelyn we sourced some of the beams from an old barn being dismantled in Sennybridge. I also had this idea about almost playing Tetris with old doors to create one of the walls. I’d found a number of old ones around the farm and when I started putting it together the boys helping me out were whispering about how I had lost the plot! But I persevered. Once it was finished, they could see my vision and it looks great, really eye catching.”

Their last project

The Lewises have now applied for planning permission for a fourth treehouse and say that they think that this will be their last. Laura said: “We want to ensure that they’re not too close to each other, mainly due to guests needing privacy, but also, it’s important that they aren’t too close to the farmhouse. We have 70 acres at the main site and another 50 acres about four miles away. Ideally, we want to keep them all on one site, and currently, I don’t think we have the room here to add any more than four.”

Laura, who trained as a primary school teacher before running a nursery in nearby Rhayader, now dedicates all her time to Squirrels Nest, the name the couple gave to their group of treehouses. She said: “To start with, we used Canopy and Stars, a booking agent, who helped with the pricing structure and gave us a good start in terms of bookings. They were brilliant, but we lost out on a lot of money due to the commission. I started marketing on our social media channels which really helped us generate direct bookings through our website.

The power of social media

“During the build of Prince Llywelen, Dunelm reached out to us. I took the opportunity to see if a collaboration was something they would be interested in and between us, we agreed to offer a two night stay and they ran a competition on their Instagram profile. Our Instagram following went up by 41,000 in just 48 hours. The bookings went through the roof, and we were fully booked for months ahead. We just couldn’t believe the power of social media.

“We stopped using the booking agent but instead joined up to an online directory. We paid an annual set fee and they linked people straight to our website to book directly with us. It was great. It was then I realised there was a huge gap in the market. A lot of farmers were diversifying and there were a lot of quirky places to stay in our local area alone.”

The Wanderlist

In February 2020, just before lockdown, Laura launched The Wanderlist, an online advertising directory promoting quirky places to stay across the UK.

“Due to the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown, everything was closed, so we took the opportunity to work with accommodation owners and for the first year being on the website was free of charge. We didn’t feel we could charge people as they weren’t making any money. I continued working behind the scenes to build our website and social media accounts. We didn’t have the easiest of starts as after holiday accommodation opened back up in April 2021, everything was more or less fully booked anyway because people were desperate for a break and couldn’t go abroad, so they didn’t really need The Wanderlist.

“The sector has since changed considerably, and we have now more than doubled in size since November 2021 and had to take on more staff to keep up with the demand.”

Laura has tried to keep the relationship with those who advertise on The Wanderlist a personal one. “Most of the businesses we list are farmers or landowners. It tends to be the farmer’s wife I speak to, and they, like me, have got kids running around or plenty happening on the farm. We have developed good relationships with them all and are on first name terms with everyone, which I like. We’ve got around 175 holiday lets listed on the website at the moment, including Squirrels Nest of course.

“I’ve not got a background in sales and marketing but it’s something that really interests me. I did feel the pressure and it was hard to know whether we were doing the right thing to begin with. Social media and the online world is evolving all the time and I think that keeping up with trends and where people are is very important.

Guests from all over the world

“We’ve had guests from all over the world including Dubai, Australia and New Zealand. We’ve also had a couple of famous faces staying, presenter, Laura Whitmore and reality star, Lydia Bright. They were both great for us in terms of advertising and bookings.”

John, who runs the farm as well as being busy with the treehouses said: “For the farm to be a success we need the treehouses and for the treehouses to be a success we need the farm. The sheep are fed on grass, silage and cake and our lambs are either sold at our local market in Knighton or at the abattoir throughout the autumn.

“People are really keen to learn about farming, especially during lambing time. We lamb through March and April; one visitor spent most of her holiday in the lambing shed! You do have to be more mindful though, we have to think about the jobs we need to do when you’ve got people paying for a luxury stay. If it wasn’t for the treehouses I would have to work fulltime off the farm, which would mean the farm and treehouses wouldn’t run as smoothly, so they go hand-in-hand.”

John added: “We have plans to add solar PV panels to the treehouses in order to be more renewable but also to save some money with the price of electricity as high as it is at the moment, especially as everything in the treehouses runs off electric, so it’s important we look at this for the long term.”

Supporting local

Keeping things local is important to the couple. Laura said: “We try and use local companies as much as possible. The welcome hampers all have Welsh produce in. One of our cleaners, Becky, bakes all the Bara Brith and bread for the hampers, and Julie, another one of our cleaners, makes the soaps. We have a number of local companies who provide food platters, as well as someone who comes to do massages on request.”

When it comes to the future, the Lewises aren’t shying away from their ambitions; they are now also licensed for weddings. Laura said: “Trawscwm and Cadwollen are both registered to host small weddings. Both can hold a maximum number of 12 guests but are looking to up this slightly. It’s definitely a venue for people who want to elope or have small intimate ceremonies. We have a number of local preferred suppliers that we use, and we coordinate everything to ensure it’s a very special day. So far, it’s been lovely, and we have a number of weddings booked for next year already. We are due to host a wedding fair in September where people can come and have a look around. The business is very much progressing, and we feel very pleased with how far it has come.”