Birch Cottage has a new website of its own
Visit the Birch Cottage website to bookWelcome to Lackan Cottage Farm
We’re Steve and Claire Golemboski-Byrne, we live here off grid with our daughter, our dog, cats and horses. We make all our own energy using wind and solar, grow as much of our own food as we can (it varies widely) and have used permaculture design principles to help us create a great place to live.
Here on the website you’ll find stories about the projects we’ve undertaken – what works, what doesn’t. You can come stay in our guest cottage – Birch Cottage and we will show you round, or maybe you just want to find out how to do some of this stuff. Either way, welcome.
Where did you learn to do that?
Where did you learn to do that? Is a question I get asked about all sorts of things, and the answer is always the same. "I just sort of did it", I reply. Of course, when the person asks the question they are usually looking at a successful end result of whatever it...
Are you ready?
Despite vast amounts of evidence pointing to a very real change in our climate, and the increase of extreme weather events, it seems that people generally like not to think of any of it as being part of some sort of pattern, and instead to put these events down to...
Living with the Land
Lauren and Phil visited us briefly last year, just at the right time to impart some knowledge about cob and clay plaster mixes, when we were working on the classroom. They have produced a series of short films for Permaculture Magazine, called Living with the Land,...
Rocket Mass Heaters talk at Lackan Cottage Farm
Something visitors always ask about here at Lackan Cottage Farm is our Rocket Mass Heater, and so we are honoured to be able to welcome Leslie Jackson, co-author of the definitive book 'Rocket Mass Heaters', to the farm on the evening of Saturday July 25th to give a...
Gold standard Green Tourism
We're incredibly chuffed to have got a Gold level Green Tourism award, and were off to the awards dinner last week at the Sugar Supper Club in Newry (highly recommended, brilliant food). One of only 18 Golds in County Down, too. Northern Ireland's only off...
Midsummer has arrived
Midsummer is upon us, and we were fortunate to be able to celebrate the solstice eve with friends from far and wide - visitors from no less than five nations were here on Saturday. I'm always in two minds about the summer solstice - given that it marks the...