Trelowarren Eco Cottages Review

Typical price:

£750

We like:

The luxurious cottages; the green heating; the biomass-heated swimming pool; the idyllic setting; the local sourcing

We don't like:

The halogen bulbs; that there is not much for kids to do; that it is hard to travel to without a car; timeshare -- it's not for everyone

SmartPlanet judgement:

If you want genuine eco credibility without sacrificing style, Trelowarren's cottages make for a fantastic holiday. The green vision is brilliantly thought through, from the super-insulated homes and biomass heating to the locally sourcing restaurant and organic walled garden. It may be tricky to travel to, but it's worth the effort.

Score:

Contact:

Nice Car Company at http://www.trelowarren.co.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)1326 222 105

Cornwall holidays, we've belatedly discovered, are not just about tea rooms, surfing and the Eden Project. Tucked away on the county's wildlife-packed Lizard Peninsula is Trelowarren, a 600-year-old estate blazing a green trail with its self-catering and timeshare cottages.

Yep, timeshare -- the most taboo of holiday concepts thanks to Costa Del Rip-offs. Yet according to Trelowarren's charismatic, superficially hippyish but incredibly driven owner, Sir Ferrers Vyvyan, it's the green way forward. As he points out, his cottages have higher occupancy rates than second homes in the area -- good news for local businesses such as organic ice cream maker Roskilly's.

We stayed at Tregenna, one of the estate's 15 properties, which are all available as self-catering and all but one on timeshare. Surrounded by woodland, the cottage makes for an ideal base into the 1,000 acres of ash trees and tropical plants, while a restaurant, craft centre and organic walled garden sit just five minutes' walk away. The décor is contemporary, neutral and smart -- inoffensive rather than cutting edge, and we liked it.

What you don't see inside the cottages -- but do feel -- is how well insulated they are. During our visit, we poked around the half-built skeleton of a new cottage, and got a close-up of the twin-framed Scandie-style construction. Insulation includes recycled newspaper (300mm deep in the walls), which has the benefit of being a low-carbon material as well as keeping things cosy. This concept of using materials with small amounts of 'embodied energy' (the CO2 pumped out to produce them) is carried through to other materials, including the green oak that makes up much of the wood.

But the real green jewel in Trelowarren’s crown is the biomass boiler for heating. Bio-what? you may ask. Well, it's essentially a shed with a very hot oven and a big pit of wood-chips that, when burned, feed heat down pipes to the individual cottages. This sort of heating is eco-friendly because it's theoretically carbon neutral -- the carbon dioxide released by burning the wood-chip is cancelled out by the carbon that the wood sucked up when it was a tree. Trelowarren is using waste wood from a Truro mill down the road, and may even switch to trees on its own estate.

Thanks to this heating system, visitors not only get a warm cottage but also -- our favourite bit -- an outdoor heated swimming pool. The pool is a real treat, big enough for a proper swim and set in beautiful natural surroundings that rivals top lidos such as Tooting's.

Eco thinking continues throughout the estate, and in the smallest of places. There are energy-saving bulbs in many of the cottages -- though a few energy-guzzling halogens too, tut-tut -- Energy Saving A-rated appliances and a pledge to buy only A+ and A++ new white goods, ecological Ecover cleaning products in the kitchens, plus Fairtrade tea, coffee and sugar. The emphasis on local sourcing extends right down to the Cornish bed linen.

Although we visited the estate during the summer of torrential rain -- it tipped down for our stay -- Trelowarren makes for a great holiday experience. If you like walking, eating, dozing and generally chilling out, it's perfect. It's a great base for hikes, plus you can hire cycles for expeditions to some decent restaurants nearby (we ate at the excellent organic and local-loving Greenhouse). The estate's own restaurant, New Yard, also has a green philosophy, with head chef Greg Laskey aiming to source food from a ten-mile radius, or within Cornwall at most. We enjoyed a deliciously creamy wild garlic soup, made with garlic picked from the roadside.

In short, we're smitten with Trelowarren -- it's green, beautiful, fun and posh without being sniffy. If we were trying to pick holes, we'd note that it's tricky to get to without a car, but even if you do drive, you can rest assured you'll be creating a much smaller carbon footprint than you would by taking the same holiday halfway round the world.

[box]Essentials: Prices start from £750 a week for an eight to ten person cottage in early November. Prices vary by cottage and self-catering or timeshare options. Mawgan, Helston, Cornwall, TR12 6AF, England.
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