What is the Tack Barn?

The Tack Barn is an eco holiday cottage in East Sussex. A rural getaway for two, it nestles in woodlands beside a pond. Sussex is a a county of exceptional landscapes, culture, gardens, food and wine. It’s sometimes overlooked as a destination and we’re trying our best to change that.

How is the Tack Barn supporting nature and sustainable practices in the biosphere?

Running a home or business along sustainable principles makes both economic and environmental sense, so we have always run Tack Barn with sustainability as a core principle, while not compromising on comfort to achieve it. In fact we’d prefer that our guests remember our hospitality and are inspired by their time in our patch of East Sussex, rather than the reed-bed drainage and the triple-glazed windows.

An eco-conversion

Tack Barn has many eco-credentials; it was converted from a redundant stable block. It has state-of-the-art insulation, triple-glazed windows, solar-heated water and photo-voltaic generated electricity topped up, when necessary, by a 100% renewable energy provider. All of the waste water is filtered through a reed-bed before ending up in our pond.

Inside the barn there is a wood burning stove, home-grown logs, A+++ rated appliances and an induction hob.

Environmentally-friendly practices

All of our linen is line-dried, we provide organic cotton towels and our cleaning products are all eco-friendly. We source home-grown, locally produced or second-hand before considering alternatives and we continue to reduce our use of plastic. The produce that we offer our guests is either home-grown organically or locally produced – this is important to us and we hope that potential guests feel the same.

Promoting local produce and culture

There’s a strong local food and drink culture and lively independent retail and art scene in our neighbouring county-town of Lewes and the surrounding countryside, so promoting localism has been our aim. We have been establishing personal connections with the open studio trails, food and drink festivals, vineyard associations and many art destinations, and finding new ways to promote these to our guests.