Battlesteads Hotel and Restaurant, Northumberland

On the southern edge of this historic North Tyne village, the family-run Battlesteads occupies a mid 18th century farmhouse which has been considerably extended and recently refurbished to a high standard.

The smart, spacious bar has a beamed ceiling and a comfortable lounge area is furnished with leather armchairs and has a cosy wood burning stove. There is an 80-seat restaurant, a large conservatory overlooking a secluded walled garden and a terrace with outdoor tables. Children and dogs are welcome in the bar.

Wark is close to the Pennine Way and the area offers a wide choice of riverside and country walks.

Battlesteads is an award winning green hotel with a state-of-the-art biomass boiler using sustainable fuel from local forestry, it also features its own extensive kitchen garden providing fresh salads, herbs and vegetables throughout the year.

How does Battlesteads minimise its impact on the environment and contribute to a sense of place?

Having been awarded Gold by the GTBS, Battlesteads is able to supply both heating and hot water through the use of an innovative woodchip-burning biomass boiler - this heats the entire hotel using sustainable fuels gathered from an area of forest only around one mile away, making the accommodation virtually carbon neutral. This system is backed up by the use of solar panels, with the surplus hot water being used to supply the underfloor heating in the kitchen garden's polytunnels. This allows fresh fruit and veg to be grown throughout the year. All lighting for the hotel comes from low energy bulbs.

There is regular recycling for paper, glass and aluminium, with a community bottle bank also on site. Toilet roll tubes are recycled and used to plant seedlings in the kitchen garden, while kitchen and garden waste is composted for re-use on the gardens. There is a 3,000 litre rainwater tank that provides water for the kitchen and gardens, housed within a barn made from recycled oak and which has a sedum 'living roof'. There are bird boxes, bat boxes and an owl box on site. The owners actively support red squirrels and maintain a Wildlife Diary so that guests can record their sightings, which have included Tawny Owls, Rose Deer and woodpeckers.

In terms of food supply, Battlesteads attempt to source the freshest local ingredients wherever possible. Many of their suppliers have been awarded for their commitment to quality and are all within a 30 mile radius of the accommodation. The menu is based on which herbs, game, meat, fruit and veg is seasonally available. Many herbs and salad veg are grown within the kitchen garden and polytunnels.