Nominee Summary
Teasses Estate should win the Scottish Land and Estates Rural Business Award 2026 for its successful transformation into a dynamic rural tourism and events enterprise. While retaining its traditional estate values of farming, sporting and stewardship, Teasses has diversified with imagination and ambition, creating weddings, garden visits, self-catering accommodation, country sports and seasonal events that attract new audiences to rural Fife. Its restored walled garden, woodland setting and wider estate landscape now provide a distinctive visitor experience rooted in place, heritage and quality. Teasses demonstrates how a modern estate can protect rural traditions while building sustainable income, employment and community.
What makes your nominee stand out?
Teasses stands out because it is not simply relying on one income stream or one traditional estate activity. It has developed a broad, joined-up rural business model that brings together weddings, garden tourism, country sports, self-catering accommodation, farming, conservation and seasonal events. Its strength is the way these activities complement each other. The restored walled garden supports weddings, visitor days, photography, lunches and events. The sporting side attracts rural tourism visitors while maintaining traditional estate skills. The cottages extend the visitor experience into overnight stays, and the wider landscape gives everything a strong sense of place. What makes Teasses distinctive is that the diversification feels authentic rather than bolted on. It remains a working rural estate, but one that has opened itself up to new audiences, created employment, improved visitor facilities and shown clear ambition for sustainable growth in rural Fife.
Supporting the local community
Teasses Estate supports the local community by being an active and engaged presence within rural Fife. Alongside providing local employment across gardening, housekeeping, events, maintenance, sporting, farming and administration, the estate contributes directly to community life through sponsorship, education and support for local enterprise. Teasses is proud to sponsor important local events such as the Ceres Highland Games and St Andrews Highland Games, helping to sustain valued rural traditions and bring people together. The estate also works with RHET at Ceres Primary School, supporting rural education and helping young people understand farming, land management, food production and the countryside around them. Through its weddings, garden openings, seasonal events, country sports and self-catering accommodation, Teasses brings visitors into the area and creates opportunities for local businesses. The estate regularly works with local suppliers, tradespeople, caterers, florists, contractors, food producers and service providers, helping to keep money circulating within the local economy. By opening its gardens, investing in its historic landscape, supporting community events and working collaboratively with neighbouring businesses and organisations, Teasses demonstrates that a modern estate can be commercially successful while remaining rooted in, and committed to, the community it serves.
Maintaining high ethical/environmental standards
Environmentally, Teasses places strong emphasis on protecting its landscape, gardens, woodland and farmland. The estate supports biodiversity through sensitive woodland and garden management, conservation-minded farming, responsible country sports and the maintenance of habitats across the wider estate. Its organic farming approach also reflects a commitment to sustainable food production and reduced environmental impact. The estate’s diversification into weddings, garden tourism, self-catering accommodation and events has been developed around existing assets, such as the restored walled garden, woodland, historic buildings and rural landscape. This helps bring new economic life to the estate without compromising its character or overdeveloping the countryside. Ethically, Teasses supports local employment, local suppliers and rural skills. It sponsors community events such as the Ceres Highland Games and St Andrews Highland Games, works with RHET at Ceres Primary School, and promotes positive engagement between people, farming, land management and the countryside. By balancing commercial growth with conservation, community benefit and responsible stewardship, Teasses demonstrates high standards in both environmental care and ethical rural enterprise.
