The heir to a 13th Century castle aims to power it entirely with renewable energy.
Muncaster Castle in Ravenglass in west Cumbria was built as a defence against the Scots and has been home to the Pennington family for 800 years.
It is connected to mains gas and electricity, but now heat pumps and solar panels meet most of its needs.
Ewan Frost-Pennington said the change to greener energy had “transformed the place”.
In the past, they would turn on the gas boiler for an event and turn it off immediately afterwards.
But the constant ground source heat was more economical and had “really improved the comfort”, Mr Frost-Pennington said.
On a sunny day the solar panels provided more power than the castle needed, he added.
Mr Frost-Pennington, 32, spent seven years working as a renewable energy consultant in London and California before returning to live in the castle with his parents last year.
He now runs Muncaster’s tourism operations and hopes to turn the Grade I listed building into the UK’s first carbon-free castle. Guests can stay in luxurious self-catering accommodation in The Coachman’s Quarters.
“Like anyone, we use energy to go about our daily business – we attract customers from far afield,” he said.
“We want to be able only to positively impact the environment.”
To pay for the green energy projects Mr Frost-Pennington is planning new events to attract visitors.
But he also stresses the castle’s history will be respected and preserved, conscious that it’s “always dangerous” to meddle with tradition.
“Hopefully I’ll do a good job and I can be added to one of the good guys in the history and not relegated to the red list that we have within the castle of the family members that didn’t do a good a job,” he said.
Muncaster Castle is one of the Finalists in the VisitEngland Tourism Excellence Awards 2023.
Jon is a regular contributor to several outdoor living and lifestyle news publications, concentrating on The Lake District. Now living in Glenridding, Jon studied journalism at Edinburgh University.
