A SUNNY OUTLOOK


live in a city and only come here at weekends or to move here and completely immerse ourselves in estate life, try to make enough money to live here, educate our children and support three generations of the family.’ The couple chose the latter option and


embarked on an ambitious diversification project which, over the last 12 years, has slowly breathed life back into the estate and trans- formed its landscape.


Rules of attraction ‘We started work on the cottages – they had no heating, double glazing or even damp-proof courses, so it was quite a major undertaking. We gradually turned a number of them into holiday cottages and then we received a grant to build three log chalets and create our website. We now advertise the entire estate online and that’s where we get a lot of our business. One of the estate’s biggest assets is the diver- sity of its wildlife, which we’ve encouraged by planting numerous hedges to attract birdlife. This work has made everything look that bit better and made it more appealing as a holiday destination.’ The introduction of a herd of pedigree Luing


beef has been the biggest change to the estate and one of its success stories, as Jamie explains: ‘We’ve been able to diversify so that we’re not so reliant on growing cereals, and it is just as well


– the bad harvests of the past five years would have been completely catastrophic for us.’ Reintroducing the local hunt has also


ensured that Arbigland is now back at the heart of the community. With fifty hounds and six horses and meets twice a week for six months of the year, the hunt is a big part of the social calendar. ‘The decision to bring the hunt kennels here has enhanced the quality of life,’ says Jamie. ‘It has increased the commu- nity of people living and working on the estate. It could definitely be quite lonely living here if there wasn’t so much going on.’ That’s not really a problem the Blacketts


encounter now as they also decided to make their own home part of the diversification process, and have transformed The House on the Shore into a beautiful family home which they regularly share with bed-and-breakfast guests. Jamie’s great-grandmother built the dower house in 1936 in the style of a Cotswold manor


WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK 69


Top: Bed-and-breakfast guests love the house’s open fires. Above: The hard-working couple take a break from their labours.


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