Devon self catering accommodation

We have recently been awarded Gold in the Devon Wildlife Trust’s approval scheme, recognising our commitment to sustainability and wildlife conservation.

Your accommodation: The lodges are extremely well-insulated, and all our electricity comes from 100% renewable sources. So your heating and power is entirely green. Firewood for Otter cottage’s wood-burning stove comes from a local managed resource.

In time, more will come from our own coppiced woodland.

We ask guests to join us in recycling paper, glass, cans and plastic, and to separate compostable waste (bins are provided). Wherever possible, we keep our office records electronically, or on re-used paper.

Fine spray shower heads conserve water, and we plan to install solar water heaters on the lodges, and hope to switch non-drinking water supplies to well and rainwater. We are on private drainage, so we take care what we put down the drains, minimizing harmful cleaning products, and using Ecover washing up liquid and laundry detergent.

We offer free station transfers to those arriving to our Devon self catering accommodation by train, loan guests free ‘farm bikes’ for local trips, and encourage walking and cycling holidays by offering advice on routes and working with a local company who leave hire bikes with us, or at start points of rides.

We promote local food producers and retailers (including a neighbouring farm shop with organic produce). You can ‘order ahead’ through our website. We are planning an extensive vegetable garden so we can offer guests seasonal vegetables to buy, while minimizing our own food miles. This garden will be organic. We’re encouraging wildflowers around the lodges, and providing bird feeders in front of their big picture windows. We like to put fresh flowers on the tables, but not ones with airmiles attached!

None of our Devon self catering accommodation has planning permission for permanent dwelling – it was purpose build for holidays. So by staying with us you are not taking homes away from local people. We’re now applying for planning permission to build a new very low carbon lodge, using straw bales. Watch this space! Our environmental policy is on our website and in our visitor information packs. We want people to see how great a sustainable holiday can be.

The farm: We took over the farm in October 2006, and use the revenue from the holiday cottages to manage the land for wildlife – so your stay makes a very real contribution to conservation in Devon.

Our 21-acre holding has small paddocks delineated by overgrown hedgerows, some on traditional Devon banks. We’re starting to manage them actively for birds and animals.

We have nest boxes for barn owls and dormice, as well as garden birds, and we’re growing plants around our four ponds to improve their value for wildlife. Our land has a covenant that specifically bans intensive agriculture.

We’re particularly privileged to own Popehouse Moor, 7 acres of Culm grassland designated as a 'Site of Special Scientific Interest' and managed under a contract with Natural England. It is grazed by cows in summer and early autumn, and sometimes burnt (or ‘swaled’) in winter. This helps maintain habitat for the rare Marsh Fritillary butterfly, now threatened throughout Europe. Several rare and locally important plants grow here, including Wavy St Johns-Wort.

We are cutting back encroaching brambles, opening up over-grown ponds and marshy areas, and regenerating old coppiced hazel stands. Our guests are welcome to explore, or just ask if you want a guide. We are developing better-marked paths and more interpretive information. We ask you not to take dogs into Popehouse Moor (we don’t take our own), and to leave flowers and dead wood for the bees and the minibeasts. Devon and Cornwall have lost a staggering 92% of their culm grassland since the 1900s, with 62% of sites and 48% of their total area disappearing between 1984 and 1991. We’ll be taking good care of this special place!