Nordisk's New Cotton Tents - Pretty...

Sioux 400 in heavy-duty [polycotton is teepee design and sleeps 8-10 people with a fire option...

Nando 250, no culinary relation, is a pure cotton canvas family design with built-in groundsheet and windows. Looks ace.

You can't argue with modern synthetic tent materials when it comes to saving weight and space, but there's still a faintly nostalgic whiff of retro-class about traditional canvas and cotton blend tentage, so we're quite taken with the expanded array of Cotton Range tents from Danish brand, Nordisk.

Some of our happiest recent camping moments were spent inside a heavy poly-cotton Tentipi affair and the Nordisk materials seem to be specced along similar lines but use either pure cotton canvas or a heavy duty 65/35 poly-cotton, for a combination of cooling breathability and a natural feel.

New Sioux 400

Canvas, as older OMers probably recall, works by swelling up when wet, so the fibres expand and give waterproof protection - it's just a shame denim doesn't do the same thing. Anyway, Nordisk has a smaller version of an existing tent called the Sioux 400.

As you might have guessed from the name, it's a teepee-tyle design, sleeps eight to ten people, has a single pole for rapid pitching and no groundsheet, though one is available as an optional extra. It weighs 14kg and is made from polycotton. We guess you won't be carrying it anywhere unless you have a handy yak in the party...

Looks ace though and if it works as well as the Tentipi versions, should make a brilliant summer group camping option - you can even light a fire inside.

New Nando 250

The other new tent is a a 100% cotton canvas family tent called the Nando 250 which sleeps three to five people in retro comfort. It uses a single central pole and a door pole and features a sewn-in groundsheet and four windows. With a weight of 11.9kilos, it's another car-only option, but looks absolutely brilliant.

More about Nordisk's range of tents, cotton and otherwise, at  www.nordisk.eu.