The 45 acres of hillside which surround Fforest Farmhouse were historically used for sheep farming and then for game bird rearing. We decided to manage the land for wildlife and so over the past 6 years have planted several km of hedgerows and 12,000 trees.
We also planted a cider orchard a few years ago, and are looking forward to getting our first crop of apples and learning the skill of cider making. There may be an opportunity for guests to taste our experiments…
We keep honey bees too for pollination, and make our own honey. The bees forage no further than 2 miles away from the farm, so they only feed on the local trees, wildflowers and heather. The honey they produce has a gentle, sweet and lovely flavour. Raw honey – extracted from the comb, filtered then bottled. We only provide it for our guests.
The newly planted orchard 
Beekeeping fashion
All the energy that powers Fforest Farmhouse is generated on-site. We have a Hydro-generation scheme that takes water from the Nant Mair stream (collected just below the Holy Well next to Partricio church) and feeds it into our turbine. And we also have Photo Voltaic panels. So we generate our own power whether it is sunny or raining. The underfloor heating source is a wood pellet boiler – a renewable fuel source. And the farmhouse has extra thick insulation and modern high specification windows – making it always toasty warm and draught proof.
Follow the links to discover the plants, birds and animals that share this beautiful part of the world. (TBC)