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.

HoHello from Craighead!

We have had a busy summer so far with lots of great people coming to stay.
Work on the Hobbits glamping units have been really coming along - Ian even talks Hobbit language now and seems to be really up to speed with the needs of his Hobbit friends!!

We are aiming to open them by March next year.  The inside work has begun and  is really looking quirky and full of interest.  Ian and Lewis (keirjoinery) can often be seen scratching their heads as they craft lovely stone and wood in to crooked and quirky shapes - the wooden bowls, sinks,  round windows and doors are right up there on the to do list now! Not your every day joinery tasks.... 

The external work to create the landscape of our little 'shire' has begun, there is much more to do, the machinery is rained off at the minute but as soon as it comes back it will be full steam ahead.  Ian has spent a lot of time researching the grassing over of the roofs!

We were delighted to host Lewis and Gigha's wedding this year - a real family event and the sun shone on us from start to finish!

The animals are doing well, Uig and Beag are growing nicely and love meeting people and posing for pictures.  The donkeys have gone in to training.... not sure they are impressed but time to learn!
The wildlife and bird life has been really good this summer with lots of visiting birds, the pond is wearing its green summer blanket, we have tried barley straw bales to reduce it, at the minute no change but the moor hens were delighted and have taken them over to build nests, great to sit and watch from the Wee Howf door.

If you have stayed with us please do pop a review on here or any of the other social media sites.
Have popped a few pictures on here of the summer, more of the Hobbits to follow as their development picks up a pace!  

​Hope you will come and stay with us soon.

Where is May going and the sun is back out.  We have been so lucky with the dry weather, we are now of course fully open with lots of lovely people coming to stay.  We have done a lot of catching up outside and in the garden. The two highland calves from Uist have really come on, they have settled in  well and are thriving.  Of course the big news as far as they are concerned is the end of the naming game - so they have their new names.  Their Gaelic background won through and the shortened version of their 'posh' pedigree names was the winner so they are Uig (sounds like youigg) and Beag (sounds like BeeAg A as in apple) 
Beag is the white one! They love bread!
​The sheep have also had a hair cut - didn't seem too amused!
Goosy goosy of the goosy goosy gander goose trio has come off her nest, sadly no goslings but the nest was very impressive so added a picture of it.  She was really like the queen when she was on her thrown.
The biggest flurry of activity of course has been the building work on the Hobbits - the dry weather was just incredible in terms of getting the work done. A Hobbit blog with pictures to follow this!

Its been a busy weekend and a lot has been going on today! Have added some pictures of today's sights. This morning collecting the eggs yielded an amazing variation - check out the picture. By 8am the very large tractor and trailer were here to start the job of moving tons of earth - removed from the Hobbit Hole sites, the donkeys were not that impressed about the 200 horse power!  The Red Kite came a visiting at one point today and got into an amazing battle for the supremacy of the sky with three oyster catchers, only phone camera to hand so no fantastic pictures am afraid. Our Tree Howf guests left this morning and sent us a lovely email - made our day so have added that here too.  
Despite the chill in the air the garden is coming along and  the swallows returned this weekend, we love it when they come back!

Hello!
 We are delighted to be open again and this weekend we had our first visitors of the season enjoying the Tree Howf.
 They left a lovely message in the book this morning - a couple of snipits are "What a place.. it didn't disappoint, what a beautiful design and place to stay.  Surroundings are beautiful and its not far from places when we needed to nip out... although the wintry weather outside the Tree Howf heated up quickly and we enjoyed relaxing by the fire for the weekend and hardly moved! Will definitely be recommending the place to family and friends, planning another trip ourselves in the Summer."

 We have just returned from a brilliant trip to New Zealand to see our son and of course travel the lovely country.  We were very excited to receive our planning permission while we were out there for our Hobbit Houses - so off we set to Matamata to visit Hobbiton - the Lord of the Rings set.  We had a fabulous trip round it and came back inspired to create our own little bit of Middle Earth at Craighead.  Just as we got back the Courier newspaper picked up the story and Ian enjoyed a full spread and pictures on page 3!  We generated interest also with Radio Scotland and other papers so that was a great start.
With the Tree Howf already open we are concentrating on the Wee Howf, it has been painted and is having a make over and will be open in a weeks time.  We think it is going to look lovely.
Today work is going on to do some alterations to the Wash Howf courtesy of Lewis of Keir Joinery and we will be stocking up the wee shop for our customers to enjoy.

The animals are looking forward to sunny spring days, they seem to have fared well over the winter but it is always nice to see them enjoying the early spring sun.
We have some new arrivals - last night we took delivery of three Zwartble lambs, they are delightful and seem very settled already.  Our goose from the Goosie Goosie Gander team is sitting on eggs, the birds are busy nest building and we are  hoping before too long to get our two highland calves from North Uist.  We have a regular 6.30am visit from a fox at the moment, so that is keeping us on our toes.  Out and about there is a lot of wildlife on the go including a good number of hares.
We will be keeping everyone up to date with progress on the Hobbit Houses here on the blog.  We hope to start work in the next week or so! Looking forward to seeing lots of visitors here this year, thank you to those who already have your bookings made, am sure you will love it.
​
Heather & Ian

Our last guests leave us this Sunday morning and we have begun to close down all the Howfs for a short break.  We have met some lovely people who have said great things about their stay at Craighead in the past year.
We are all set to open up again on the 10th March when everywhere will be having a spring clean and the daffodils will be opening.
Really looking forward to the year to come and am hoping to get two highland calves to follow in Hero and Honey's footsteps.  Will keep you posted on any animal news and how the open up for the season is going once we get underway.
Many thanks to all our visitors.
​Ian and Heather

We are really pleased to say that the Wee Howf now has its own facilities - the Wee Wee Howf.  Built in the same style across a small bridge it houses unbelievably a shower, a compost loo, a wash hand basin, a dish washing sink and the cooking area.  This means no more late night trips to the loo in the dark( or day time!), more space in the Wee Howf.  It is looking very cute - pictures to follow.
What else have we been up to - in August we went down to Wales and collected three Rhea chicks, they are still under the lamp but are growing fast and are very friendly and will eventually become friends for our single Rhea.  We also picked up some Pied Turkeys from Nick and Nells in Wales, three in total so they are lovingly know as Nick and his two Nells and we are ever hopeful that we can breed from them in the spring!
We did say on our last blog that we would share some of the comments left for us by out visitors over the summer and we will definitely do that - they have been great and much appreciated.  We need the dark evenings to keep us inside to do all these things!
​Look out for the photos we will get them on soon.

... And in the blink of an eye we are coming to the end of August. Wow. 

The Tree Howf has certainly kept us on our toes and with the beautiful Summer Howf surrounded in flowers and the Wee Howf with its friendly donkey neighbours we hope that our guests have enjoyed their stays!

In the coming weeks (we say optimistically) we hope to share with you some of our Tree Howf reviews and other Howf reviews - we are flattered with each and every one and it really makes us proud to be able to offer you such a wonderful getaway!