All About Ashwhin

Your Personal Retreat

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Gull watching - Dana on Lochend Beach

All About Ashwhin

Green Policy

The positive actions listed below simply reflect what we believe. Our aim to give more than we take, and to nurture the property in our care, so that it is improved and maintained in an holistic and responsible manner. We also intend to do all this in celebration and enjoyment of abundance, not suffering and self denial.

We deeply care about this lovely planet...
The way we live reflects our love of life and deep respect for this wonderful earth.
Like the native American Peoples and all folk who care for this earth, we do our best to tread lightly upon it.

Recycling is simple

Whilst Orkney, and especially Shapinsay is struggling to implement some of the new green legislation, as a whole the county is offering a good service of recycling, and I am assured that this will continue to improve. Locally we are able to recycle:-
Paper and cardboard

Glass

The local dump in Kirkwall also has facilities for collection for recycling of a wide variety of household items.

We provide a compost bin in the retreat, and recycling boxes in the nissen hut for guests to use.

Reuse, repairing and creative adaption

We are deeply committed to re-using everything possible. Many of the building and maintenance projects at Dunstaffnage Mains are made from reused materials, and we seldom invest in new items of furniture (with the exception of computers and mattresses).

All things Eco

We are committed to the use of green decorating, cleaning and building products. However, we have no intention of throwing away half used products nor re-decorating before it is necessary to do so, as this seems absurdly wasteful, and not in any way green. Also, many green cleaning products are extremely un-ECOnomical, and so I choose to use the best of old world and new age cleaning - like vinegar, essential oils, soda crystals, etc.

Green growing things

We take great pride in our gardening efforts, and have plans for massive tree planting efforts, poly tunnel, herb garden and much more. We have begun with about 50 trees grown from seed in Argyll, and creating a large composting area.

We use chemicals as little as possible, but we have on occasion used biodegradable and pet friendly weed killers. However this need may be a thing of the past, now that the garden is largely tamed. I use plastic sheeting to smother extreme weed growth now.

Respect for all life

We leave roughly a quarter of our grass area as wild meadow, to encourage wild flowers and wildlife to flourish. We have also planted seeds for bio-diversity appropriate to this region. Even wilder areas are maintained around the perimeter of the garden, and we feed birds throughout the year.

A dear friend, who is member of the RSPB, was delighted to find a vast number of birds to watch in the garden, and in the wetland area between the garden and marina.

Ecology for Humans

We have a strict no smoking policy.
We also offer a superb range of holistic therapies and workshops for mental, physical, emotional and spiritual growth and health.