A Rewarding visit to Hillside Shire Horse Sanctuary
And A New Life for Our Duvets!
Last week, we took a short trip over to West Runton to revisit the Hillside Shire Horse Sanctuary. It is only a ten-minute drive from North Cottage along the scenic, narrow lanes winding towards Sheringham, making it an incredibly easy outing for anyone staying with us.
Despite the name, Hillside doesn’t strictly limit its rescue efforts to heavy horses. Their valuable work is far more wide-ranging, providing a safe, caring haven for all kinds of rescue animals who have found themselves in need of a home.
Some of the beautiful horses at Hillside, West Runton, Norfolk
Hillside Shire Horse Sanctuary – Free Admission
A visit to Hillside Shire Horse Sanctuary makes for a wonderful day out. There is no admission charge and parking is entirely free. The only “catch”—if you can call it that—is that once you meet the animals and learn a little about their backgrounds, you will inevitably want to help. Leaving a generous donation is a natural response, and frankly, we can’t think of a better way to pay for a visit.
Our Sustainable Donation
We always highly recommend Hillside to our guests, but on this particular occasion, we weren’t visiting for a leisurely walk around the paddocks. We were on a specific errand to drop off a donation of our own.
Andrea with an armful of duvets for animal bedding at Hillside
To ensure everything is kept perfectly fresh for our guests at North Cottage, we periodically rotate our bedding. While our retired duvets are completely clean and far from old, charity shops unfortunately cannot accept them due to hygiene regulations. Rather than seeing perfectly good bedding go to landfill – which goes against our spirit of hosting – we bring them to Hillside to be used as warm animal bedding. It is something we started doing last year, and it feels like the ideal solution.
Hillside’s Amazing Team
Jerry with Nikki and another Hillside team member – our pile of duvets is by the shed!
During our drop-off, we had the pleasure of catching up with some of the sanctuary’s team. They are a remarkably happy bunch; a whole squad of volunteers was busy sweeping the courtyard to ensure the surroundings looked their best for the day’s visitors.
A special shout-out has to go to Nikki, who is clearly born for her role at the sanctuary. She is full of enthusiasm, made us feel incredibly welcome, and was so genuinely grateful for the half-dozen duvets we brought along. She was especially pleased to hear that we actively recommend Hillside to everyone who stays with us.
Here’s the link to the Hillside website with details of opening days and times – note it is open from the end of March to the end of October from 10am – 5pm but closed on Saturdays.
If you are visiting the area, please do take a few hours to walk around the sanctuary. It is a genuinely special place run by people who care deeply about what they do.
If you would like to read more about our ongoing efforts to make our holiday let environmentally friendly, you can read about our approach here: www.northcottagecromer.co.uk/sustainability.
