Michelle and Tila Braddock have harnessed wind and solar energy to create Lanzarote’s first entirely self-powered eco-haven. Words Sarah Monaghan

Luxury combined with green credentials is a rare thing in most parts of the world,
and perhaps nowhere is it rarer than the Spanish island of Lanzarote in the Canaries. Some of Lanzarote’s more touristy areas, such as Puerta del Carmen and Playa Blanca, have even been dubbed ‘Lanzagrotty’, crammed as they are with busy hotels and package tourists.

Yet one British couple is succeeding in attracting a new kind of tourist to savour the other side to Lanzarote, and to discover the island’s striking raw beauty, after opening its first sustainable eco-retreat. “We wanted to reveal another, more traditional side to the island, and open up people’s eyes to the beautiful natural landscapes Lanzarote has to offer,” explains Michelle Braddock.

She should know. Michelle first visited Lanzarote with her parents as a child, and it was on a summer holiday some years later that she met Tila –the man who was to become her husband – then working as a windsurf instructor in one of the resorts.
The Braddocks have now lived on the quieter north side of the island for 16 years and have raised their four children, Joshua, 14, Gerome, 12, Freddie, 10 and Monique, 7, here. Over the years they have dabbled in property development, but it was in 2006 that they spotted their ‘big project’, the Finca de Arrieta, a 200-year-old 30,000 m2 ruined farm in the unfashionable and undeveloped north of the island.

The couple were well-placed to identify its potential when the ‘for sale’ sign went up – not that many people might have. “The land is very dry and barren here, and life must have been tough in the past,” says Michelle. “One of our neighbours still ploughs with a donkey, and another tells how he used to travel half a day to fetch water.”

The finca, despite its dilapidation, had a lot going for it that suited their purpose. Being situated at     the bottom of a volcanic valley, it had its own well and fresh water supply, and it was located close to an attractive sand and pebble   beach and the little-visited traditional fishing village of Arrieta. These factors, combined with the fact that Lanzarote has a year-round sunny climate (it is the most easterly of the Canaries, situated only 60 miles from Africa), made it perfect for its transformation to what it is today – probably Lanzarote’s most unconventional family tourism eco-accommodation.

Read more in the March issue of Living Abroad magazine