Penstacan is nestled at the foot of the Cambrian Mountains and we enjoy superb views over the wild western end of the Brecon Beacons National Park and over Mynydd Mallaen, the most southerly peak of the Cambrian Mountains.

As well as aiming to create the best holiday cottages in Wales for our guests to enjoy, we are lucky to have a rich variety of habitats including meadows, acid grassland, Welsh Ffridd, Ancient woodland, coppice and wetland across the farm.

We love an experiment - anything from hot compost and bokashi to grazing rotations. We are experimenting with regenerative farming methods and use biodynamics and permaculture to guide our growing, soil health and land management.

We are mad keen on meadows and have seen a huge increase and spread in species of flowers and grasses by altering timings when areas are grazed and also left to grow. In 2020 we were blown away to discover over 150 spotted heath orchids in one of the meadows which have been steadily doubling year on year. We also now have Southern Marsh Orchid and lots of hybrids (orchids are notorious for hybridising and being incredibly difficult to identify when they do!)

We are thrilled to be one of just eleven landowners, taking part in a Welsh Government pilot project on managing hay meadows, run by the South and West Wales Wildlife Trust on behalf of WG. There are just 3% left of these important man made habitats left in the UK and they are listed as a priority habitat in the UK's Biodiversity Action Plan (MG5 Grassland).  The pilot project will inform Wales' Sustainable Farming Scheme and will see farmers rewarded for protecting and enhancing these rare habitats. Each year we survey the fields with grassland ecologists to record the species in the meadows.

As part of our meadows management we trial different grazing rotations with our horses, belted galloway and highland x beef shorthorn cattle to encourage deeper rooting in our species-rich meadows and increase top soil/humus and organic matter in the soil (carbon) and improve soil structure to increase resilience to drought and deluge.

Native Welsh hill ponies over winter here and are key for conservation grazing and help us with habitat restoration, including the upland meadows and Welsh Fridd  on top of our hill. We also have beef cattle , which we run on the farm using no fence virtual technology to help us be really precise about where, when and how often we graze.

There are 100s of waxcaps in our fields. These are indicators of unimproved pasture and are increasingly seen as indicator species for grassland. We have recently started trapping moths and monitoring butterflies which give us a great overview of what is living in our habitats. We've been delighted to find Poplar Hawk Moths (we've planted a lot of poplars!) and small pearl bordered fritillaries, Silverwashed and Dark Green Fritillaries.

We are very happy to show our guests the meadows.

We plant at least one tree for every stay. Over the last three years, we have planted 4000 trees in shelter belts and forested riparian strips, making sure we plant the right tree in the right place.