GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 8

Need to know The sleeper train from London
Euston goes to Inverness each night ( W www.
firstgroup.com/scotrail), from where staff can collect
you (by arrangement). For more information on
rates and activities see W www.alladale.com; T +44
(0) 863 755 338.

because he further
drops the price of any
he judges might not
be taken - he'd prefer
that properties are
rented just above cost
price than not used
at all. And with that
comes a bargain or
two: it's not unusual
for a property to go
for as little as £35 a
night. Consequently
occupancy for
properties with “Under
the Thatch” is at 95
percent (the average in
Wales is 35 percent).
Its success has
meant that Greg
has been able to buy up more derelict cottages
and bring them back into the community.
Greg has also diversified from offering only
thatched cottages: he now lets out a range of
unusual accommodation dotted around western
Wales, including a converted train carriage, a
Scandinavian-style log cabin and two gypsy
caravans. Most of his thirty properties are run
using environmentally friendly technologies,
including solar panels, reed-bed sewage systems,
wood-chip boilers and recycled furnishings. Greg
also provides guests with the opportunity to
pre-order a food hamper from a local producer
( W www.welcome-box.co.uk).
But most importantly, what the cottages all
have in common is that they bring back life to
local communities. Spend a weekend “Under the
Thatch” rather than in a holiday home, buy local
food and visit nearby pubs and restaurants, and
you'll be contributing to the local economy rather
than to its decline.

004 SpeNd a weekeNd “uNdeR
the thatCh” iN waleS

In its heyday in the nineteenth century, thatch
played an important role in protecting British
homes from the weather. But new technologies
since have led to a rapid decline in thatching,
and many of the genuine thatched cottages that
remain have been modified beyond all recognition
by developers or have run into disrepair, a
rather poignant reminder of a bygone age. An
enterprising Welsh company, however, is trying to
breathe new life into some of the last traditional
thatched cottages in western Wales by restoring
them and letting them out as holiday homes.
“Under the Thatch” is run by restorer Greg
Stevenson, who lives in his own thatched cottage
in Ceredigion. An architectural historian by
training, his renovations are authentic. He uses
lime instead of cement; paints that are natural
oil-based rather than synthetic; and local
thatched materials, such as wheatstraw (rather
than imported reed).
All the cottages are in stunning locations
around southwest Wales. One of Greg's most
famous commissions was from Griff Rhys
Jones to renovate his cottage Trehilyn Uchaf,
near the beautiful Strumble Head peninsula
in Pembrokeshire, which became the subject of
the TV series A Pembrokeshire Farm . (It's now
let through “Under the Thatch” whenever Rhys
Jones is not there.) Heated by a wood-pellet
central heating system (so no oil used), the
cottage is insulated with Welsh sheep's wool
rather than fibreglass.
Unlike most holiday homes, the cottages are let
all year round - chiefly because Greg prices them
lower than many holiday properties, but also

Old thatched cottage tea
rooms, Cenarth, Ceredigion

Need to know For full information on each of
the cottages, including local amenities, rates and
availability, see W www.underthethatch.co.uk;
T [phone].