While you’re enjoying your hotel stay in the Lake District or North Lancashire, have you ever thought of helping out with some tree planting?
Celebrate National Tree Week with English Lakes Hotels
National Tree Week, an initiative spearheaded by The Tree Council, is celebrated in the UK every year at the end of November.
It’s a key time for trees as this time of year marks the beginning of the planting season.
Supporting The Local Environment
At English Lakes Hotels Resorts & Venues, we’re always looking for new ways to do our bit for conservation, the environment and to reduce our carbon footprint.
Whether it’s using natural, renewable resources through our hydro-electric turbine at Low Wood Bay Resort & Spa, or making the most of the sun’s energy with solar panels at Lancaster House Hotel, we want to help make a difference.
Tree planting in the Lake District and North Lancashire represents one of our core environmental commitments – our aim is to help breathe new life into those areas which have much less tree cover than they have in the past.
Planting new trees to create more future woodland cover is vital in terms of mitigating the effects of climate change, maintaining habitats and protecting land from flooding, as well as helping to preserve the beautiful scenes of the rural countryside for everyone to enjoy for generations to come.
It’s why we recently donated £5,000 from the English Lakes Hotels Sustainability Fund to The Lune Rivers Trust to create new areas of woodland.
As part of an overall initiative to plant over 1,800 new trees, the funding will cover 0.33 hectares of the project along a section of Ellergill Beck, to the North of the Forest of Bowland.
Why Are Trees So Important In Your Hotel Stay?
Too often we take trees and woodlands for granted, despite the huge popularity in the tranquillity of rural, nature-based hotel stays.
It is often said that the UK has one of the highest concentrations of ancient trees in Europe.
Our guests always marvel at the peace and beauty of the 72 acres of ancient woodland we look after around The Wild Boar Inn. These so called ‘Cathedrals of the countryside’ have been around much longer than anything we have built and are a life-giving feature of the landscapes across the Lake District and North Lancashire.
According to The Woodland Trust, the UK’s native tree species and woodlands are not in great ecological shape and are showing declines in wildlife. But there is good news in that tree planting projects across the country are starting to bear fruit and to address these challenges.
Get Involved In Tree Planting During Your Lake District Hotel Break
At English Lakes Hotels, we’re determined to contribute to the national target quoted by the Committee on Climate Change for the UK to plant 1.5 billion trees – at least 30,000 hectares per year – and achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
You can get more involved and help make this happen with a simple decision. When you check out after your stay with us, you automatically make a £1 optional donation to our local tree planting and sustainability projects administered through Cumbria Community Foundation.
Since establishing our sustainability fund in the late 1990s, we have raised over £250,000 for local conservation projects.
In 2019, we partnered up with Cumbria Community Foundation to target more of our fund raising towards tree planting projects. Thus far we have committed over £30,000 for a range of initiatives.
Make A Difference For A Greener Planet
You can also get involved through The Tree Council itself, especially during the winter planting season. Why not plant a few trees or a hedge yourself in the garden, or get involved with a community project or tree planting event by connecting with your local Tree Warden Network.
And if you cannot do some hands-on planting yourself, you can make a donation to The Tree Council for them to plant a tree or a line of hedgerow on your behalf. In this way we can all make a contribution towards a more sustainable future.
International Children’s Book Day is celebrated each year on or around 2nd April, Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday. In this, the fiftieth year, it continues to be a clarion call to children the world over to put down other distractions, pick up a book and enter the world of imagination and learning.
We’ve chosen a bit of an oldie, but one that continues the theme of getting the children out in the beautiful Lake District countryside.
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Emma Underwood, Operations Manager at Lancaster House is responsible for ensuring that we maintain the highest possible standards in Green Tourism. She leads a team of Green Champions who are always on the look-out for creative ways to conserve, re-cycle and reduce our carbon footprint. To celebrate National Coffee Day they’ve come up with ten tips for using your coffee grounds. (more…)
We are delighted to introduce you to Dr and Mrs Eagle, regular guests to Waterhead. They share with us their top 5 car-free days out from the hotels in Ambleside, which adds to a relaxing stay in the Lake District.
Waterhead Hotel
Having tried lots of places over the years Waterhead remains our favourite. It’s a luxurious break without the guess work of whether the bed will be comfy or the quality of food and wine or if the staff are friendly. I’m quite fussy and like a quiet room, thick curtains and a powerful shower. Add to this a stunning view, fluffy towels and bathrobes, a library of DVDs, gingerbread and freshly roasted coffee! All of this adds up to a really relaxing break and that is why we keep coming back.
We love just parking the car when we arrive and then ignoring it for the duration of our stay. Here are out top five picks for car-free outings from Waterhead:
My very first attempt at watercolours under the guidance of Dawn.
It was with a sense of excitement and, I confess, trepidation that I arrived at Waterhead for a weekend of Lake District Watercolour Painting. Signing up for something like this can feel a little like putting your creative neck on the line!
Testing the water over dinner on the Friday evening, I tentatively threw out a line about having not ever really done anything like this before. I was pleasantly surprised, and not a little relieved, to discover that we were all novices, and all nervous about our impending foray into the world of paint, colour, tone, perspectives and vanishing points. Having established our common fragility, we relaxed and enjoyed a sumptuous three-course meal whilst Dawn Pretty, our artist in residence, outlined what the weekend might hold, promising us that we would all have a work of art to hang on our wall by the end of the weekend. (more…)
The reviews on early showings of the eagerly anticipated Swallows & Amazons re-make are starting to trickle out. It has got to be said that not all are convinced that the vision of ‘capturing the imagination of the Harry Potter generation’ will be realised with this spiced up, ‘white-knuckle-ride adventure’ version of the treasured Arthur Ransome novel. (more…)
May is National Walking Month, so time to get the walking boots out and take to the hills to blow away any cobwebs clinging from a winter of hibernation. Waterhead is the perfect location for reaching some great routes and spectacular scenery. We’ve chosen five our of favourites to help you plan your ascent. (All of these can be found on OS Map: O/S 1.25,000 OL7 The English Lakes South East) (more…)
On 5th February 2016 we are delighted to be welcoming to Low Wood Bay, Lewis Gordon Pugh, environmental adventurer, and guest speaker at the World Open Water Swimming Awards hosted by ChillSwim. (more…)
Looking for something different to give this Christmas? We know how difficult it can be to give a really special gift, especially ones that Don’t Cost the Earth. Here’s some inspiration…
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There’s plenty of literature around these days that can make motorists feel that they are gas guzzling galumphs bent on desecrating the landscape. Especially in places of outstanding beauty like the Lake District. It’s refreshing, therefore, to find a publication that is dedicated simply to the wonder of what can be discovered when using bus, bicycle, boat and boots – without lashings of guilt trip on the side. (more…)
