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 are able to feed our guests with seasonal fare with low food miles. We have invested in air and ground source heating in most areas and use logs for our fires and firepits harvested 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 swings under the huge oak tree.
We have beehives in the field and a large pond where you may spot Great Crested and Common Newts amongst the other wildlife. A new bridge to the island makes for a great adventure for older children when accompanied by their parents.
Over the past few years, we have planted hundreds of trees and were about to continue when I learnt about the benefits of Wildflower Meadows. The carbon sequestration subject is complex with many different views. I spent a great deal of time researching the matter when investing heavily in ‘offset’ for my retail business – our aim was to be carbon neutral at operational level. The consensus seems to be that digging up species-rich meadows to plant trees can be counter-productive (as opposed to planting trees on deforested hillsides as we were), it releases more carbon than it sequesters in the critical time period ahead.
The more flora species present in grassland, the more effective the sequestration effect, so we work hard to preserve the biodiversity of the land in general and developing our wildflower meadows. 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 but refrain from taking the rare ones for obvious reasons. 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 pool is cleaned by plants, not chemicals. Guests can reconnect with nature through foraging walks, mindfulness hikes, or simply 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.