Sauna
Glass-fronted, cedar-lined, with an electric Huum stove. Heat it up in your own time, cool off between sessions, and settle in for a slow evening. Three hours included with every direct booking.
57°14′N · 25°05′E · GAUJA NATIONAL PARK
The cabin
Twenty-three square metres, designed end to end. Year-round comfort, nine experiences without leaving the clearing, a national park at the door.
- 23
- square metres
- 2 + 1
- sleeps
- 5
- metre ceilings
- 1
- cabin
- 65
- km from Riga
- 365
- days a year
I — Year-round comfort
Insulated, pre-heated, warm in any month.
The cabin is designed to feel right in any month. Insulated for the long Latvian winter, with hot water on tap and a heated bathroom floor — year-round, not just in February.
- Pre-heated automatically before arrival
- Heated bathroom floor, year-round
- 128 m deep well, drinkable, hot on tap
- Off-grid by day — solar with grid backup at night
- 5G Wi-Fi fast enough for video calls
- Parking for 2 cars on the cleared gravel patch
II — Design
Drawn on a napkin. Built without compromises.
Three materials, one shape, every corner considered. We made every decision twice — once on paper, once again when something didn't work and we fixed it. What guests notice most isn't a single feature; it's that no detail was skipped.
- Black sprucethe outside
- Latvian black spruce, charred and tarred. The forest is dark. We didn't want to fight it.
- Birch veneerthe inside
- Light, soft birch — almost white when the sun is out, golden after dark. The light needed somewhere to land.
- Herringbone oakthe floor
- Wide French oak boards, laid in herringbone. One detail underfoot that asks you to look down.
External shutters
Timber shutters along the long side serve a dual purpose. Pulled open, they frame the windows and let the forest in. Closed, they're the softest curtain — shade by day, blackout by night, no fabric needed.
“Every element thought through, from the architecture to the last bolt.”
— Marija · Latvia
A small piece of engineering
The wood does more than warm the room.
A freestanding wood stove with a glass front and firewood stored underneath. It heats the room directly. The same loop also feeds the shower water and the bathroom floor — so when the fire is on, the floor is warm and the water is hot. Electricity does the rest, quietly, when the fire is out.
No oil, no gas, no truck arriving in the night. Firewood is stacked outside, dry under the eave, and we leave more than you'll need.
You come quiet. You leave full.
Calm.Recharge.Regenerate.
Three words guests use, often before they realize they came for them. The cabin is built for that — for the energy to come back in.
Outside the window, only forest.
III — What you do here
Nine reasons not to leave the clearing.
Hot tub
Heat-pump heated, held at temperature year round. Walk out at 3 in the afternoon or 11 at night — the water is ready. Commercial-grade filtration underneath.
Fire pit & terrace
Outdoor fire pit a few paces off the terrace, string lights overhead. Most evenings end here, around the fire.
Pizza oven
A mini gas pizza oven outside the cabin, board and peel and tools laid out. Bring dough or make it on the long counter inside — it's ready to fire when you are.
Photo coming
Grill
An outdoor grill set up by the fire pit. Charcoal stored beside the pit.
The coffee bar
V60 pour-over, Moka pot, French press, an electric kettle, and a small selection of beans on the long counter. The morning here begins slowly, on purpose.
Cinema
The blank wall above the sofa becomes the screen — five metres of it, ceiling-high. Bring a film or stream one. Lights down, candles lit, forest in the door.
The forest, at the door
The road ends a few hundred metres past the cabin and turns into trail. Step out, walk in any direction, you're in Gauja National Park before you know it.
Slowing down
A book by the window, the chair, the way the light walks across the herringbone. The thing the cabin is really for.
IV — Connected to the land
Off-grid by design, not just by branding.
Everything that runs the cabin is either on our land or from this region. We didn't add sustainability as a label — the building is just made this way.
Solar by day
Panels on the roof meet most of our demand spring through autumn. Grid backup at night and on cloudy weeks — never both running, never wasted.
Our own water
A 128 m deep well, tested annually, drinkable. No connection to the village mains.
Our own septic
Built for the cabin. Independent of any village system. Quiet, modern, treats what it needs to.
One fire, three jobs
The wood stove warms the room, the shower water, and the bathroom floor — one log doing the work of three appliances.
Materials from this place
Latvian black spruce, Latvian birch plywood, French oak laid by hand. No engineered cladding, no plastic finishes, no quick solutions.
The forest as backyard
92,000 hectares of Gauja National Park surround the clearing. We didn't build over it; we built into it. The trees we left were the trees that were already there.
The road ends a few hundred metres past the cabin.
V — Nearby
One Latvia at the door, another a short drive away.
Most of these are 7 minutes by car. The others are a half-hour at most. We've grouped them so you can pick a day and a mood.
Nature & the river
- Anfabrika cliffs & sluice7 min
Sandstone cliffs up to 17 m, sluice and canal system from 1814. Walk-up, free, beautifully odd.
- Fish ladder at the sluice7 min
200 m fish ladder — the only one in Latvia. Salmon and trout migrate through it in autumn. Worth a quiet hour.
- Līgatne cable ferry10 min
The only cable ferry in the Baltics. Powered by the Gauja's current, €1 on foot. Crosses to more trails.
- Gauja River — kayaking15 min
Launches at Līgatne and Sigulda. The classic Latvian summer half-day.
History & heritage
- Soviet Secret Bunker15 min
2,000 m² Soviet-era bunker, 9 m underground, built in the 1980s for the Communist elite. Declassified 2003. Original equipment intact, guided tours year-round.
- Līgatne paper mill7 min
Paper mill founded 1815, ran for 200 years. EU-recognised industrial heritage village around it — Latvia's oldest wooden row houses.
- Cēsis Castle30 min
Medieval castle in the old town. Saturday market is good.
- Sigulda Castle + Turaida Castle + Gūtmaņa Cave25 min
Two castles, the cave, a cable car across the valley.
Wine, events, things to taste
- Līgatne winery7 min
Family winery (since 2010). Latvian berry and fruit wines. They host candlelit tastings inside a sandstone cave — easy to recommend for a slow evening.
- Zeit creative quarter7 min
Concerts and culture events in a former helmet factory. Check what's on while you're here.
VI — Where to eat
One Michelin star, three good cafés, a winery, a grocery.
Pavāru Māja
Līgatne · 7 min · Michelin Green Star · book ahead
The only restaurant for which we'd skip a quiet evening at the cabin. Garden-to-table, tasting menu, the kind of meal you remember.
Restaurant 1815 + Vilhelmīnes Dzirnavas
Spriņģu iela 1, Līgatne · 7 min · paired venues
1815 — refined modern cuisine in the old paper mill complex. Vilhelmīnes Dzirnavas — family café next door, homemade Latvian. Same building, different rooms, different moods.
Cafe Pie Jančuka
Spriņģu iela 4, Līgatne · 7 min
Traditional Latvian — cutlets, pancakes, cold soup, hunter's sausages. Antique furnishings in the basement of the old cultural house. Reasonable prices, comforting food.
Zeit café
Līgatne · 7 min · cultural quarter
Café and event space in the former helmet factory. Good food, often paired with a concert or art event.
Lats grocery
Spriņģu iela 1, Līgatne · 7 min
Closest grocery for self-catering — bread, eggs, basics. Open daily, in the same Spriņģu cluster as the restaurants.
- 23
- Square metres
- 5
- Metre ceilings
- 65
- Km from Riga
- 2 + 1
- Guests · 2 adults + 1 child
- 1
- Cabin
Stay here.
Pricing, calendar, and the direct-booking sauna perk on the next page.
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