Our Green Story
For 30 years I ran a fashion business with values, putting people and planet above profit, leading the way in sustainable production and ethical business practices. But I wanted to do more to embrace a circular economy than was possible as a retailer. We were early advocates of the B Corporation movement, and the business was just the second Welsh company to achieve certification. We were doing our best, but it never felt like enough.
With Wonderful Escapes, we are attempting to pursue an ethos of respecting our planet by using the land to sequester carbon whilst enhancing its beauty and making it accessible to all. We are proving that it is possible to offer eclectically designed, 5-star rated accommodation whilst using up-cycled, restored, and re-cycled furnishings. With our Meals Without Miles food service, we feed our guests with seasonal fare with low food miles. We have invested in air and ground source heating and solar panels in most areas and use logs for our fires and firepits from fallen trees on the farm. You are welcome to pick your own fruit in season, and enjoy foraging from the abundant hedgerows and fields.
Our communal Wern-y-Wellness garden offer space for food production, pollinator beds, the natural swimming pool, grass amphitheatre and greenhouse/conservatory. You may enjoy time relaxing here on the sun-loungers or playing a game in the greenhouse as children play on the oak tree swings.
We are proud of the efforts we put into each property's garden. These are not the usual holiday let gardens - they are well stocked and abundant with flowers most of the year. We keep them looking gorgeous year round.
We have beehives in the field (you may buy the honey) and a wildlife pond where you should spot Great Crested and Common Newts in season. The bridge to the island makes a great adventure for children with parents or for a solitary pause.
Over the past few years, we planted 600 trees and created 10 acres of wildflower meadows. We farm and garden in an organic manner with a no dig, no plough, no fertiliser policy. You will find habitat piles, dead hedges, compost bins, owl, bat and swift boxes even the odd weed! All great to encourage bio-diversity, wildlife and sequester carbon.
The more flora species present in grassland, the more effective the carbon sequestration effect, so we work hard to preserve the biodiversity of the land in general and develop our wildflowers. We are doing our best to preserve and create more habitat for wildlife and are delighted to spot bats, swifts, owls, hedgehogs, foxes, badgers, weasels, deer, rabbits, hares, newts, buzzards, red kite and pine martens. Not to mention the numerous varieties of bumble bees and butterflies which love our pollinator friendly gardens.
For those interested in the wildflowers meadows, please check the house files for a survey which we have turned into a fun spotting game. Please feel free to pick the abundant species. You may download and print out a copy of our survey below.
In summary, our green story at Wonderful Escapes: Sustainability shapes everything we do from how we heat our spaces to how we grow our food. Our ethos is rooted in circular economy thinking, low-impact living, and a love of nature. We farm and garden 100% organically, no dig, no spray, no artificial fertilizers. Our energy comes mainly from ground and air source heat pumps and solar panels, with a little oil in colder months. Our quirky interiors are created using reclaimed and upcycled materials wherever possible.
Food here is seasonal, local, and often home-grown or foraged. We source from nearby farms and never fly in flowers, they’re picked from our gardens or hedgerows. We’ve planted hundreds of trees, nurture wildflower meadows, and share our land with bees, butterflies, owls, deer, and protected newts. Our natural swimming pool is cleaned by plants, not chemicals. Guests can reconnect with nature through foraging walks, mindfulness hikes, or relaxing in the gardens.
This isn’t greenwash it’s common sense because we love and appreciate this stunning world. We want our guests to be inspired and learn, but most of all, to have an amazing time in our mountainside little bit of heaven.