GREEN is the way forward for one major tourist attraction that has undergone a complete revamp in a bid to reduce its Co2 emissions.

Castle Drogo in Drewsteignton has cut huge running costs since the work on its café, outdoor seating area, toilets and heating system was completed last month.

The National Trust property, which has more than 600 acres of stunning walks, undertook the work after receiving a grant of £100,000 from the Big Lottery Fund.

It involved increasing the size of the tea-room and adding an outdoor eating area, as well as an all year round parking surface in the car park, to help improve access to the estate.

A new biomass boiler was installed to reduce the estate's carbon footprint and improve wildlife habitats.

The new boiler, which replaced the old oil-fired heating system, uses only local woodchip and means the trust no longer needs to use the 70,000 litres of oil each year.

Property manager David Bailey said he felt the developments would make a big difference to the estate: 'We started looking at our options for the biomass boiler and we suddenly realised we have a wonderful resource all around us.

'After a lot of research, we realised it could be done and we decided to put the boiler outside, where everybody could see it and really make a feature out of it.'

The boiler will eventually be fuelled by woodchip from the estate and provide all hot water for the centre and the castle, which will reduce its carbon footprint by 150 tonnes a year.

Mr Bailey added: 'This is an exciting project for us at Drogo and for the trust as a whole.

'Not only are we making significant improvements to our carbon footprint and saving the charity a massive amount of running costs, we are also improving our visitor facilities.

'By removing the heating function, hot ovens and equipment from the historic castle, we are also improving the conservation and protection of a fantastic grade 1 listed building.'

As well as the new biomass boiler, the trust has also installed rainwater harvesting tanks to flush the toilets.

New flooring has been laid in the café, made from recycled glass, and all the lighting has been changed to be made more energy-efficient.

In the café, all food is seasonal and locally sourced where possible. 

Head chef Alan Loman said everything is cooked from fresh: 'We are trying to use local produce for as much food as possible.

'We get our eggs from Spreyton and use 1,000 a week — we do a lot of baking.

'We also use Martin's Butchers in Chagford, who supply the most fabulous meat.

'We get our bread from Home Bakery in South Brent and go through 400 loaves a week.

'It's so important for us to use fresh, local produce and also for our visitors to know where it has come from.

'We have done our market research and are giving our visitors what they want.'

The estate has extended its opening hours and is preparing for around 150,000 visitors to walk through its doors this year.

Mr Bailey said the trust's aim was to improve the facilities for its visitors and keep the estate as green as possible.

He said: 'We definitely see ourselves as being more local — we want to be seen as a positive asset, rather than just a castle on the hill.

'We are trying to make an effort to keep as much as we can locally, so visitors only get what is local to the area — it's a taste of Devon, but even better than that, it's a taste of here.'

Castle Drogo is now open from 8.30am every day.