Shepherd’s hut are wonderful pieces of craftsmanship and simple engineering on a small scale. Although they may look fairly uniform from the outside, the dimensions of a shepherd’s hut can vary depending on what the intended use of the final hut will be.
The uses for a shepherd’s hut in today’s world are wide-ranging. The most popular use currently is as a rental holiday space on the UK glamping market, which is currently thriving.
Other popular uses are as a home office, a garden retreat or as a business setting, such as a mobile catering van, coffee hut, studio or consultancy room.
Although there are many possibilities nowadays with a shepherd’s hut for both business and lifestyle, the dimensions are usually within a certain limit for it to be considered a shepherd’s hut. If it’s got two stories and and glass lean-to, sorry it’s not a shepherd’s hut!
Let’s take a look at the shepherd’s hut height, length and dimensions in a little more detail.
Shepherd’s hut dimensions
The first rule is for constructing a shepherd’s hut is that it should always be built with the dimensions of a traditional hut – that is as a cuboid shape with a rectangular front, set on to a sturdy steel or oak base chassis and four cast iron wheels.
If it’s not rectangular, it’s not a proper shepherd’s hut!
With this in mind, there aren’t any specific ratios of height to length or width, this is largely down to the models and specs the hut manufacturers have established or to the customisation preferences of the customer. If you’re building your own shepherd’s hut then it will all depend on the size of the chassis and base you’re building on to.
So, just how big is a shepherd’s hut? You won’t get many huts that are smaller than 10ft in length, this tends to be the very minimum. For a big luxury hut, the length can go up to 30″ in extreme scenarios, but on average a shepherd’s hut tends to be between 12″ and 20″ in length. Read this other post to learn more about shepherd’s hut floor plans and sizes.
The weight of a shepherd’s hut largely depends on the length and width, and what sort of shepherd’s hut accessories and furnishing its fitted out with.
How tall is a shepherd’s hut?
A common question that many budding hut owners ask, and it’s an important one: How tall is a shepherd’s hut?
If you’re considering buying a shepherd’s hut then you’ll want to make sure it fits in with the surroundings on where you want to put it and fit under any nearby bridges or gates.
There are 3 main shepherd’s hut heights to consider:
- Overall external height
- Internal height to the eaves (lowest internal point)
- Internal height to the roof apex (height internal point)
The total height of a shepherd’s hut will be around 2.8m – 3.4 metres tall. This is a measurement from the ground to the peak of the hut and includes the wheels too.
The height from the bottom of the shepherd’s hut floor to the top of the roof apex will usually be around 2.0m – 2.7 metres. This measurement excludes the wheels and chassis and takes just the shepherd’s hut itself into account.
Inside, the height to the eaves (which is the the equivalent height of a wall panel) will be around 1.7m – 2.0 metres. The height to the eaves is the lowest height of the internal space. The internal height to the apex of the roof will be anywhere from 2.0m – 2.5m on average.
It’s important to note that each hut manufacturer will make their shepherd’s hut to different specifications, so the precise measurements of total height and internal height will vary slightly from maker to maker.
They will have all these measurements to hand when asked, plus may able to customise to a clients preference.
| Different heights on a shepherd’s hut | Metres (m) | Feet (ft) |
|---|---|---|
| Overall external height (including wheels and chassis) | 2.8 – 3.4 | 9’2″ – 11’2″ |
| Internal height to roof apex | 2.0 – 2.7 | 6’6″ – 8’10” |
| Internal height to eaves | 1.7 – 2.0 | 5’7″ – 6’6″ |
Wood burner flue outlet clearance
Also another very important point – none of these external heights take into account the log burner flue that may be sticking out from the roof if a wood burning stove has already been installed.
The flue outlet must terminate a certain clearance above the roof depending on the position and roof pitch.
This will add at least another 0.6m or 2ft in height to take into account when transporting or positioning.
So there you have it, the traditional shepherd’s hut dimensions all wrapped up.
There are a few ways to calculate the height of a shepherd’s hut, but if you’re mainly concerned with the external overall height then 3m, give or take half a metre, is a good rule of thumb.
If you’re interested in the size of a hut, you might want to check out these shepherd’s hut floor plans to give you a better understanding of the different lengths and widths available and what kind of features can be fitted into each different size.
