About us
Experiential learning and adventure.
Skern Lodge is an activity centre in North Devon. Every year, we welcome hundreds of schools, youth clubs, businesses, and more – all seeking an exceptional outdoor experience.
We want all our guests to have a fun and adventurous trip, learn something new, and enjoy themselves in a safe environment. It is our enthusiastic team of over 50 friendly and capable staff who make this possible.
Everyone at Skern strives to provide excellent service. We know how to balance encouragement and reassurance to ensure you have a thoroughly enjoyable experience. So whether you're after a school residential or a corporate event, our adventure experts will help you make the most of it.
You'll explore the outdoors through a diverse range of activities, with challenges and learning embedded every step of the way. Throughout, the safety of our guests is paramount. We hold the highest levels of accreditation, our equipment is tested regularly, and we maintain well-established safety procedures that have been fine-tuned since our opening in 1976.
The Centre
Skern Lodge is near the village of Appledore, at the mouth of the River Torridge. We are located in the North Devon Coast Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and the UNESCO Biosphere of Braunton Burrows.
The centre sits on the site of the old Watertown Farm. The buildings have been developed and added to, incorporating the original 1705 stonework into the purpose-built residential facilities.
Today, Skern Lodge is a warm, clean and comfortable centre for activity and development programmes. Separate buildings accommodate different groups and ages, each with its own meeting and social areas. There's plenty of room on site for everyone, and the views out to sea are stunning.
Accommodation and Facilities
Many of the rooms have expansive views across Northam Burrows and over the water.
There are four separate accommodation areas. They each have central heating, drying rooms, showers and warm, comfy beds, made up ready for guests on arrival.
If you're part of a school or youth club, staff and group leaders have their own en-suite room near their party group.
The centre also has plenty of meeting rooms, classrooms, social areas and outdoor space available to use throughout your stay.
WiFi is available within most areas of the site. For schools, we even have laptops available for students undertaking fieldwork. For adult groups, there is a bar available, and for our younger guests, there is the Skern shop for all their memorabilia.
A heated outdoor swimming pool completes the complex.
Catering at Skern
The dining facility seating 110 is at the heart of the centre. We take great pride in providing a great variety, fresh, local options and served by an outstanding team with care and good humour.
Any dietary requirements can be catered for and there are plenty of healthy options. Menus and meal times are tailored to the clients staying with us each week.
Our catering team endeavours to get as many good comments about the food as we do about activities.
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Sustainability at Skern
We have worked hard over the past 45 years to ensure that our impact on the environments and locations we use are kept to a minimum. Litter and erosion are key factors that we take into consideration and educating others about their impact can have lasting effects beyond their stay with us.
We see over 10,000 people come through the door every year, with an average of 150 people per day that need at least one shower, toilet facilities, clean bedding, transportation, healthy feeding and watering. Therefore we try to reduce our impact in many ways. Whether it's environmentally friendly cleaning materials, investment in solar heating and solar power or buying locally produced food where possible.
At Skern Lodge we try and recycle as much as we can and encourage our guests to do the same. With plenty of recycling bins, our waste reduction has improved year on year.
Skern is not just a place for now, but with sustainability on site and at our activity locations, Skern is a place for the future.
Disabled Access & Activity Options
Where possible, access to our site and facilities is made as simple as possible for our guest with physical disabilities. Ground floor bedrooms with wet rooms are available. Please give us a call to discuss your requirements.
We would love to say that all activities are suitable for everyone but, depending on the disability some activities are not necessarily suitable or practical. However with individually tailored courses, additional needs can be taken into consideration in advance and activities programmed accordingly.
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