Atholl Estates AW22 Newsletter

A photograph from the annual team fireworks, taken by Head Guide, Magda.

Welcome

As the tourist season closes we had a wonderful retirement party for Sarah and Jamie in the castle and after an incredibly busy season it was wonderful to say thank you to them for their incredible 25 years of modernisation and stewardship of Atholl.

The weak pound often leads to a surge in tourism and we have had an incredibly busy year, the castle and caravan park team have done very well to cope with what has been a really hard year to recruit staff. Since the last issue we have seen the successful opening of the two new Blairinraish holiday cottages and both in-house farms continue at a rapid pace on their conversion to a regenerative farming model despite the lack of clarity on farming policies from the government.

There is also a plethora of construction projects, from the upgrading of Tulliemet and Charlottefield, the construction of the incredible Glen Glack cabins down by Dunkeld, to the conversion of private water supplies to mains and of course to the mother of all projects, the South End. I am assured that the scaffolding will soon come down and I will be installed by the time of the next publication. It will make a change from the past year where I have been staying in all the holiday cottages whenever there is a free bed!

Happy Christmas, Bertie Troughton

New Starts

Clem Urquhart - Marketing Officer

Selina Fletcher - Caravan Park Reception

Supervisor

Emma Henderson - Events Manager

Trixie Ellen - Lodges Housekeeper

Harvey Stewart - Apprentice Plumber

Kayleigh McLean - Estate Ranger

Deborah Strada - Accounts

Jennifer Bremner-Hall - Caravan Park Receptionist

Mark Brazendale - Senior Deer Ranger

Thomas Rodden - Maintenance Joiner

We have said goodbye to several of our team, who have moved on to new opportunities, and we wish them all the best and thank them for their hard work over their time at Atholl Estates.

Congratulations to Hugh and Katie Chamberlain on the birth of their boy, William, on 21st August, a brother for Aila. Best wishes to Lissie and Ian Morrison who got married on 17th September and to Selina and Ryan Fletcher who ‘tied the knot’ on the 6th October. A special mention for the untimely death of Barry Sanderson in August who saw to all the plumbing needs of tenants, Horse Trials and the wider estate for many years. He will be sorely missed.

News in Brief

New wedding brochure

The Marketing and Events teams have re-designed the wedding brochure for couples looking to get married in the castle, gardens and lodges. Using new photography and streamlined packages, we hope to make Blair Castle and the surrounding estate even more of a destination for weddings.

Volunteering

The estate is always keen to hear from anyone interested in volunteering. Regular sessions start on 27th November. Please contact Julia Duncan for more information and check the website for more upcoming dates too.

Highland Cows

Late in the summer, we welcomed two Highland Cows; Lily and Ailce. They can be found in the fields surrounding Blair Castle. Both are expected to calve in spring 2023.

News from The Castle

Sarah & Jamie’s retirement party

Sarah and Jamie had a very jolly retirement party held in the ballroom with the waitering team aided by two of the Bonsor children; Hope (13) and Albert (11) . There was a wonderful turn out from contractors, to tenant farmers to local businesses to many people who have worked and do still work on the estate. Sarah gave a lovely speech saying how much she and Jamie had enjoyed their time at Blair and all their friendships they had made. Sarah thought that over the years she had probably spent too much time on the gardens but she could not resist! The party ended with the pipers of the Atholl Highlanders, when their music fills the ballroom there really is no greater sound.

#AutumnonAtholl photo competition

At the end of September, the marketing team launched a photo competition on social media, encouraging locals, guests and visitors to share their autumnal photographs with us, using the hashtag #AutumnonAtholl. With over 100 colourful entries and great photos shared, Bertie was tasked with choosing the worthy winner.

Regular visitor to the caravan park, Stuart, won with this photograph of the Tilt.

Horse Trials 2022 - The development of food & drink

This year’s Blair Castle Horse Trials was again blessed with beautiful weather which brought out huge numbers of competitors and spectators.

One of the areas that the event has developed in the last two years is a complete reimagining of the food and drink offering. The team were aware that visitors’ expectations were changing and the traditional burgers and chips were no longer sufficient for a modern event.

Local chef, Alec Cruikshank was appointed in 2021 as Catering Manager to bring his expertise to create a new eating experience to the horse trials. He was awarded “Chef of The Year” at ‘The Courier’s Menu Food and Drink Awards’ so brings a wealth of experience.

Estate Events 2021

The outdoor food vans were selected from the best that Scotland has to offer, including some notable award winners. For example, Rost, specialising in wild foods with a twist by the owners of The Pitt Street Food Market in Edinburgh. Screaming Peacock brought us delicious pheasant and venison burgers, wild hot dogs and loaded fries. The aim was to provide a wide selection, including options for vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free.

This year, the Members and Sponsors Marquee was completely redeveloped, with a new look and feel, as well as a whole new catering offering.

Gone was the traditional corporate style, replaced by a beautiful contemporary rustic feel. The team worked with local suppliers, Virginia’s Vintage Hire and The Tree Hire Company to create an indoor-outdoor style with wooden and leather furniture, and decorative trees. Alec also revitalised the members and sponsors’ menu options, utilising the best that Perthshire and the rest of Scotland has to offer. The feedback was better than we could have anticipated and we look forward to welcoming back even more spectators for 2023.

Woodlands Manager Malcolm’s Land Rovers on display

With Land Rover sponsoring the Blair Castle Horse Trials, I was asked by Nicky if I would be willing to have one or two of my collection of historic Land Rovers on display. Of course I said yes as I am always keen to show them off!

I regularly attend shows with the Land Rovers. They go to the Scottish Transport Extravaganza at Glamis every year where I have been lucky enough to win several awards for them, Farming of Yesteryear at Scone Palace, and other local shows including an invite to the Perthshire Classic Car Parade.

Four of my collection made it to the Horse Trials this year, ranging from a 1963 Forward Control, a 1971 ex-army SIIA, to my first car which I learnt to drive in and have owned since I was 17 - a 1975 SIII, to a 1980 Series III.

The 1980 one has a long association with Atholl as it was bought new in 1980 by Bert Symon, an Atholl gamekeeper at Cally Woods by Dunkeld to replace his old push bike. He never had a driving licence so it has had very little use. The other land rovers in the collection still get used for work, firewood collection and so on but this one is kept for special occasions. Bert left it to me in 2010. I used it for a few years then carried out a full strip down and nut and bolt restoration. It is now one of the best Series 3 Land Rovers in the UK and has won several Best in Show awards.

The Land Rovers were on display all four days at Blair and drew much interest. They are certainly not as comfortable as the many new models on display, but they do have a certain character and most people who have lived and worked on Atholl or other rural estates will have had some association with Land Rovers and will have fond memories of these amazing vehicles.

Blair Atholl Mill Lade

Since the 16th Century Blair Atholl has had a Watermill drawing water from the River Tilt through a lade that runs through the village. The lade is figuratively the main artery of the community, providing life to an abundance of nature, an attractive landscape feature in addition to energy for the mill, a popular venue for visitors and villagers alike.

During a major storm in the winter of 2019, the River Tilt forged a new flow pattern at the point where it fed the lade, leaving it dry for all but the highest river levels. This extraordinary event left the mill with no power to make flour and the village without its much-valued water course.

What appeared to be a relatively straight-forward problem to fix turned out to be a saga lasting two years during which extensive surveys, habitat assessment and flow analysis were required to satisfy SEPA that restoration of the previous river bed formation could be achieved without consequential damage to the interests of the wider River Tilt Special Area of Conservation designation.

To everyone’s delight, work was authorised this spring and carried out over the month of July, an ideal period to work in the river and flow to the lade was resumed by early August. Ironically, the cost of achieving consent was higher than the cost of the works, but credit is due to Perth and Kinross Council for funding over 50% of the works, the balance donated by the estate.

Scout Jamborette 2022

The sheer scale and level of organisation involved with the Scout Jamborette is remarkable. The biennial event started in 1946 and has grown in strength over the past 75 years. Blair Atholl’s population seems to double as over 500 scouts from around the world descend to participate in outdoor activities, conservation tasks, campfire ceremonies and castle tours. Long may this tradition continue.

Castle Couture continues: Hats & Fans

Our Castle Couture exhibition, which displays ballgowns and costumes from as early as the 17th Century has proved a tremendous hit amongst visitors, staff and experts gaining a special mention in the Historic Houses collection award. We are going to extend and expand the exhibition into 2023.

While we will display our beautiful costumes again next year, there will also be an exhibition room for fans and hats. The castle fan collection dates from the late 1800s featuring some beautiful Brussels lace, feather and handpainted silk. It is believed that in Victorian times fans were used – much like gloves or parasols – for relaying secret messages. Drawing the fan across the cheek supposedly meant ‘I love you’ while twirling it in the left hand signalised ‘We are watched’. Our hat collection features top hats worn by the castle coachmen, and naval bicornes worn by the family. At the moment our fans and hats are having conservation work completed on them so they can be safely displayed for our 2023 exhibition.

The image below is an example from our collection of hats and fans that will go on display.

Filming on Atholl

Filming in Scotland has been a rapidly growing industry and we have been no different on Atholl with another influx of film projects over the past six months.

We started over the Highlanders weekend at the end of May with Robson Green and Jim Murray filming an episode of their new Scottish fishing programme. Jim Murray, as the name suggests, has family ties here or so he thought until we dug a bit deeper! It was a great few days of filming on the water and at the parade with lots of laughs.

During the summer we saw Sean Batty from STV come and film for his tour of Scotland where he featured the castle with Keren, our Archivist and then with Julia, our Ranger. It was a hugely popular series and some lovely footage of what we do at the Castle and in the grounds.

In July we worked with the programme, ‘Britain’s Most Luxurious Train Journeys’, where they were filming along the Inverness – Edinburgh line and stopped in at us for a history lesson. July also saw the start of a seven week film project out on the estate for Channel 4. An adventure survival programme called… ‘Naked, Alone and Racing to Get Home’.

Yes, as you can tell the contestants were naked and roaming across the estate to get from point A to point B to win cash. They camped out under the stars and in the elements, midges, ticks, hypothermia all featured. The footage will be amazing to watch as they were in some of the most beautiful parts of the estate and had glorious weather. (most of the time!)

July indeed was a very busy month. We filmed again with Channel 4, a programme called The Perfect Pitch at the caravan park. Five parks across the Highlands went against each other to be crowned the winner, sadly we came runner up by half a point! A very good result and if you saw it on TV a few weeks ago, the park and estate couldn’t have looked better and we have seen a big uptake in bookings since the airing of the show.

Finally in October we hosted ‘Annika’, the detective drama on Sky with Nicola Walker. This was for two days of filming and was so successful they are back for another week in early November. A fantastic series and crew to work with.

News from The Estate

Groundswell Trip

A very informative and enjoyable trip to Groundswell Agricultural Show was undertaken in late June, with staff from both home farms making the trip to Lannock Manor Farm, in Hertfordshire.

The Groundswell event provides a forum for farmers and anyone interested in food production or the environment to learn about the theory and practical applications of Conservation Agriculture or regenerative systems, including no-till, cover crops and re-introducing livestock into the arable rotation, with a view to improving soil health.

Groundswell is a practical show aimed at everyone who wants to understand the farmer’s core asset, the soil, and make better informed decisions. It was a two-day event featuring talks, forums and discussions from leading international soil health experts, experienced arable and livestock farmers, agricultural policy experts, direct-drill demonstrations and AgTech innovators. It was where the farms healthy obsession with dung beetles started, and will continue with the implementation of soil health monitoring through a new app called Soil Mentor. Our time at Groundswell then led to a joint training day with Pasture for Life and Soil Mentor at Milton Farm for 30 interested farmers in September 2022.

The outcomes from Groundswell reinforced the route of regenerative farming at Milton, and has started the acceleration towards regenerative farming practices at Blair. Over the course of the next six months various surveys will be undertaken along with a drive to eradicate the use of fertilisers all whilst promoting and improving soil health.

Stag rut

The first roars of the rut were heard at Forest Lodge as early as the 3rd of September and on Beinn a Ghlo the roaring started in mid October. They remained in quite large groups until the end of the month when the larger stags started to hold hinds, but on the Beinn there were noticeably fewer hinds this year.

The northern end of the estate had a different story with no sign of the rut on Clunes as there were few hinds there but Dalnamein had good stalking and there were good numbers of stags on the higher ground. There is nothing more magical than the sight and sound of an Atholl stag in the rut.

Environment charity day out

HIEF (Highlands and Islands Enviroment Foundation) joined Gordon and Georgie from Treestory on a field trip learning about Atholl’s native planting schemes and move to regenerative farming. Thanks to Julian and Hugh for a great talk.

Glen Glack

Claire

“The idea came from the desire to escape to a Scottish bothy during lock down, a longing to be away from the city. I wanted to create a calm and peaceful retreat for people seeking to enjoy the stillness & quiet of the surrounding.

Working with Andrew, Mark Richardson and Alastair Forbes we have created three designs, distinguished by both colour and roof shape as seen in the image. We opted for a prefabricated build bespoke to the site currently being undertaken in Glasgow by Bridgewater Building Solutions. Positioned on stilts whose light touch on the ground ensures the land remains as undisturbed as possible. Locally abundant larch was the obvious choice of material for cladding which we’ll stain in Atholl Estates colours.

If you find yourself near Cally Loch, do please visit, the land to the north of the loch is currently being prepared for the cabins arrival. They are due to arrive in March and no doubt this will be quite a feat craning them onto site. I really look forward to welcoming our first guests over in May”.

Spencer-Churchill talks us through Glen Glack; five woodland cabins by Loch Cally launching in early Summer 2023.

Going green at the park

The estate’s Forward Plan sets some ambitious targets for transitioning towards sustainable heat and power energy across our range of enterprises, and our caravan park in Blair Atholl is a key consumer of both.

Increased costs of power and heating oil are enabling renewable energy options to be considered which have previously been unviable, one of which is electricity production from photo voltaic panels (PV). A project is now in the later stages of design which will provide a PV scheme with capacity of 163 kilowatts and annual generating output of 148,000 kilowatt hours which is roughly a quarter of the park’s annual consumption. The scheme could then be coupled with an electrically powered air source boiler to heat the park’s reception building, replacing the existing oil boiler which emits over 18,000kg of CO2 annually.

Tilt, estate band

Never let it be said the estate team lack talent and recently these talents extended to starting a band. Consisting of castle guides John, Barrie and Jim on vocals, guitar and drums respectively – and recently joined by ranger Julia on bass – the group, called Tilt, have already delighted audiences at the staff barbecue and at Wasted Degrees Brewery taproom.

Can you guess the item?

From the attics, can you guess what these beautiful blue glass balls were used for?

A Victorian glass target ball by The North British Glass Works, Perth. Invented by Capt. intendedpigeon,claymodernthetoforerunnertheisballtargetglasstheA.H.Bogardus to simulate live pigeon shooting. The glass balls could be stuffed with feathers and feathers.thedisplacingshotwhenshatteredwhichcorksmallawithstopped