FAQ’s

In 2022, the Fojt family purchased the old Cliffemount Hotel. Karen Fojt is the Director at Cliffemount, alongside her children Melissa, Siobhan and Howard who also hold C-Suite positions.

Due to the scale of the project, an official date of opening has not yet been agreed. However, we expect Cliffemount to be ready to open in summer 2027.

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We’re aiming for Cliffemount to be the UK’s first Passivhaus hotel. For accreditation to be achieved, the building must adhere to very strict design regulations. The existing building was not built with Passivhaus in mind and therefore does not meet these regulations. For this reason, it must be demolished.

In addition to this, we wanted to give Cliffemount a new lease of life. The property had limited accessibility, with narrow doorways and poor access, so it made sense to redevelop it entirely ensuring it meets the needs of our guests.

“Backed with over 30 years of international evidence, Passivhaus is a tried & tested solution that gives us a range of proven approaches to deliver net-zero-ready new and existing buildings optimised for a decarbonised grid and augmented for occupant health and wellbeing. Passivhaus buildings provide a high level of occupant comfort using very little energy for heating and cooling.

Passivhaus adopts a whole-building approach with clear, measured targets, focused on high-quality construction, certified through an exacting quality assurance process.” – The Passivhaus Trust official definition.

As a family, we care a lot about our impact on the environment. When we made the decision to redevelop Cliffemount Hotel, we knew that sustainability had to be at the forefront of our design. We were aware of the Passivhaus Standard and so when early redevelopment discussions took place, it was decided we would work towards accreditation.

Absolutely. We intend to have a number of dog-friendly rooms available. Whilst dogs will also be allowed in certain areas such as the gardens and the pub, we unfortunately won’t be allowing dogs in the main restaurant.

We’re excited to have Bowman Riley Architects on board who are supporting us with the interior and exterior design. We can’t reveal all of our design secrets just yet, but you can get a sneak peek look at the exterior design here.