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FIRMLY ROOTED AND GROWING STEADILY >o^erg Ahh] oblbml Dbkdmhpg FZ\abg^kr !EZnk^g\^dbkd" Z _bkf eZng\a^] makhn`a Z fZkd^m `Zi Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow. That’s a phrase that’s been used by everyone at some time or another – and most recently as an advertising slogan for a bank that wants to encourage folks to get into the habit of saving, at very little interest! It could equally be applied to having a bright idea that you make to grow into something useful and practical, and in that context I can think of no better phrase to describe Kirktown Machinery. Based at Westerton of Pitarrow, just
off the A90, a couple of miles north of Laurencekirk, this company had its roots – so to speak – in farming and a garden centre. The Gammie family have farmed in the Howe of the Mearns for almost a century. Then ten years ago brothers David and Jim Gammie decided to diversify their business activities and bought the Kirktown Garden Centre a short distance west of Stonehaven and again just off the A90. The Kirktown Garden Centre and Restaurant
37+2/'06 Trailers etc for ATV’s 4x4’s and Compact Tractors
D W Tomlin, Old Leake, Boston, Lincs PE22 9JS. Tel: 01205 870535
www.longdogatv.co.uk 10
( L to R) All the team - Shaun Stephen, Steven Greig, Lewis Boyd, Sarah Scott and David Gammie
is a delight, a popular place for lunch or a coffee, and offering for sale not just locally acclimatised plants but home grown vegetables, gifts and toys. It’s just the kind of place to include in a day’s outing in the Stonehaven area and I would recommend that if you want to know more visit their web-site which is www. kirktowngardencentre.co.uk Very soon after they had bought the Garden Centre the Gammie brothers found that people were increasingly making requests for lawnmowers and other garden equipment so, spotting a gap in the market, they began to stock these. Then they were asked for chainsaws and for a range of other tools and equipment. Some very obvious market gaps were presenting themselves, and couldn’t be ignored. It was decided then to set up an allied company to sell machinery and Steven Greig who had joined the company in 2004 was appointed manager at Kirktown Machinery based
www.farmingscotlandmagazine.com
at the farm of Westerton of Pitarrow, Laurencekirk. The company can rightly claim to have seen steady growth and a considerable widening of its activities since it was launched. Anyone knowing this part of Scotland will appreciate the extraordinary variety of terrains in this area. From my earliest days – or at least since I began to notice such things – I have been impressed by the appearance of the Howe of the Mearns. On the lower ground there are imposing farmhouses, sturdy, stonebuilt steadings, well cared for fences and hedges and drystane dykes, and that fertile and distinctive red soil. That’s the Howe. But it is flanked to the east by a high ridge of hills that separates and shelters it from the North Sea. To the North and Northwest rise the foothills of the Grampians, up into the Cairn o’ Mount, and beyond to Mount Keen, the most easterly of all the Munros. It is evident that an extraordinarily wide range