GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 34

plateau at the northern limit of the Pennine
Mountains with heather moorland and blanket
peat, hay meadows, rivers and waterfalls.
Following a terminal decline in traditional lead-
mining, tourism is one of the few industries left
that is helping to stem the loss of rural services.
One of the greenest places to stay in the North
Pennines is Langdon Beck Youth Hostel in the
heart of Teesdale. A wind turbine and photovoltaic
panels generate more than sixty percent of the
31-bed hostel's power, while solar panels heat
the water. Sheep's wool and recycled newspapers
provide the insulation and rainwater is collected
from the roof. The hostel also serves dinner and
stocks a range of local ales and organic wines.
Langdon Beck is also near to the “High Force”
- England's highest waterfall, with a 21m drop.

and Fairtrade food in the bistro. As for the rest,
the huge amounts of energy required to power
a spa and the colossal amounts of water waste
they generate mean their businesses are about
as “holistic” as a hole in the wall.
Titanic Spa, however, genuinely addresses the
environmental
challenges that
are fundamental
to running such a
resource-intensive
business. It's based
in a converted
textile mill (built
in 1912, the same
year as the Titanic
ocean liner was
commissioned)
in the village of
Linthwaite, close
to Huddersfield
at the edge of
the Pennines. It
comprehensively
insulates its rooms,
supplies its own
electricity using
solar panelling and
heats its water via
a biomass-generator
that uses woodchips
from sustainable forests. Water is provided from
its own borehole - the original water source
for the mill, proudly on display in front of the
building - which provides drinking water and
supplies the chlorine-free pool and showers.
But all this doesn't come at the expense of
unconditional pampering. You can “Relax, Detox,
Flow and Tonic” your whole body or just your
little toe. Titanic, at least, is one of the few spas
doing its bit to help leave your conscience as
clean as your skin.

Need to know Cycling, birding and walking
guides for the North Pennines can be downloaded
from W www.northpennines.org.uk, which also
covers accommodation options. The nearest train
station to Langdon Beck Youth Hostel ( W www.yha.
org.uk; T [phone]) is Darlington.
From there you can take the Arriva 75/76 bus to
Middleton-in-Teesdale, then the Upper Teesdale
bus link 73 to the hostel.

050 Go eaSy oN youRSelf aNd
the plaNet at titaNiC Spa,
yoRkShiRe

Relaxing at Titanic Spa

Is it really possible to indulge in a luxury
wellness treatment while doing the planet
a favour? The masseurs, therapists and
beauticians at Titanic Spa certainly think so.
They call their health-and-wellbeing retreat in
the heart of Yorkshire - complete with steam
and ice rooms, a sauna, hammam, mud-chamber
and foot-bath - “the UK's first eco-spa”.
The world of luxury travel is littered with spas
that claim they are environmentally friendly,
but more often than not they do little more than
provide organic products in the treatment rooms

Need to know The nearest train station is
Huddersfield, from where it's a 15min taxi ride.
W www.titanicspa.com; T [phone].