Angharad chasing poor wee Ivy!

New Arrivals...

We've been very fortunate and our four soay sheep have given birth to six little bundles of fun! 

Maisy, Lambikans,Tulip and Angharad all gave birth at the end of May. 

All four ewes shortly before they gave birth.

Lambikans and Maisy only gave birth to one lamb each but Tulip and Angharad both gave birth to twins. 

Unfortunately Tulips couldn't handle both twins and so we had to take the smallest and weakest lamb away from her to bottle feed. 

The lamb we've named 'Socks' (due to the fact she has four uncommon white socks when most soay sheep are all brown) is doing very well. She's still small but she's feisty. She runs around the garden freely with the dogs and follows everyone about. She's very cuddly and loving! 

If you come the garden now you'll be able to see all the lambs playing together in the field and you might even be able to bottle feed socks!

Drummuir Walled Garden Presents Charity Fun Day in Aid of CLIC Sargent Cancer Charity.

This Saturday (18th Of May) We are proud to be hosting a charity fun day at the walled garden in order to raise money for Clic Sargent. 

We will have lots going on at the garden and it's a great chance to get out and about with your friends and family whilst help raising funds for children with cancer.

There will be many events such as 

                                               Beat The Goalie

Baked Goods Stall

Raffle stall (with lots of impressive prizes to be won!)

A barbecue for everyone

Organic food from the Walled Garden itself

A chance to see all the different types of animals (including a newly born lamb!)

Hand feed the bottle raised lamb we have at the moment.

Lots of different stalls including a books, DVDs, and CD stall.

An egg hunt around the garden! Maybe you'll find a real hen's egg!

And so much more!

So come and bring all your friends and family because this will make  your Saturday  even better by helping those who need it most. 

I hope to see you all there!

Volunteers needed!

We are currently looking for volunteers to stay at garden in the cottage in the coming months. 
It's a chance to get away from everything and get in to nature. You will stay at the Walled garden cottage for free and your food will be provided by us as long as you can complete the duties and tasks around the garden which will include feeding all the animals in the morning and putting them to bed in the evening, doing a little bit of work in the garden and helping us, spending time with customers and working in the farm shop and enjoying yourself in the wild Scottish countryside! We like to include our volunteers in our lives as much as possible so in the coming warmer months we have many barbecues and garden parties at the walled garden with friends, neighbours and customers . We also have a Norwegian hot tub heated by a wood burning stove at the garden where you can take a dip on a cool night. In the summer in Dufftown (15 miles away from the garden) there are lots of ceilidh's that we like to attend with our volunteers as it gives them a real taste of Scottish culture. All year round you can take tours of the seven different whisky distilleries around Dufftown on the weekends, you'll get every weekend off, and we'll give you the chance to taste different Scottish food and drink!
So if this sounds like your sort of thing then you contact Jenny and Derek at heronjenny@supanet.com with the header of 'volunteering at the walled garden'. 
We like giving people the opportunity to experience the garden because it is such a magical place to spend your time. 

Sooty and Sweep

We've recently had two new additions to our walled garden family, Sooty and Sweep the rabbits

Sweep is a dwarf lion head cross lop eared

Sooty is a dwarf lop eared even though her ears aren't very lopped here...

They were give to us by a visitor who could no longer keep them so we promised to give them a loving home where they have big pens out in the garden with grass and organic apples to eat all day long. They are currently settled in and very, very happy here in the garden. We love them too

What to expect when you're expecting...

We have excellent news that our four Soay Sheep are expecting and are due to lamb in April or May!
Tulip, Ang-Haarid, Maisy and Lambakins are all mothers to be for the second year in a row.

Tulip and her lamb from 2012

We currently have five Soay sheep, four ewes and one ram. Our ram, Tuppence, is two years old and will soon be going back his flock on our sister farm in Glenlivet. 

our sheep enjoying the crisp spring morning

The Soay sheep is a primitive breed of domestic sheep descended from the population of feral sheep from the isle of Soay in the St. Kilda Archipelago just off of the western isles of Scotland. It is one of the northern European short-tailed sheep breeds.

It is believed to be a survivor of the earliest domesticated sheep kept in northern Europe, and it remains physically similar to the wild ancestors of domestic sheep, the Mediterranean Mouflon and the horned Urial sheep of central Asia.  

It is much smaller than modern domesticated sheep but hardier, and is extraordinarily agile, tending to take refuge amongst the cliffs when frightened. Soays may be solid black or brown, or more often blonde or dark brown with buffish-white underbelly and rump, also a few have white markings on the face.

The sheep are very independent, they shed their wool naturally and almost never need clipped. They give birth on their own with out any human inference and are very timid but ours are different as two of ours have been hand reared and are the leaders of the flock. 

We love our little flock and hope you have a chance to come and visit them and their new lambs at the Walled Garden this summer!