The Carroll family have been coming to this stretch of Pembrokeshire coastline since the 1960s and their ancestors for many generations before that. Long before the house you see today existed, this plot held a simple wooden chalet and a lifetime of beginnings.
Paul Carroll took his first steps on Pembrokeshire beach in the late 1960s. Back then, Greenshutters was a classic seaside chalet of its time: timber-framed, no electric lighting, no running water indoors, and an outdoor toilet and shower.
It was basic, weathered and much-loved.
Over the years, small improvements were made. A sink installed, a water heater added, but the spirit of the place remained the same. Summers were spent barefoot, salty-haired and outside as much as possible. The house wasn’t about comfort. It was about freedom.
By 2009, time and weather finally caught up with the original structure. After years of battling leaks, (including memorable moments of placing multiple buckets around the living room to catch rain) a severe storm caused the living room, sunroom and balcony to collapse.
It was heartbreaking, but it also marked a turning point.
The family made the decision to rebuild on the original footprint, honouring what had been there, while imagining what Greenshutters could become for the future.
Garth Carroll, an architect, designed a home that would allow the family to stay year-round. Something the old chalet had never been able to offer.
The new house was conceived as an upside-down home, dug into the rock to create an additional lower level. This allowed for:
three additional bedrooms, two more bathrooms and a generous open-plan living space above. From the living room, far-reaching views stretch across the Bristol Channel towards Lundy Island and the Devon coastline. Views that still stop people mid-sentence when they arrive.
Greenshutters was built using local craftsmen, builders and materials, with sustainability and wellbeing at its core.
The house meets Passivhaus principles and a mechanical heat ventilation system that constantly supplies clean, fresh air. In winter, a wood-burning stove creates deep, cosy warmth. In summer, large sliding doors are thrown open, dissolving the boundary between inside and out.
This is a house designed to breathe.
Nature is not something you visit here - it surrounds you.
From the house, you’ll see:
rabbits hopping through the garden
bats emerging nightly at dusk to catch insects
birds riding the sea air
bamboo swaying in the wind
and the ocean shifting mood by mood
The sounds are just as present: wind, waves, birdsong, the soft creak of the house settling into the landscape.
The result is a home that feels deeply held and holding.
Over the years, Greenshutters has welcomed hundreds of families and friends. People come to cook together, walk the coast path, sit quietly, talk late into the night, reconnect and reset. Guests often say they feel the energy of the place the moment they step inside.
Nothing makes us happier than reading reviews that speak of:
Greenshutters is not just a holiday house.
It is a continuation of a family story and, for a while, it becomes part of yours too.
