About The Cottage

A Private Getaway To Refresh The Soul

Home. What does it mean? How do we find it? Can we ever return to it? At The Cobden Cottage, we believe we can.

Nestled among the rolling Shawnee Hills, adjacent to the Southeast Ozarks, The Cobden Cottage offers a retreat from the frantic frenzy of city life. It’s the perfect destination for your rural retreat. The Cobden Cottage is near the famous Shawnee Hills Wine Trail. Nearby attractions include The Shawnee National Forest with its maze of hiking trails, Giant City State Park, Panther Den, Pomona Natural Bridge, Little Grassy Lake, Crab Orchard Wildlife Refuge, Bald Knob Cross of Peace, Historic Anna, and The Lincoln Memorial.

Enveloped in privacy by inviting woods, this cozy cottage is the perfect combination of rustic country life with modern convenience. Just a few twisting, winding miles outside of the idyllic, picturesque town of Cobden, Illinois, pop. 1200, named for Sir Richard Cobden of the Illinois Central Railway Company, the cottage is the perfect balance between modern accessibility and solitary retreat.

Rife with nostalgia, The Cobden Cottage is styled in the mid-twentieth century. Listen to vintage vinyl records on the state-of-the-art refurbished 1958 Magnavox by Sanders Amps. Talk on the genuine rotary desk phone in the office. Invite the kids to read books from your childhood, such as Charlotte’s Web, and The Happy Hollisters. Feel like you have stepped back to a simpler and more wholesome time.

But The Cobden Cottage is more than just a Wine Trail Air BnB, it represents an attempt at a more sustainable eco-friendly, community based living as a way of life. We hope to expand services next year to include classes, workshops, and retreats that focus on the integration of nature, health & wellbeing, and optimal living in harmony with nature.

The cottage features a hydroponic organic garden system as an ongoing experiment in biodiversity and learning opportunity for anyone interested in homesteading and relying less on corporate farming and the toxic impact this harmful industry had on the environment. In our concept of The Cobden Cottage, we’ve drawn inspiration from The Biggest Little Farm and Kiss The Ground.

The cottage kitchen is stocked with real free-range eggs from a local farm. Enjoy wines from local wineries, as well as baked goods and berry jams from Color & Spices. Guests are encouraged to visit the back yard garden to pick lettuce, spinach, turnips, radishes, peppers, pole beans, and tomatoes, as well as delectable shiitake mushrooms from Farmer Stu for salad!

In the Spring of 2022, The Cobden Cottage will be offering internships for people who want to learn everything from organic gardening, composting, naturalism, and ornithology, to carpentry; and how to integrate a closer relationship with nature into our day-to-day lives.

Local businesses include the Center For Lost Arts Retreat Center, featuring yoga, meditation, and naturalist retreats, Pack Rat’s Paradise antique boutique at the Cobden Village Shops as well as the delicious culinary delights of the Iron Wisk, and authentic Latin-American cuisine of Taqueria Pequena.

Please join The Cobden Cottage family by emailing your contact info. You will receive info about rental availabilities, events, and videos on areas of interest for small homesteaders and the psychological and emotional healing aspects of deepening our relationship with nature.

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