Can a Hermann's tortoise hibernate outside in the uk?

[camerart]

Hi,
I live in the UK, and acquired a Hermann's tortoise this year. It looks like she's almost ready to hibernate.
In the hot summer, she slept in a little 'house' in my poly tunnel, or in an outside house on a mound in my garden.
Later in the year, when the sun got lower, she went up a stone built air-raid shelter, covered with a foot of soil, perhaps to lengthen the daylight? I built her a roof top house, where she slept most times.
She stopped eating 3 or 4 weeks ago.
I've been advised to bring her in and put her under a lamp, with a timer, but I've also heard of then hibernating outside.
On the shelter, the soil surface temperature last week was over 40Deg when the sun was on it. The soil temperature inside the mound house is about ambient, 13Deg at the moment.
What's the best advice for this situation, please? I don't have a lamp or an area to make an inside shelter, unless pushed!
Cheers, Camerart.

 

[T Smart]

Hibernating a tortoise indoors is a much safer alternative. You eliminate the risk of flooding, cold snaps, pests, etc. It's a very simple process, and there are many threads here on the forum to help.

 

[camerart]

Hibernating a tortoise indoors is a much safer alternative. You eliminate the risk of flooding, cold snaps, pests, etc. It's a very simple process, and there are many threads here on the forum to help.

Hi S,
I understand that this is the best alternative, for those reasons, however, I don't have anywhere indoors that will keep her cool. I have a centrally heated house.

The garden house I mentioned in post#1 was built so that I could add a protection heater, to avoid going below, what I understand to be the recommended 5Deg. At the moment the only way a pest, such as a mouse could get in, is the front entrance, which I planned to add a ventilated front once she was asleep.

Does this sway your reply?
C.