Kinnordy

Kinnordy encompasses two estates, across a sweep of Angus landscape that runs from Strathmore up to the private glen at Balintore, where Anthony and Jo Gifford have planted 500,000 trees and are re-meandering a burn back to its natural course. Red squirrels and roe deer roam this haven of Scottish landscape, while raptors wheel overhead.

The farming is deliberately varied. Arable rotation, both conventional and regenerative, of potatoes, wheat, barley, beans and oil seed rape, runs alongside a separate organic arable farm and extensive organic livestock producing lamb, beef and venison, currently sold wholesale. There is flexibility for new businesses to work with existing crops, or if the idea is strong enough, grow something entirely new.

The estate buildings are already getting busier. The Angus Esks DSFB & Fisheries Trust share office space with the Kinnordy team. Sustainable Kirriemuir runs a market garden from the farm, supplying hyperlocal vegetables to the residents and businesses of Kirriemuir and Angus. West Inch dog boarding and grooming brings dogs and their owners to the Scottish countryside. New workshop and studio units are coming as an old steading is renovated. And at times, the grand farm buildings fill with something unexpected – the first Chamber Music Festival was held in 2016 and has returned regularly since, bringing Beethoven, Sibelius, Ravel and Brahms to the Angus countryside.

Resources already being produced/available on the farm that provide opportunities for other businesses include:

• Roe deer venison
• Organic lamb
• Beef
• Timber
• Oats
• Barley
• Wheat
• Oil seed rape
• Potatoes
• Scope to cultivate novel crops

Antony and Jo Gifford moved to Kinnordy in 2016, leaving two very different careers behind. Antony had spent 20 years as a fund manager in the City, while Jo had been a paediatrician before going to art college. Arriving to a new life in rural Angus was, as Antony puts it, “a bit of a change”.

The first years Antony spent mending things: fences, drains, sheds, houses, while learning to bluff his way (his words) through farming and land management. More recently, his earlier business background has come back into use. He’s now a Trustee at both Sustainable Kirriemuir and the Kirriemuir Development Trust, strengthening the estate’s link to the surrounding communities. And Kinnordy is now a level 2 accredited member of Wildlife Estates Scotland, reflecting the hard work being put in to ecologically restore the land it covers.

Antony has been following Pitch Up! & Grow for several years, including a visit to Balcaskie, and is now looking forward to forging innovative partnerships to make the most of the land.

Jo, meanwhile, is most likely to be found in her studio, working with porcelain and stoneware.

Sustainable Kirriemuir – sustainablekirriemuir.co.uk / @sustainablekirriemuir

An environmental charity aiming to make Kirriemuir a place where people and nature flourish. Their Grow @ The Farm community market garden project is based at Kinnordy.

West Inch dog grooming and boarding – facebook.com/WestInch.grooming/

Dog boarding in the Scottish countryside at West Inch Farm

Esk Rivers & Fisheries Trust – eskriversangus.uk

The trust works with the Esk District Salmon Fishery Board to protect and improve wild salmon and sea trout populations across several rivers, including the River South Esk that flows through Angus.