A stay with Hideway Huts is a reassuringly ‘green’ holiday; both the huts and the Watch House are off-grid. We have made every effort to ensure that your stay really is as green – and as comfortable – as possible. First and foremost we would like to provide you with a luxurious, unique and special stay, but we believe that you can be truly comfortable and still enjoy a green stay away.
Our huts are insulated and the Watch House has really thick stone walls, so you should feel cosy, but for chillier weather the efficient log burners provide sustainable, excellent heat – and a romantic atmosphere to boot! There are instructions provided to enable you to get the most efficient, green and practical use out of your log burner – such as how to create a fire at night that will still be providing you with hot embers in the morning.
We don’t have high energy appliances such as dishwashers to worry about excess energy use, or electronics to leave on standby wasting energy – your lighting in the huts is provided by solar power so while we request that you don’t leave it on when you go out, it is very efficient to use and from a natural energy source too. In the Watch House light is provided by LED torches and candles – thoroughly romantic!
We don’t really have a water problem here because we have our own lovely chlorine-free supply from under Treworgey’s fields – no need to buy plastic bottled water. All you really need to do is to remember to turn taps off when you’ve used them.
Please recycle as much of your waste as possible. There are designated recycling bins at Treworgey for cardboard, paper, tins/cans, plastics and glass just at the other end of the riding arena. Please also feel free to compost your green waste – we have composters. And better still any tasty carrot or apple peelings or cores will find a very willing home in the belly of our pet pig Demelza or the goats Trouble and Strife. (Please don’t feed them anything other than a few bits of carrot or apple without checking with us first.)
At the Watch House we ask you to take all rubbish back up the cliff path – instructions for where to leave it can be found in the folder on arrival.
Please shop and eat locally, use our onsite meal service and produce stall (shepherd’s huts only) and eat locally grown and produced food. Sample some of our wonderful local produce such as great local food from ‘Simply Cornish’ in Looe, The best home made pasties at the Pasty Shop (blue and white stripy) in Fore Street Looe, Cornish Orchard’s wonderful apple juices and jams just up the road from Treworgey and our local farmers markets, butchers and small farm shops. Do remember our in house meal service and when you want to eat out try our wonderful local restaurants too. It is only a short car drive (or train ride) to Trawlers in Looe or The Plough in Duloe (walkable!). These both, as examples, use local produce wherever possible.
Why not spend days at the Watch House or here at Treworgey – less travel. Or walk ` around our beautiful farm and woods or on the cliff path from the Watch House – why not take a picnic? You can even leave the car at Treworgey and use the train at Sandplace – or the local bus service which can be met at the end of the lane. If you leave the car behind and walk, cycle or use our excellent local trains you will see a different aspect of the beautiful Cornish countryside. You could visit lots of the wonderful attractions here on our doorstep and avoiding too many long car trips to more distant attractions.
Following these suggestions, and simply staying at your shepherd’s hut or cottage saves a significant amount of energy compared with a more traditional type of holiday.
If you have experience in green technology and can advise us on how to improve, do please come and talk to us. If you can’t advise us, please help us by supporting our green aims and following as many of the pointers above as you can. We are very willing to help anyone in any way who would like to know more about our experiences of trying to be more environmentally friendly – good and bad! Plus our experiences at Treworgey beyond the shepherd’s hut with ground source heat pumps, wind, biomass and solar. If you are thinking of installing any of these, do come and talk to us and come and have a closer look.
We would really appreciate guests feed back. If you have ideas on how we could be greener – or ways in which we can improve your holiday experience in general, do please tell us.
Thank you and Happy Holidays
Holly & Andy