Godremamog Water Mill

Unique watermill self catering holidays

with hot tub & pool in beautiful West Wales

Samantha & Chris Hogarth

Tel : 01239 698390

SA38 9NA

Email:  watermillretreat@aol.com

 Up Guests comments Sustainability History

Sustainable Tourism

These days, we are all concerned about our environment. Godremamog Mill has been awarded Green Dragon level 2 status.  This is a scheme to encourage businesses in Wales to be as sustainable as possible and has put us in touch with other people trying to do the same thing.

Here at the Mill, we are very lucky to have wonderful natural scenery all around us, and we are trying to reduce the impact that we have on this beautiful part of the world.    Our guests are invited to help us to do this in a variety of ways:

  • Our nearest shops are in Newcastle Emlyn, which is trying to be the first town in Wales to do without carrier bags, so we provide a bag to help when guests go shopping. Our kitchen bins use old plastic carrier bags and a supply is provided, which can also be used for shopping.

  • Guests are invited to think about using public transport.  There is a Bwcabws service, which allows you to book a bus to come to the mill and take you to Newcastle Emlyn, where there are bus routes into Carmarthen and Cardigan.  We provide timetables for the local bus services.  The trains from Carmarthen run along some beautiful routes, you can get 2 or 4 day Rover tickets and parking at the station is very reasonable. 

The coastal buses like the Poppit Rocket can really enhance your holiday.  They allow you to drive to the coastal path and take the bus along the route, so that you can walk in one direction rather than trying to find a circular route, or turning round to retrace your steps.  A hint - it is often better to catch the bus out and walk back (then there's no danger of missing the bus for your return).  

Visit Wales have put a leaflet together, suggesting car free days out in Pembrokeshire - try this link: www.visitwales.co.uk/upload/pdf/Car_Free_Days_out_in_Pembrokeshire.pdf  

  • Recycling: it is important that we recycle whenever we can, so we provide bins for guests to dispose of their recycling, glass, vegetable compost and food waste as well as general rubbish.  Vegetable compost is made here at the mill and the council make wonderful "Magic Merlin" compost with the food waste. 

  • We have rather unusual (but effective) self contained sewerage arrangements.  That way, we don’t add to the overheads of public sewerage disposal.  Guests help by being careful not to put nappies or sanitary products down the toilet.  There is a bin in the bathroom for those items. 

This sewerage system relies on friendly microbes working merrily away.  To keep them happy, we only use non-bio washing powder and supply non-bio powder for guests to use too.

We use dryer balls in the tumble dryers.  They help to reduce the drying time and give a better result by separating the clothes as they dry. 

  • There is no additional charge for electricity but guests are asked to think about the electricity that they use and are requested to turn lights and the TV off when they go out.  The hot water heater is on a timer, so guests do not have to remember to turn it off, but the timer can be overridden to give extra hot water if needed.

  • We have replaced all traditional light bulbs with low energy ones, throughout the mill - this is not just for ecological reasons, we got significant electricity savings as a result.  The stairs lights are always left on for safety reasons.  The outside lights come on at dusk.  Additional lights on the washhouse and cabin can be turned on if needed.

  • The apartments are heated from September until June.  To reduce the oil that we burn, we normally time the heating to come on at 06:00 until 10:00 and again at 16:30 – midnight, unless it is very cold or if guests ask for different timings.   A wood effect fire is provided in the lounge and a plinth heater in the kitchen to boost heat levels if needed.  A thermostat is provided in the lounge so that, if guests are warm enough, they can easily reduce the resources they use by turning down the thermostat a little. 

  • At certain times of the year, parts of the lawn are left uncut.  It’s not because we can’t be bothered to cut it, though it does save a bit of petrol.  It’s actually to encourage wild flowers that grow naturally in the grass.  To help them, we do not put any chemicals on the lawn.  The flowers encourage butterflies, insects and, therefore, birds.

  • We have planted a butterfly garden and other flowering plants to encourage bees and butterflies.  Honey is available at the mill which has been made by bees visiting these flowers.

  • We use fallen trees from our woodland to line paths and make benches and pergolas in the garden.

  • We are looking into generating our own electricity.  The water wheel is well over 100 year old and has to be greased very regularly so producing regular electricity from it is tricky, but we have some ideas for a new turbine/Photovoltaic cells.

  • We are slowly replacing cleaning materials with E-cover type products.  We’ll use up anything that we already have first, but always replace with E-cover or similar.

  • We ask guests if they have any other ideas and provide a sheet for suggestions to us.

 

 

Guests comments | Sustainability | History

This site was last updated Monday, 09 September 2013