How did it get to May!
We re opened on March 29th and have already had lots of fabulous visitors from as far away as Dubai and as near as Falkirk - they have all loved it so far.  We have welcomed all ages from 16 to 70 plus.  We have had lots of surprise birthday treats and such lovely comments - one we really loved was a 65th birthday treat - a visit to Bagend, a delightful message left in the visitor book declared it her best ever birthday!

The Summer Howf got a make over and we are delighted with the results - a different colour outside, lovely tiles on the floor inside, painted throughout, new curtains, bits and pieces.  A blanket of forget me not is out in front of it and it looks great. 
The Wee Howf has been painted outside too and we love the new colour, sitting on its stilts by the pond, with so much wildlife to watch, it remains one of our favourite spots in the garden.  We have started keeping a note of when birds are seen and have a running list in the Wee Shop that we hope visitors will add too.  The swallows arrived back and got busy straight away building nests - it surprises us every year that they manage to fly all that way for winter and then find their way back to Craighead - amazing!

Our animals have been very busy - spring is definitely well under way!  So far our new arrivals include - quail chicks, Brahma hen chicks, two pygmy goat kids - Hannah had a boy and a girl two weeks ago, 'Bit' the little black and tiny bit of white cat has three kittens - still only 3 weeks old - one was born very tiny indeed and is only half the size of his brother and sister - know lovingly as tiny toots he is hanging on in there at the moment.  We have three Ryeland lambs all girls and doing really well. Very excitingly Hope the pygmy goat is due to give birth on Thursday - we are anticipating twins and think looking at her today they may arrive any time soon.
Our Quails have started to lay and their gorgeous speckled eggs are in the shop. Along with some Rhea eggs and our delicious hen eggs.

Our pygmy goats - Harris and Percy Jackson have decided it is great fun to escape and head for the hay shed - self service reached new limits!

Just as soon as the next kid goats are born we will post a photo.  The little white kid in the pictures with the black boots, we think is gorgeous - he decided to be born backwards and give us a run for our money encouraging him to breath - but within minutes he was proving he has plenty of attitude!!  No names as yet.

​

Meet Huff and Puff - the latest additions to our cat team! They have settled in really well and are full of fun.
Last week two swans came to visit, they have stayed and their relatives have now joined us too - it is easy to spend time just watching them - they are beautiful, but true free spirits so not sure how long they will be with us!
We took delivery of the new glamping luggage transportation system this week, tried them out in the sun in the car park - think they are going to be fab!
The Turkeys out in the woodland today really enjoying the early spring weather we are having, daffodils are nearly out - very early!
It will be busy busy this week - with only four full weeks left until we reopen - very exciting!
​Ian & Heather

This handsome couple dropped in today - such a lovely sunny day to start their stay!  We have offered them a season ticket...... do hope they take us up on it!

Last week we made good use of the lovely weather, Ian and Lewis made great progress on the new home for our lovely free range hens - really is a room with a great view!  I snapped a photo early in the morning doing the animal feed round,  the Ryeland sheep having breakfast in the misty/frosty sunrise under the Tree Howf, it was a gorgeous morning.  Ra Ra the wee fergie tractor has been busy moving hay into the hay shed.  
We managed to get away for a couple of days at the end of the week and were treated to some gorgeous Scottish scenery.  There is such a great range of places to visit if you are enjoying a bit of luxury glamping in Perthshire.
Now we are full steam ahead getting ready for our first visitors of the season due in only seven weeks.  The Summer Howf has already had a lovely new floor and is waiting to be painted inside and out.  The Wee Howf is getting a new look, due to be painted outside as soon as the weather lets us - watch this space for photos of its new look.  
We are hoping to increase the animals over the coming weeks, Quail will be joining us soon, we are expecting Ryeland and Zwarble lambs this year and fingers crossed both Hannah and Hope our gorgeous pygmy goats will have kids in the spring too - Ian has plans to build a goat tree for them in their outside space!  We also have two new kittens - Huff and Puff - photos in next blog.
In January we played host - well the Tree Howf did - to an American travel film group working on a short film promoting Scotland in America. We were delighted that Visit Scotland suggested us and assisted.  As soon as we have access to the footage we will share it.  
That is all for now - will be back soon with more updates.

Hello everyone from a very sunny and warm Craighead.  We have been just loving the weather and so have all our visitors!  

Derek & April joined us for a week in the Muckle Howf, Derek's day job is driving seriously big tractors and machinery in the South of England - he fell in love with our wee grey Fergie - one of these was the first tractor he drove as a boy!!!

Like everyone else we have loved being able to spend most of our time outside and it has been great to see our visitors outside enjoying the BBQ's.  The animals have been much admired too, the kid goats have grown like mushrooms and are making their debut outing to Braco Show a week on Saturday - we will post some photos - bath time first for them!

The Hobbit Howfs have had lots of visitors which is great and the shire is really beginning to mature with the grass growing nicely and the wild flowers we planted have done really well.  Ian got the slates on the roof of the wee shed - every discerning hobbit has a wee shed and this now houses the recycling area for the shire!  He still has to tackle the walls on the way down to the shire - must get that done or we will be getting notification from Gandalf!

We have had some great photos taken by Mike Dow and some of them are already on the website, he will be back in the next week or so to get some drone pictures and soon we will have a video to put on the web site too.

We welcomed two new kittens to Craighead recently - a little black one with a tiny white mark and then a younger one a couple of weeks later - a wee scruff who arrived hissing and spitting but is now a happy glamper - they are now lovingly known as Bit & Bob!

We do hope you will come and visit us soon, we will get some pictures of the goings on put on a blog soon, keep your eyes on the blog too for pictures of the outing to Braco Show!

Guests that have stayed with us have left some fabulous comments in the books and some great reviews and we are really grateful for those, hoping to gather some of them together for a slot on the web site.

Enjoy the Summer - Heather & Ian

It has been quite a winter here at Craighead. 

As you can see from the pictures we really did get a blast from the snow and the Burrow and Bagend all but disappeared.  It really was quite something to see!  We have managed to keep going with the Hobbits most of the time but the snow had us beat and so we have a slight feeling of been a bit behind at the moment as we head rapidly to the opening. 

We have got lots of bookings already which is great and have had a lot of enquiries about more pictures.  We will get internal photos on just as soon as we can.  Particularly like the little yellow window - looks very cute and once the fascia above it is finished it will be gorgeous.

​Hoping to start planting the wild flowers around the outside in the next day or two.  The tile floors are just about to go down and then it really will be the home straight as the beds are made and the basins and sinks go in.  We have still to bring the highland cows back from their winter grazing, we need to wait until the grass starts to grow a little and the new fence is up - they would be far too curious about the Hobbits!  We did some poultry shopping over Easter - very fitting! 

We got a lovely mix of new hens to add to the clan, a little collection of ducks and Pete the Buff Orpington cockerel.. He is in the huff in the picture as he has to be inside for a few days until he settles down!  He is very grand though.

Once the garden and weather pick up in May/June time we have a photographer booked to come and take some professional pictures, videos and aerial shots of us, we can then put them on the web site and on all the other places we get a mention.  Looking forward to that because our photography never does us justice!  We had a lovely visit from Quirky accommodation last week to do some filming for their web site, despite it being really too early for the garden the weather was quite kind and we hope they got some good pictures.  Scotland on Sunday interviewed us over the phone last week too!  Looking forward to seeing what they pull together which is going to be in one of their supplements! 

All good fun. Hope to see you at Craighead soon.

We are very pleased to that we have finally agreed on a name for each of the Hobbit Howfs!
They will be The Burrow and Bagend! Descriptions of both and photos as they complete will follow!

We would like to wish all our visitors a very Happy New Year and look forward to hopefully seeing lots of you in 2018.  It will be an exciting year here with the Hobbits on track to open early May or maybe sooner! Will keep you posted on here as to the progress.
Thought we would give you a sneak preview of the lovely doors and windows that are now almost ready ready to be fitted!

The weather over the past week has tested the glamping especially the wind! We will now be closing for a few weeks to give us time to complete the hobbits and refresh the other Howfs ready for spring.  We might even take a sneaky wee holiday ourselves!

Wishing you all a healthy and happy 2018 Ian Heather & family.

The time has flown in and we are suddenly heading towards Christmas and New Year with everywhere full for both - maybe some mulled wine and mince pies to be had!
Once our last visitors leave after New Year we will be closing down for a few weeks, gradually opening up again from March 9th on wards.
We will be all stations go during that time with Howfs to be refreshed and ready for the new season.  Of course the biggest activity is around the Hobbits - work has gone on all over the summer, autumn and now through the winter.  They have proved to be a major challenge and have Ian scratching his head regularly! They really are something different, beautifully built and one of a kind. Alongside other woodwork Lewis has created some amazing doors and we can not wait to see them in place, the  work inside is fabulous!
It is really hard to believe that the site of the 'Shire'  was just a sloping piece of unused field at the start of this year.  Once the grass grows on the roofs  in the spring it will look as if they were always there!  Well of course the Hobbits were always living there - they just have much nicer accommodation now and are happy to share it with guests!
Another big change for us is our new on-line booking system, we took a trip to the Glamping show a couple of months ago and did some research.  We were delighted to meet the guys from Camp Manager who have put our system in place for us.
The animals have all now moved around in to their winter quarters, the goats are just home after a visit to the billy!  Fingers crossed that we will have two baby pygmy goats in the spring - a first for Craighead, hopefully Nalle our little grandson will be all set to show them at Braco show this year!!!  Our three Ryeland ewes are currently visiting the tup - so lambs in the spring too.
The donkeys now happily wear their little bridles, have high hopes of a little cart for them in the new year - perhaps they can help visitors and carry bags to the Hobbits! 
Gorgeous day today so took a few pictures of progress on the Hobbits.