Castlecraig Farm is a family run organic farm with suckler cattle, breeding sheep and around 250 acres of spring cereals. In the summer of last year the business opened Castlecraig Clifftops which is a development of four self catering cabins located on a spectacular part of the farm over looking the Moray Firth and coastline. With no previous experience of running such an enterprise, the family have worked together to deliver a major infrastructure development with no grant funding during challenging times and made a fantastic success of it.
The transformation of an inaccessible green field on the side of a cliff in to a first-class tourist destination is what makes this case stand out. The business opened on the 2nd of July 2021 and has been almost fully booked ever since. Visitor feedback has been excellent which has resulted in return customers and solid bookings through until the end of October with the rest of the year and 2023 starting to fill up fast. According to feedback, attention to detail and high levels of cleanliness, and of the facilities provided, is what makes the business stand out. Details such as the warm welcome provided and the welcome hamper of locally produced food and drink products are very well received and all these details combine to great effect. With the easing of Covid restrictions in 2022, many people are returning to travelling abroad for their holidays. This has resulted many similar businesses seeing reductions in bookings (source: Scottish Agritourism). This has not been the case with Castlecraig Clifftops which is on target to maintain current levels of occupancy (above 90% since opening). The business works hard to promote other local businesses and guests are sign posted to local places to eat, visit and shop. We collaborate with local businesses to offer discounts to guests and also to provide catering options etc. The business employs two people on a part-time basis for cleaning and changeovers and has used many local trades businesses who are retained to cover on-going maintenance.
With the business having only been in operation for a little over a year, there are not a lot of major changes that have taken place. However, minor tweaks, adaptations and changes are a constant on-going process. Our guests are great at giving feedback and all receive a feedback form within their welcome pack. Most take the time to fill this out and, whilst the feedback is over-whelmingly positive, we get fantastic suggestions and constructive criticism that we will almost always act upon. The feedback is a great means of driving constant improvement and is an important market research tool. The challenge with providing comfort and luxury in a relatively small space is that you can’t provide absolutely everything that would be expected in your home. However, it is great fun finding the next best things that comes in a small package! For example, from the start we provide a small amount of fold away cleaning equipment as we only expect a basic level of cleanliness from our guests. However, a common theme in the feedback from an early stage was that a vacuum cleaner would be useful – particularly from the dog owners. After a bit of product research, we now have a compact hand held hoover in each cabin but stress that use of it is optional! There are more major changes planned for the future which include installation of an electric vehicle charger, conversion from mains to renewable supply of electricity and at least two more cabins.
The main challenges faced have been in the delivery of the project. The fact we were undertaking the project during lock-down meant that we weren’t able to visit the production facility. That meant that we did not see the product until it arrived on site. Many hours were spent on Teams calls to decide on materials, layout, furniture and fittings which added a layer of complexity. The refusal to compromise on the location brought many logistical and financial challenges. The spectacular location was key to the success of the venture but with no access or services to the site, the cost of infrastructure was always going to be significant. We opted for a system that pumped and filtered our private supply of spring water, electricity took the same route over a 500m distance from the mains connection. 650m of roads needed to be made as well as the site preparation and services delivery to each of the individual sites. It was perhaps inevitable that some sort of archaeological find would turn up and that resulted in delays and some extra cost. During the last phase of the ground and service provision works, the cabins started to arrive and they brought their own logistical challenges. A precarious final journey down to their final resting place from the farm steading was perhaps pushing their design limits! All was delivered on time and on budget and our first guests who had been brave enough to place advance bookings were not disappointed.