Here at Cotna Eco Retreat, as well as offering yurt, shepherd’s hut and barn accommodation, we live a low-impact, green and sustainable way of life in a stunningly beautiful place. We produce green solar and wind energy and our water supply is from a natural spring supplying pure Cornish spring-water. We use our own wood, recycle through our compost bins and eco compost loos and produce delicious organic fruit & vegetables for our guests and local community. We won the award for Best Contribution to Sustainable Land Management at the 2016 Cornwall Sustainability Awards for our ethos and activity at Cotna. As the farm has matured we have become an oasis for wildlife, not to mention our own creatures – the bees, spaniels, cats, chickens & ducks who all contribute in their own ways!
Owners Sara & Dave Readman-Smyth
Living in harmony with the land
We follow the permaculture principle of living in harmony with the land. Yurt visitors can learn more about what we do just by being here and seeing what is going on, or by booking onto a Cotna Experience Course. These include organic no-dig gardening, wild food foraging, sourdough bread-making and seasonal cooking.
The land at Cotna Eco Retreat is 100% accessible to your while you are here on holiday. Explore and take a wander through our orchards, woodland, vegetable gardens and poly-tunnels.
Enjoy relaxing into our peaceful Cotna rhythm. Breathe in the clean air, soak up the light, feel the peace of the countryside – and come back to earth!
Brief History of Cotna, our yurt site and eco retreat
Cotna was historically known as Cruckconna, meaning break-your-neck hill! Cotna Barton is a sheltered bowl of a valley that feels like it has been inhabited forever. The area is known to be an ancient site – in 1846 earthenware pots were found near the old farm, which were identified as bronze-age funerary urns, and more recently when digging clay for our pizza oven we found a sharpened piece of flint that we think is pre-historic.
The original farm occupies an area of about 60 acres on the west side of the valley below Gorran Churchtown, on the south coast of Cornwall. A number of holdings have existed here over the years – Cruckcorner Wollas, Cruckcorner Wartha and Cotna Brake. Nowadays the local land is divided into Cotna Barton, Cotna House and Sentries, named after the ruined Sentries Mill in our woodland valley.
As Featured In…
Download the PDF version of the Cornwall Life Article here: In Search of the GoodLife
” This place is an inspiration and a signpost to a better way of life. It’s amazing how everything links with, and feeds into, everything else. The yurt is so comfy too. We can honestly say that when it’s raining cats and dogs in the evening, there’s no better place to be than snuggled up in front of the woodburner in a yurt, ignoring the newspaper that announces the latest mad turn of events in the world! Thanks for being the perfect hosts and creators “
– Steve and Lynne (North Yorkshire Sept 2019)