ANNA MELVILLE-JAMES pitches up at an irresistibly eccentric new country hideout in rural Lancashire

AS camping dinners go, paella was an ambitious suggestion. "The campsite will probably have a paella pan, won't it?" mused my friend Ian as we sped north up the motorway.

My, how expectations of camping have gone up over the past few years. Ever since the recession-friendly holiday favourite, glamping, came along, the Great British Outdoors has ceased to be the simple, soggy pleasure it once was.
You couldn't get much further from that than our weekend destination Wyresdale Park, a 19th-century estate on the western slopes of Lancashire's Bowland Fells.

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It is one of the new Country House Hideout camps set on some of the UK's grandest country estates, including Chesters in the Scottish Borders, Acton Scott in Shropshire and Layer Marney Tower in Essex.

Here, camping takes its lead from those intrepid great Victorian explorers who would pioneer new lands, albeit other people's, with a rugged spirit but rather less love of actually being rugged.

This is outdoor living for those who prefer civilisation with their nature, and someone else putting the tent up, proper beds and ironed bed sheets. Things that made utter sense as we wearily wheel barrowed our bags into the dark woods on arrival.

There were many things I've never done before on a camping holiday and I ticked off a few of these on the first night. I slept well, slept in and even played a gramophone.

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We found the last of these while investigating Camp Hillary, our hideout, the next morning.

Each of the site's five, self-contained "hideouts" are set beside the estate's trout-filled lake. They centre around a luxurious main tent offering flushing inside loo, wood-burning stove, two double beds, one bunk and electric lights generated by a dynamo bike. The rest of your camp consists of your own outdoor, wood-heated hot tub, Aga-style cooking trolley, a shower you have to pump for hot water while in there (a very athletic wash) and a "discovery tent".

The latter may be for children but we had great fun peering through the Celestron telescope and making stiff-upper-lip phone calls to the main tent on the retro field telephone.

Spend a weekend in yesteryear and you realise why progress happened. Our baptism by fire was breakfast.
Having not picked up kindling from the honesty shop at the main house on our way in, we got rustic and improvised.

"Nuts are good to burn, lots of energy, " said Ian, wandering around camp expounding on the properties of various flammables. First attempts at lighting the burner with wet wood triggered the smoke alarm. "I bet Ray Mears never had to put up with this kind of thing, " he muttered.

Fortunately, the sun was out and on a fine day you can open up the entire tent, providing a "gazing over the Serengeti" platform experience.

If it rains, baton down the hatches, stick the wood burner on and you've got space to carry on having a good time.
Bring or borrow a rod and fish, swim or hire rowing boats and paddle to the other side of the lake, as we did, for a picnic. From here, one of the area's loveliest walks leads up through the pink rhododendron pom-poms on Nicky Nook Fell and down into Grizedale Valley, part of the Forest of Bowland, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

After dinner we began heating the cauldron of doom, otherwise known as the hot tub. It took longer than evolution. By 1am, after hours of tantalising tepidness, it was boiling. Jumping in under the stars, it was pronounced worth the wait. We were on the brink of wimping out to the pub the next morning for brunch until Alison, our most determined camper, valiantly stoked up one last time to cook some bacon. Instead, we held out for an afternoon pint at The Bay Horse Inn near Forton.

Such simple pleasures are what the Wyresdale Park hideouts are all about. That and a certain unregulated freedom, coupled with home comforts. You can climb trees, scrape knees, swim in a lake and still have a cold G&T if you fancy. I was converted.

Heading home in that Empire state of mind, campfire paella suddenly seemed like a perfectly reasonable idea.

THE KNOWLEDGE:
Country House Hideouts (01420 549150/www.countryhousehideout.co.uk) offers three nights in a private camp at Wyresdale Park from £595 (eight sharing a tent), self-catering.

Excludes bed linen, available from £5.95pp.

Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board: 01257 226600/ www.visitlancashire.com