As hopefully you’ll all know we LOVE the environment here at Colstoun, in fact we are always looking for ways in which we can help in our own little way all the time. A number of years ago we installed a Biomass District Heating System which uses wood from Colstoun to heat the main house, cottages and coach house.
In 2016 we bought our RIDAN composter which gobbles up every single bit of food waste no matter how big or small and heats it up to 80 degrees for a week, and although it is a bit smelly it means we have a constant supply of fresh compost to help our fruit trees and garden flourish.
In 2017 we just about finished replacing all the lightbulbs in the house and cottages with LEDs reducing our electricity demand due to lighting literally to below 10% of what it was before.
In 2018 I think Colstoun’s biggest contribution to the world of environmental friendliness comes from the addition of a 40-acre Scottish Wild Flower Meadow. A big part of what we do at Colstoun is focussing on habitat for bees and wildlife.
At Colstoun we have now got over 25 bee hives and we are hoping to grow those numbers in the coming years. As of this year our beehives are now surrounded by a field seeded with Scottish Wild Flowers. The population of bees has dropped by over 1/3rd in just 3 years which is absolutely petrifying, a huge amount of this is to do with agriculture and herbicides and pesticides. If you are interested in taking part in one of our Bee Keeping courses you can visit our cookery school webpage here.
But the new wild meadow won’t just help our bees, we will also see the benefits with increased number of other insects as well as hopefully the return of some more Wild Grey Legged Partridges to Colstoun who’s numbers have dropped across Britain by over 95% in the last 30 years as a result of habitat destruction.
There are a number of additional smaller sections of agricultural fields that are being turned in to wild flower mixes and set-asides all in the hope of increasing insect and wild bird habitats over the coming months which we are all very excited about.
More information and photos to do with the results of the wild meadow will be posted over the coming months.
Thanks for reading,
The Colstoun Team
