Fermanagh Lakeland accommodation, N Ireland

We realise that single-handedly none of us can change the world, but we try to do our bit. We are part of a vibrant and close local community, which works together to promote our area which in the past relied heavily on agriculture, and now needs to explore other means of keeping itself alive. Tourism is a way to do this whilst conserving our beautiful countryside, lakes and mountains, and sharing what we experience every day with other people.

We tend to do most of the work in our businesses ourselves, but when we do require help, we recruit locally, usually from the nearby villages of Bellanaleck and Florencecourt, for cleaning staff and grooms. We have had some building and renovation work done recently, and a considerable amount of rewiring, and have used a local electrician, who is a near neighbour, plumber and builder, both from nearby Enniskillen, for all of these. We have used all three of these people several times, and enjoy good relations with them.

We do most of our shopping in Bellanaleck, which has a large village shop and post office, is not expensive, and has an extensive range of goods available. Farm supplies and feedstuffs are also bought locally, and our vehicles (including horsebox and tractor) are serviced and maintained by local mechanics, and not by franchised garages. We are involved with the Killesher initiative, which is a community based initiative which received Peace funding to enable us as a community to advertise ourselves and encourage visitors to the area. As part of this initiative we support each other in our businesses and pass potential customers to each other, and promote each other on our websites – for example, on our cottage website we recommend the village shop, local pub, fish and chip shop to name a few.

We encourage our guests to be conscious of the environment, our local culture and wildlife, and to enjoy the area responsibly. People have been walking this land for thousands of years, and all have left their mark on it, but we should not be the ones to spoil it for future generations. Northern Ireland Electricity receives much of it’s power from wind turbines (many of which are situated on the mountains around Fermanagh). We do not have a choice of power providers in NI, so cannot use a greener supplier. However, we are currently considering our own wind turbine to provide for the power needs of our house, farm and cottage. We are also planning to sink a new well, and we operate a grey water re-use system for the garden, and recover rainwater for use on the farm.

We minimise energy use by using low energy lightbulbs where possible, and low energy appliances. We do not leave appliances on stand-by. We encourage our guests to save energy by turning off unnecessary lights, turning down the heating, and using less water. The cottage has showers and low-flush toilets. Bed linen is changed at the end of each booking. We use eco cleaning and washing products in the cottage. Because we are regulated by the NITB there are some things we have to provide for our guests, eg a tumble dryer, and drying rails for fishermen, but we encourage guests to use an economy cycle on the washing machine and to dry their clothes on the washing line or the indoor airers provided, and have installed a timer on the drying rails. We encourage our guests to recycle, and make this as simple as possible for them by providing several bins within the cottage for separation of recyclables, and removing them regularly. We also encourage guests to compost appropriate waste. Most recyclables are collected by the local authority on a fortnightly basis. Glass and larger household waste items, including clothes and textiles, can be taken to our excellent local recycling facility, which is approximately 3 miles away. We also recycle bale wrap from the silage and haylage which we make on farm to feed to the cattle and horses.

We have a vegetable and flower garden which is cultivated without the use of artificial pest control and fertiliser. A herb bed is provided for the use of our guests, and home-grown vegetables are available in season. Because we keep horses we are able to use well-rotted horse manure as a fertiliser on the garden, and we use only horse and cattle manure to fertilise our 60 acres of grassland. We leave some of the grassland “wild”, particularly in the spring and early summer, to encourage wildflowers and wildlife. We are lucky to have bats in both the barns and the roofspace of our farmhouse. We have a huge number of birds which visit our farm, including a variety of tits and mistle thrushes, and a pair of buzzards can be seen regularly flying above our hill.

We have an area of 10 acres on the farm which was cultivated peat bog, and is now overgrown with small trees and some larger woodland. It is our long-term intention to improve the woodland and leave this area as a nature reserve, whilst making it more accessible for our guests to visit by reinstating the ancient “bog pass”, an elevated path which was originally used by the peat-cutters to access the bog with their donkeys and flat carts. There are some grants available to help with this type of conservation work, which we are hoping to take advantage of. An elderly gentleman living locally in a small stone cottage, with no heating other than a peat stove, has “squatter’s rights” to cut peat on our land until he dies, and can often be seen through spring and summer, working on the bog in the traditional manner.

We have an on-site forge where the blacksmith makes horseshoes and smaller items of metalwork, such as pokers, brackets for signs, hanging baskets and so forth. Both of us work largely from home, running the self-catering business, the farm and the equestrian (livery and tuition) business. We choose not to have a paper brochure for our businesses, but have dedicated websites instead, and advertise through website-based tourism companies. We do much of our business online, and receipts for deposits are sent by phone, text or email, and not through the post.

Northern Ireland is an area of the UK which is still full of close-knit communities and extended families. Many people live and work within the community and there are more small businesses in the province than in other areas of the UK. These small businesses are often inter-dependant, and we all support each other. We are particularly involved in the local Cross-Community Playgroup, and the adjacent primary school, and support all their fundraising activities. Our guests often show their support when they meet our children and hear about particular appeals. We also support the Ulster Wildlife Trust. We advertise local services on our website and have relevant advertising material in the cottage, and always recommend local shops and restaurants to our guests when asked. We provide a “welcome pack” service for our guests, and the components of this are purchased from our local shop and farmers.