Al fresco cooking: our best UK stays with outdoor kitchens

Röshults Kitchen – Estate Produce – Foraging Experience

By the time you reach the front door at the end of the zig-zag boardwalk, set high in the trees, you’re ready to drop your bags and roll straight into forest life. Out on the broad decking, the Röshults outdoor kitchen is nothing short of sculptural. It’s sleek, Scandi, and complete with a single gas hob, a fridge, and cookware so beautiful it’ll make your food look better before you even lift a fork. 

This is al fresco dining turned up to eleven. There are trees all around, and a long table just waiting for good company. Order a hamper prepared by Elmore Court’s chefs and cook with produce straight from the estate’s walled garden. If you fancy something wilder, head out with an expert forager and return with treasures you’ll never find on supermarket shelves.

Foraged Ingredients – BBQ Kitchen – Stargazing

Perched at the top of Hookhill Plantation, Big Sky Retreat lives up to its name. This handcrafted wooden yurt is wrapped in nothing but forest and silence, with a trampoline swing to nap on while waiting for your post-feast food baby to disappear. 

The outdoor kitchen is perfectly pitched for al fresco feasting, complete with a BBQ, sink, cool box and a dining table where dinner comes with a side of stargazing. Foraged fruits are a seasonal bonus, with blackberries, elderberries and sloes spilling from the hedgerows, offering up nature's own pantry. Or plan ahead and hit Crediton’s award-winning farmers' market, where Devon’s best producers gather each month. Just don’t forget to toast your handiwork as the sun drops over the hills.

Wood-Fired Oven – Garden Kitchen – Farm Produce

Tucked into four acres of wildflower-speckled gardens, Prothero is a shepherd’s hut that punches above its size, especially when it comes to cooking. Inside, there’s a double gas hob for rainy day frying and tea brewing. But come fair weather (April through September), the real joy is outside, in the open-air kitchen. It’s been given a serious kitting out, with Argentinian grills, a wood-fired oven, and a pizza paddle just begging to be wielded. 

Bring back sourdough and smoked garlic from the Hay Deli, pick up rare breed sausages from Jones the Butcher, or load up on seasonal veg from the award-winning Oakchurch Farm Shop. Then fire it all whilst basking in the sun and let that Vit D work its magic.

Sky Deck – Pizza Oven – Vineyard Views

Hidden among vines, Pomeroy Treehouse invites you to take your meals skyward. A private deck, draped in willow, becomes the perfect perch for open-air feasts, complete with a pizza oven, BBQ, sink and a fridge tucked discreetly into the balcony deck.  

You’ll find local cider, farmhouse butter, fresh bread and cheese in your welcome hamper, encouraging you to slow down and savour what the region does best. In the evening, send snacks up the dumb waiter to the roof terrace or grill with a view across apple orchards. There’s indoor stuff to yell about too, but nothing beats flame grilled dinners under the stars, with Somerset’s markets and cycling trails feeding your appetite for produce, and proper cooking.

Woodland Kitchen – Firepit – Tropical Bath

At Ursabear, it’s entirely acceptable to spend your days sipping Exmoor gin beside the firepit, and your evenings grilling sausages while stargazing. Built with love and whimsy, this design-lover’s hideaway among the trees has an outdoor kitchen that’s weatherproof enough to enjoy even when it’s drizzling. The real showstopper here is the sunken tropical bath tucked just behind the breakfast bar, meaning one of you can cook while the other soaks in the same room. 

There’s a firepit surrounded by oak barrel chairs and a perfectly placed bench for slow dinners overlooking the woodland. You’ll be greeted with locally sourced eggs, fresh bread, and enough tea and coffee to fuel midnight constellation spotting with the giant telescope. Stock up on essentials (or the very inessentials) at Bampton village, where a local wine merchant delivers straight to your cabin door.

Covered Kitchen – BBQ – Pizza Oven

Camelot is the kind of place that makes you want to unpack slowly just so you can savour every corner. A mighty cabin with room for four (and space for two more if the gang’s growing), it’s made for lively, lingering meals outside. The covered outdoor kitchen has all the big hitters, with a Weber BBQ, Gozney Arc XL pizza oven, fridge and even an ice machine, because warm cider is never okay, even in Somerset. 

Pick up award-winning cheese in Glastonbury, smoked goodies from Wells, or stop at a Mendip farm shop and load up like a local. Then prep, cook, and graze al fresco while the Somerset Levels stretch out into the distance.

Lakeside Cooking – Firepit BBQ – Wild Swimming 

Hidden down a quiet track near Chipping Norton, wake to mist rising off the lake, coffee warming your hands, and decide between a morning swim or starting breakfast by the firepit BBQ. Or both, it’s that kind of place. 

This is cooking as an adventure, whether you’re kneading dough for the pizza oven, roasting veg over flames or simmering a stew on the wood-burning stove inside. Pop into nearby Cotswolds towns for beautiful local produce of farmhouse cheese, plump tomatoes, a bottle or two of something good, and turn the cabin into your own countryside kitchen. Eat outside, wrapped in blankets, with the fire crackling beside you. You won’t want to go indoors. You probably won’t want to go home either.

Aquaforno Cooking – Forest Kitchen – Produce Hamper

Hidden in a glade where truffles pop from the earth like they belong there, Heartwood is a quietly magical dome in the woods. Cooking here is anything but an afterthought. You can light the Aquaforno (an al fresco triple threat: pizza oven, BBQ and firepit), or take the path of least resistance and fire up the gas hob. Either way, the woods keep watch as you chop and char. 

A sheltered prep area stands nearby, with your sink, fridge and eco bits, and hampers packed with local produce can be waiting when you arrive, just order ahead. Take a stroll to the neighbouring Made-Well café and refill station, or Hatherleigh’s farm shop. Here, every meal is made richer by the surroundings. You’ll leave with the smell of trees and woodsmoke on your jumper, lungs full of fresh air, and the memories of some seriously good food.

Island BBQ Hut – Pizza Oven – Forest Feasting

Squirrel’s Nest might sound cute, but don’t let the name fool you, this treehouse means business. Hidden in the Forest of Dean, it’s a dream made real with a wood-fired pizza oven, a firepit built for post-adventure debriefs, and a BBQ hut on its own private island. Cross the little bridge, grill some steaks like a forest-dwelling king, and dine outdoors while wild boar shuffle somewhere in the undergrowth. 

You’ll arrive to milk, biscuits and jams to fuel you for your first of many walks, and from there it’s a forager’s paradise. Whitecroft has local shops where you can pick up fresh eggs, crusty bread, and maybe a local cider. But back at base, it’s all about the fire and the food, and that deep sense of peace.

Outdoor Cooking – Streamside Shack – Local Hamper

The shepherd’s hut is yours and yours alone, sat just above a stream, where you’ll find a simple and soulful cooking set up in the form of a rustic shack, a gas hob, and everything you need to slow things right down. 

In the morning, wrap yourself in a blanket, slide into the hammock, and wait for the kettle to boil. A breakfast hamper of local produce makes things easy with golden-yoked eggs, crusty bread and Welsh butter all a part of the menu. With no one else around and nature in every direction, it’s cooking as it should be. Outdoors, unhurried, and deeply satisfying.

Gypsy Caravan – Honesty Shop – Food Markets 

There’s something primal and perfect about cooking over a fire in the woods, especially when you’re doing it beside a gypsy caravan in a Devonshire glade. At Fisherton Farm, The Vintage Vardos offers a nostalgic, woodsmoke-tinged escape, where breakfast sizzles over cast iron and dinner is served by lantern light at a hand-built table under the trees. 

You’ll cook over open flames with trivets, BBQ racks, and skillets plucked from a giant antique wicker basket. There's a camping stove for simpler meals and a cool box system to keep the drinks chilled. Stock up on eggs, jams, and garden veg from the honesty shop, or head to South Molton Pannier Market for local produce with personality. Just be warned, after a few wood-fired meals here, your kitchen at home may never feel quite the same.