A Note From Chloe
The family, the farm and the story behind Red Sky.
Red Sky is, and always has been, a family affair. We’re Chloe and Ben, and together with our three boys, Hugo, Teddy and Chester, we live and work on our roughly 300-acre beef and sheep farm here in the beautiful Monmouthshire countryside.
The farm has been in Ben’s family for more than 150 years and our boys are now the seventh generation to call it home, which is something the Williams family is incredibly proud of. Alongside the cattle and sheep, we have Pepper, our very spoilt pet pig, Tommy our little Shetland, a handful of chickens dotted around the place and, of course, our working dogs and family dogs, so there is nearly always somebody — or something — needing feeding, moving, finding or letting out!
How Red Sky began
Red Sky really came about because being at home to raise my boys has always been incredibly important to me. I knew how quickly these years would pass and I wanted, if I possibly could, to find a way of working that allowed me to be here with them while they were little, rather than building our family life around a job somewhere else. They don't stay young forever and, while they still wanted to spend every second with me, I wanted to spend every second I could with them too.
At the same time, I’ve always been a creator. I love having an idea, seeing the potential in something and then figuring out how to turn it into something real, and for years I had been telling Ben that we were sitting on something very special here. We have the most extraordinary views from the farm and, when the sun goes down, the night sky can be absolutely incredible. I was convinced that people would pay to put up a tent in one of our fields just to experience it for themselves.
Ben took a little more convincing!
Eventually, after years of me telling him we should turn the field into a campsite, he gave in and Red Sky at Night was born! I think he probably kicks himself now that we didn't do it sooner, because somehow everything just seemed to fall into place. It gave me something creative that I could build and grow from home, it fitted around our children and our farm, and most importantly, other people seemed to see exactly what I had always seen in this place too.
Since then, Red Sky has grown and grown, and I don't think we'll ever quite get used to how much people love it here. We have families who return year after year, people who recommend us to their friends and relatives, and children who arrive back and immediately disappear off to rediscover their favourite places. To think that our little corner of the farm has become somewhere that other families associate with their holidays, their adventures and their children's memories is something we're incredibly proud of.
A proper family business
When we say Red Sky is family-run, we really do mean it, because everyone has somehow found their own role in it.
Lots of our returning campers will know Teddy, because he is very often my right-hand man on the campsite. He comes out with me in the mornings and evenings, helps clean the toilets and top up the sawdust, collects fire bowls, takes payments and gives people their change, and generally knows far more about the running of the campsite than most ten-year-olds probably should!
At three, Chester is already convinced that Red Sky is partly his responsibility too. He'll tell me when it's time to go down to the campsite, accompanies me on very important trips to "check the woods", makes sure the mud café is still working properly and personally tests whether the dens are good enough to sit in, climb on and hide inside.
Hugo is much more like me in that he is the dreamer and the creator. He loves coming up with ideas, imagining what we could make next and watching something we've talked about become part of the campsite, and he's incredibly proud of what we've created here.
That means a lot of Red Sky happens with all five of us together. We make bags of firewood, clear the woods, build things, move things, put up the latest piece of natural play equipment and generally get roped into whatever the newest project happens to be.
And then, of course, there's Ben, because none of it would actually happen without him. I tend to be the one who sees something and announces, "I've had an idea...", while Ben is the one who then has to work out how to build it, move it, fix it or make it possible. I'm probably the brains — or at least the source of the crazy ideas — and he's very definitely the brawn! Somehow it works, because everyone brings something different and Red Sky has become something we've built together as a family.
And now, Into the Woods...
Into the Woods is the newest part of our story and, unlike the campsite which I'd been plotting for years, this idea came to me only very recently.
Every year, when camping season finishes, we close the gates and everything suddenly goes quiet. The mud café, slackline, dens and all those little magical spaces we've created amongst the trees simply sit there waiting for the following May, and the more I thought about it, the more of a shame that seemed.
We'd created this wonderful place where our own children and the children who stay with us can explore, get muddy, build dens, climb, play and use their imaginations, so why should all of that stop just because the tents have gone home for the winter?
That's where the idea for our woodland birthday parties came from. I loved the thought of children bringing their friends and families here to celebrate somewhere that gives them the freedom to just be children — to run through the woods, get muddy, make things, explore, laugh, toast marshmallows and have an adventure together in the fresh air.
It also felt like such a natural extension of what Red Sky already is. The campsite fills the fields during the warmer months, then as camping season comes to an end, Into the Woods takes over and brings the woodland to life through the autumn and winter, before the whole cycle begins again in spring.
From our family to yours
Ultimately, Red Sky isn't a big holiday park or an activity centre; it's part of our home and our family farm. It's land that generations of Ben's family have cared for before us, it's where we're lucky enough to be raising our own three boys, and it's a place that has given us the opportunity to build a business without losing the family life that was the whole reason I wanted to create one in the first place.
I think that's probably why we'll always care so much about it. Every new idea, every little improvement and every slightly mad project is something we've thought about around our kitchen table and then gone outside and tried to make happen, usually with at least one child in tow.
The fact that other families have embraced Red Sky in the way they have still means an enormous amount to us. Whether you're coming to pitch a tent beneath our big Welsh skies, returning for another summer because the children haven't stopped talking about it, or bringing your little adventurer into the woods to celebrate a very special birthday, you're coming to a place that genuinely means the world to the family behind it.
We hope, while you're here, it feels a little bit special to your family too.
Chloe x ❤️
Red Sky is, and always has been, a family affair. We’re Chloe and Ben, and together with our three boys, Hugo, Teddy and Chester, we live and work on our roughly 300-acre beef and sheep farm here in the beautiful Monmouthshire countryside.
The farm has been in Ben’s family for more than 150 years and our boys are now the seventh generation to call it home, which is something the Williams family is incredibly proud of. Alongside the cattle and sheep, we have Pepper, our very spoilt pet pig, Tommy our little Shetland, a handful of chickens dotted around the place and, of course, our working dogs and family dogs, so there is nearly always somebody — or something — needing feeding, moving, finding or letting out!
How Red Sky began
Red Sky really came about because being at home to raise my boys has always been incredibly important to me. I knew how quickly these years would pass and I wanted, if I possibly could, to find a way of working that allowed me to be here with them while they were little, rather than building our family life around a job somewhere else. They don't stay young forever and, while they still wanted to spend every second with me, I wanted to spend every second I could with them too.
At the same time, I’ve always been a creator. I love having an idea, seeing the potential in something and then figuring out how to turn it into something real, and for years I had been telling Ben that we were sitting on something very special here. We have the most extraordinary views from the farm and, when the sun goes down, the night sky can be absolutely incredible. I was convinced that people would pay to put up a tent in one of our fields just to experience it for themselves.
Ben took a little more convincing!
Eventually, after years of me telling him we should turn the field into a campsite, he gave in and Red Sky at Night was born! I think he probably kicks himself now that we didn't do it sooner, because somehow everything just seemed to fall into place. It gave me something creative that I could build and grow from home, it fitted around our children and our farm, and most importantly, other people seemed to see exactly what I had always seen in this place too.
Since then, Red Sky has grown and grown, and I don't think we'll ever quite get used to how much people love it here. We have families who return year after year, people who recommend us to their friends and relatives, and children who arrive back and immediately disappear off to rediscover their favourite places. To think that our little corner of the farm has become somewhere that other families associate with their holidays, their adventures and their children's memories is something we're incredibly proud of.
A proper family business
When we say Red Sky is family-run, we really do mean it, because everyone has somehow found their own role in it.
Lots of our returning campers will know Teddy, because he is very often my right-hand man on the campsite. He comes out with me in the mornings and evenings, helps clean the toilets and top up the sawdust, collects fire bowls, takes payments and gives people their change, and generally knows far more about the running of the campsite than most ten-year-olds probably should!
At three, Chester is already convinced that Red Sky is partly his responsibility too. He'll tell me when it's time to go down to the campsite, accompanies me on very important trips to "check the woods", makes sure the mud café is still working properly and personally tests whether the dens are good enough to sit in, climb on and hide inside.
Hugo is much more like me in that he is the dreamer and the creator. He loves coming up with ideas, imagining what we could make next and watching something we've talked about become part of the campsite, and he's incredibly proud of what we've created here.
That means a lot of Red Sky happens with all five of us together. We make bags of firewood, clear the woods, build things, move things, put up the latest piece of natural play equipment and generally get roped into whatever the newest project happens to be.
And then, of course, there's Ben, because none of it would actually happen without him. I tend to be the one who sees something and announces, "I've had an idea...", while Ben is the one who then has to work out how to build it, move it, fix it or make it possible. I'm probably the brains — or at least the source of the crazy ideas — and he's very definitely the brawn! Somehow it works, because everyone brings something different and Red Sky has become something we've built together as a family.
And now, Into the Woods...
Into the Woods is the newest part of our story and, unlike the campsite which I'd been plotting for years, this idea came to me only very recently.
Every year, when camping season finishes, we close the gates and everything suddenly goes quiet. The mud café, slackline, dens and all those little magical spaces we've created amongst the trees simply sit there waiting for the following May, and the more I thought about it, the more of a shame that seemed.
We'd created this wonderful place where our own children and the children who stay with us can explore, get muddy, build dens, climb, play and use their imaginations, so why should all of that stop just because the tents have gone home for the winter?
That's where the idea for our woodland birthday parties came from. I loved the thought of children bringing their friends and families here to celebrate somewhere that gives them the freedom to just be children — to run through the woods, get muddy, make things, explore, laugh, toast marshmallows and have an adventure together in the fresh air.
It also felt like such a natural extension of what Red Sky already is. The campsite fills the fields during the warmer months, then as camping season comes to an end, Into the Woods takes over and brings the woodland to life through the autumn and winter, before the whole cycle begins again in spring.
From our family to yours
Ultimately, Red Sky isn't a big holiday park or an activity centre; it's part of our home and our family farm. It's land that generations of Ben's family have cared for before us, it's where we're lucky enough to be raising our own three boys, and it's a place that has given us the opportunity to build a business without losing the family life that was the whole reason I wanted to create one in the first place.
I think that's probably why we'll always care so much about it. Every new idea, every little improvement and every slightly mad project is something we've thought about around our kitchen table and then gone outside and tried to make happen, usually with at least one child in tow.
The fact that other families have embraced Red Sky in the way they have still means an enormous amount to us. Whether you're coming to pitch a tent beneath our big Welsh skies, returning for another summer because the children haven't stopped talking about it, or bringing your little adventurer into the woods to celebrate a very special birthday, you're coming to a place that genuinely means the world to the family behind it.
We hope, while you're here, it feels a little bit special to your family too.
Chloe x ❤️