The campsite, and its two names
Six acres of pasture at the end of Lodge Lane, taking up to five vans with a separate area for tents. It appears in two different sets of records under two different names, which is the main reason it is hard to pin down.
The ground
The site sits on roughly six acres of grassland on the southern shore of Abberton Reservoir, with the water filling the view to the north. The camping area itself is a good deal smaller than that: the Camping and Caravanning Club records the certificated ground as three quarters of an acre.
It takes up to five caravans or motorhomes, with a separate area for tents. Every pitch has an electric hook-up and water. Campfires are allowed, which is unusual and is the thing most often mentioned about the place. Dogs are welcome, and there is an off-road dog walk on the site itself.
Facilities are modest, in the way a small certificated site's usually are: a toilet and shower, washing up, drinking water, chemical disposal, a motorhome service point, battery charging, a freezer and recycling. The land around it is farmland, flat and worked, and at least one visitor has noted the farm machinery that goes with that.
What a certificated site is
The Camping and Caravanning Club runs a scheme of very small sites on private land, held under the Club's own certificate rather than a local authority licence. The ceiling is fixed by the scheme, not by the field: up to five caravans or motorhomes, and up to ten tents. That is why almost every certificated site in the country describes itself as taking five vans, and why the number tells you nothing about how big the ground actually is.
The trade is space for facilities. A certificated site is quiet and thinly occupied by design, and in exchange it has a fraction of the plumbing of a commercial park. If the appeal of a place is that there are four other units in six acres and you can light a fire, that is the scheme working as intended.
Lodge Lane runs south from the reservoir shore towards Peldon village. The dashed line is the parish boundary. Drawn from Ordnance Survey data by way of OpenStreetMap.
Gatehouse Barns and The Gatehouse Peldon
Search for this place and you will find it twice, under two names, and nothing anywhere says they are the same field.
The Camping and Caravanning Club lists it as Gatehouse Barns, filed under Colchester. Its own website called it The Gatehouse Peldon. Directory entries use one or the other more or less at random, and the two carry slightly different descriptions, so they read as neighbours rather than as one site.
They are one site. The independent campsite directories list Gatehouse Barns at Lodge Lane, Peldon, CO5 7PZ, which is the same lane and the same postcode the business gave for itself, on the same telephone line. The Club's description of Gatehouse Barns has it looking over Abberton reservoir and its visitor centre; the business described itself as being on the edge of Abberton Reservoir. Guests writing about Gatehouse Barns name the same owner who wrote the copy on The Gatehouse Peldon's own site.
So: one name is what it is registered as, the other is what it called itself. If you have found one and are wondering whether the other is a second option half a mile away, it is not.
Tucked away on the outskirts of a small Essex village, a picturesque hideaway offering spectacular views over the rolling countryside.
The Camping and Caravanning Club, on Gatehouse Barns
| Registered as | Gatehouse Barns, a Camping and Caravanning Club certificated site |
|---|---|
| Also known as | The Gatehouse Peldon |
| Where | Lodge Lane, Peldon, Colchester, Essex CO5 7PZ |
| Position | 51.8209°N, 0.8857°E · parish of Peldon |
| Ground | About six acres of pasture; three quarters of an acre certificated |
| Takes | Up to five caravans or motorhomes, plus a separate tent area |
| On each pitch | Electric hook-up and water |
| On site | Toilet, shower, washing up, drinking water, chemical disposal, motorhome point, battery charging, freezer, recycling |
| Campfires | Allowed |
| Dogs | Welcome, with an off-road walk on site |
| Nearest pub | The Plough at Peldon, a seven minute walk |
| Nearest town | Colchester, five and a half miles north |
Compiled from the Camping and Caravanning Club's own listing, the independent campsite directories, and the site's former website as archived between 2022 and 2025. Where sources disagreed, the claim has been left out.