The farm & cottages blog

Heather burning

12 Apr 2012Posted by Susan Cowan

The hills on Eastside are mainly heather hills and it is a good food supply both for sheep and wildlife and especially black and red grouse. When the heather gets old and woody, it is indigestible but the young shoots are very edible. For the sheep and wildlife, a good mix of old and new is most beneficial; the old heather plants are shrubby bushes about 2-3 feet high and provide good cover and shelter from the weather as well as ideal nesting sites for ground nesting birds such as the grouse and golden plover while the young heather shoots keep hunger at bay.
To ensure a plentiful supply of young shoots, between the 1st October and the 15th April, we aim to burn 10% of the heather cover each year (a process called muirburn) but in reality this is a hard goal to achieve. The conditions have to be just right for a good burn with the heather dry enough to ignite (impossible some years!) and the wind in the right direction. We try and burn an old area of the plants into a recovering area from the previous year so that you have a natural fire “break” and stop things from getting out of hand.

Harry Robertson dowsing the flames ↑

Planting new woodlands

12 Jan 2012Posted by Susan Cowan

Alexander Cowan was the first of the Cowan family to plant trees at Eastside in 1850- a mix of Scots Pine and Larch - some of which are still in evidence today on the face of the Black Hill, Cap Law and Braid Law. Trees are important to provide shelter for the sheep and wildlife. Shelter is worth half a feed is old scottish farming wisdom meaning that if you give an animal shelter, it doesn’t use so much food just to keep warm.

Now, it’s our turn and we’ve planted a lot of mixed conifer and broad leaved trees as shelter belts in the valleys and are now branching out to encompass some of the original old plantations to keep them going. So far, 42,000 trees have been planted in the last two years and we’re back where it all started, really!

New woodland planting on the Braid Law ↑

Tupping time on the farm

19 Dec 2011Posted by Susan Cowan

Autumn is when the ewes (female sheep) on the farm are in season - meaning that they’re receptive to a potential mate.  At this time we put out our male sheep called “tups” or rams with them in order to conceive new lambs. 

The ewes are in the peak of health and condition at this time of year from all the rich grazing theyʼve consumed in the summer. They will need all their extra fat reserves for the winter to come and to provide for themselves and the lambs growing inside them.

A ewe’s gestation period is 5 months so the tupping is carefully planned for the new lambs to be born in the following April and May when there is plentiful grass for them to eat and produce milk for their offspring.

A Blackface tup resting in the shed ↑

Eastside Steading and Stable Christmas Photos

19 Dec 2011Posted by Susan Cowan

This year, as with every year, we’ve decorated the cottages for Christmas. Our photographer Michael Rummey has returned to photograph the Steading cottage, sleeping 4 and the Stable cottage, sleeping 2 in all their Christmas glory. Please take a look at the new photographs and enjoy!

Steading Christmas ↑

Eastside Byre Christmas Photos

19 Dec 2011Posted by Susan Cowan

Our photographer, Michael, recently came to photograph the cottages to show them off in all their Christmas splendour! The Byre was photographed first and here are the results. The cottages are all decorated from the 1st of December until the 6th of January (or the nearest available date) so if you need a special Christmas location for a family get together, or fancy a Christmas holiday hideaway after an energetic festive season then just give us a bell.

There's loads of space in the Byre's kitchen / dining room for a wonderful Christmas ↑