Grounds & Surroundings
Our grounds are a little paradise, for people and wildlife. This is a great habitat for everything from glow-worms to slow-worms, from dormice to birds of prey, from butterflies to the occasional passing deer.
Grounds and Gardens
Our grounds extend to 7 acres overlooking Chesil Beach and running from the B3157 Coast Road to National trust land across which you can walk to the sea. We manage the grounds both for amenity use by people who live and visit here and for biodiversity. Visitors can enjoy playing on the lawns, walking through the woods, sitting in quiet secluded spots and looking out to sea.
Our treehouse and pagoda are favourite outdoor spots for all ages. We also have a stone circle and a woodland fire pit area for “campfires”
Honouring the Land
We’re designated a Site of Nature Conservation Interest for our grasslands, with various wildflower rarities including four species of orchid (see some of our Southern March, Bee, Pyramidal and Greater Butterfly orchids below). In our wooded areas there are secluded paths and magical places to sit and soak in the atmosphere.
We grow lovely fresh salads in a polytunnel and plenty of fruit in our orchard. There’s a large soft fruit cage to protect the berries from the birds and the many rabbits who share the grounds. In 2017, we created a pond. 🙂
Between our grounds and the sea a permissive footpath takes you through flower rich National Trust meadows grazed from time to time by organic sheep and cattle.
Creation Spirituality
The Othona Community’s origins at Bradwell connected us to the Celtic Christian past, long before today’s revival of interest in all things Celtic. So a ‘creation spirituality’, honouring nature and all of the cosmos, is written into Othona’s DNA. It also chimes with the outlook of the White Ladies who lived here before us.
Within our programme you’ll find activities that reflect the insights of creation spirituality. By walking the countryside, paying close attention to birds or plants or rocks, responding with our own creativity, we may reconnect our own story with that of the universe in all its complexity and wonder.
“Learning to pray, as I understand it, is learning to listen with the mind and heart – making oneself attentive to each exquisite detail of the world.” (Thomas Merton)
Green Technologies
In February 2010 we started generating electricity from photovoltaic cells. We now have 96 panels across our chapel, lodge and four seasons studio roofs. Even on cloudy days they produce enough power to run some of our base load of fridges, freezers etc. When we built the four seasons studio this was equipped with an air source heat pump and we have since also converted the chapel, and lodge heating to air source heat pumps.
Another of our buildings has its water heated by solar thermal, with electrical backup if required. At the far end of the ‘water cycle’ we also operate in an environmentally friendly way. Once the solids have been extracted, our sewage and waste water is all ‘cleaned’ by horizontal flow reedbeds. Our position on a hillside means this is achieved without any need for pumps or other powered equipment.
Our aspiration is to entirely come off fossil fuels and to work towards making the entire site carbon neutral.
