A NATIONAL Trust property near Okehampton walked away with a new green title last week, when it walked away with the Best Renewable Energy System award.

Castle Drogo in Drewsteignton won the award for its biomass boiler at the South West Green Energy Awards ceremony, held on Tuesday, November 10.

The awards, organised by Regen South West, aimed to showcase the very best in technologies and projects, which harness the power of renewable energy sources such as the sun, wind or tides.

Castle Drogo, which has cut huge running costs since the work on its café, outdoor seating area, toilets and heating system, installed the new biomass boiler earlier this year.

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

It also reduces its carbon footprint and improves wildlife habitats.

Property manager David Bailey said the new boiler has made a big difference.

He said: 'We are very proud to have won the award.

'It means all our hard work and effort has been recognised.

'We are also seeing a reduction in CO2, which we produced when we used oil.'

Mr Bailey said the castle have had an increase in visitors since the new boiler.

He said: 'We are pleased to be getting support by the visitors, who are showing a lot of interest in the work we do.

'All our guided tours and special events in relation to our conservation work has been sold out every time.

'We are now looking forward to hopefully starting to generate all our electricity requirements from the river team.'

Castle Drogo undertook the work after receiving a grant of £100,000 from the Big Lottery Fund earlier this year.