2026 is here! Matt relives the history of the campsite, from the early years to now

A message from Matt:

I hope that you had an excellent festive season, and managed to find enough quality time to spend with family and friends. As 2026 begins to raise its head, I can look forward with excitement to the beginning of the camping season once more. However, two things have happened recently to give me cause to look back instead of forward, on my journey in running a campsite so far.

Firstly, I had my first bout of Covid! I don’t know how I have avoided it for six years, although I suppose working outdoors helps. Whilst lying in my sick bed, coughing pathetically, I reflected upon my opening at Quarry Park Camping in summer 2020. I only had six pitches for about four weeks in the first year, with fairly rudimentary washing up facilities. I watched as our very first campers rolled up, a lovely young couple from London,  and I wondered anxiously what they would think, would they like it? It all went really well for that first little taster session, and I immediately knew that not only would people like coming here, but that I would love running a campsite! (Well, you just don’t know until you try it, do you?).

2021 came along, We bought our first beautiful yurt, Bramble, and added another six pitches along the way to Granny's Wood. I also had to add some significant fencing to our garden, because our dogs realised that campers are exciting, way more exciting than boring old family! We added the undercover bin shed, and the log shed (a big hit!).

2022, and our second beautiful yurt, Thistle. We went into the New field for our favourite pitches. These have loads more space, excellent views and most have their own private toilet facility. We added Willow pitch first, our most remote and private pitch, which has its own toilet and a kitchen cabin. To my surprise, this one has become my most rebooked pitch on the whole site!

Before I knew it, 2023 was thundering along, gathering speed like a freight train. Due to building guest pressures, I put electric hook-ups to four pitches, and added an extra couple of toilets to ease any potential waiting times.

In 2024 it felt like time to just take a breath for a minute, see how everything was running and tweak what we already had, rather than launching into new territories, and only added one private toilet to a quiet pitch. We were truly delighted to win Best Campsite in South and West Wales from Campsites.co.uk.

But the status quo couldn’t last, and 2025 was a great year! The weather was perfect for camping, long, dry blue-sky days, you could look at the week ahead and your biggest worry would be which night to have a barbecue! We added an extra couple of EHU’s, and built our breakfast café, Russell‘s, serving bacon rolls and vegetarian baps, teas and coffees, which was a great success! We also added an extra couple of washing up sinks - the last thing you need to do is wait for washing up. We became the first campsite to retain the award Best Campsite in South and West Wales, which was doubly exciting!

Which brings us right up to date. We are planning an extremely exciting New glamping unit for this year - Danny. Hopefully, Danny will be fully operational in May 🤞 Also looking at building a small laundry room for campers to use.

The second thing that made me think of 2020, was to do with my aforementioned very first campers. The lovely young couple from London (who I count as my very own good-luck symbols - sorry guys!), who have returned year after year, and we received a Christmas card from them letting us know they are expecting, and there will be three of them next time! Exciting times ahead for them!!

To say that I am really looking forward to having guests back at Quarry Park, is always something of an understatement every year, I can’t believe how quickly the time has gone, and how much I have grown to love my job.

I'll stop my ramblings now, but if you'd like to come and see how much we've evolved, and enjoy the fantastic peace and quiet we have here to share, please don't hesitate to get in touch - through the website on www.quarryparkcamping.co.uk or by message to Matt on 07966 087177.