Coed y Berclas energy project update

It’s now been a year since we got up and running with our solar panels and heat pumps, which have proved to be a great success. We are very happy to report that over the year, solar production and consumption are within 1% of each other. The consumption includes all the heating, hot water and cooking in Seascape, the Guest Room and our house, plus electricity use in the cottage, along with charging our all-electric Mini and a good selection of guests’ cars. We have a battery which we charge by solar during the day and generally gets us through the evening and most of the night, and over the summer we export the excess generation, and import over the winter.

Our electricity carbon footprint (and bills) have reduced to be almost energy neutral, we are very proud of this achievement. This positions us well ahead of other luxury holiday accommodation in terms of sustainability.

Coed y Berclas Green Energy project

We’ve had a busy year substantially improving and committing to our green credentials. We are really happy to have installed north Wales’s largest domestic PV solar array, 45 panels! We have replaced the gas boiler in the main house with super-efficient air source heat pumps, and we have a battery to help us tick over through the night. Our ambition is to be energy neutral (or even better; a net generator) across the year, exporting excess electricity in the summer and importing any deficit in the winter. If any guests would like further information then please talk to us – we’ll be happy to ramble on for hours ! This also includes running our all-electric car; it’s a great feeling beetling around the island knowing it is literally running on sunshine.

Happy Autumn 2023

We’ve had a great summer but September always has a special charm; the busyness on the island shifts down a gear. We made the most of the amazing weather and last week, over 6 days, cycled the Lon Las Cymru, a wonderful and beautiful national cycle route from Cardiff back to Berclas. Around 230 miles – and nearly 15,000 feet of ascent ! Not for the faint hearted – but far less so on the electric bikes.

As ever, we’ve had a brilliantly busy year with so many regular returners who come for their annual Berclas fix. It’s always lovely to see familiar faces.

In another project, the lovely cottage orchard now has a private, elevated drinks terrace, with sofa and chairs, to take in the view. Over the water to the mountains. We felt it needed ‘relaxing spot’ for an evening g&t, and a sheltered, sun trap gap between the apple trees was the perfect location.

This is the time of year that we sort out our pricing for the following one. We know it’s a tricky time for everyone so have been very modest in our increases. As always we just take no-deposit reservations this side of the new year so you can pencil a date in with no commitment for now. Many of the early summer weeks are already reserved by returners so do get in touch if you need a berclas fix to look forward to!

Happy Autumn 2022

Happy autumn to you all. It’s been a while so there’s lots to catch up on!

In 2021 we were delighted to win a Lux Magazine award for best luxury self catering on Anglesey. We were not expecting to exceed that but this year we have won a UK Enterprise award for Best Luxury accommodation in Wales, and an additional award for Hospitality Excellence 🙂 We always strive to give our guests a fantastic experience, and it’s extremely gratifying to receive positive reviews, but to be recognised by our peers within a competitive industry is very special and not a little humbling. The awards set a high bar but we really hope that our guests would agree that we offer something truly exceptional here (the view helps!). We have an extremely high rate of returners which we feel is testament to this.

On a similar note Jane was invited by the Secretary of State for Wales to a reception at Whitehall to celebrate the success of Welsh female entrepreneurs. It was a brilliant event and an opportunity to share our story and meet some very inspiring women.

We’ve had a great year with the holiday lets, with many familiar faces and new guests, thank you to you all. In May we very sadly lost our much loved spaniel, Ollie, aged almost 15. He was such a wonderful character and a real trooper, having lost a leg to cancer three years earlier, but was always cheerful and full of beans in the face of adversity. His loss left us with a doggie shaped hole in our hearts, so in September we welcomed little Otto to Berclas. He’s Ollie’s great great nephew, and has been (self) appointed as Head of Enthusiastic Welcomes; he is very much looking forward to meeting you all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, please look out for us on Tuesday 8th November on ‘Escape to the Country’ on BBC1. We do a 2 minute segment about our move to Anglesey and our lives here. It will be a great way to showcase our stunning views to the nation!

Happy New Year 2022

A new dawn for a new year. Wishing all our guests a happy and healthy 2022.

The two photos below were taken just before sunrise on the 6th January by each of us, 5 minutes apart. We couldn’t decide which we preferred !