[jward]

After much consideration we have decided that a move to Scotland is on the cards so we're looking to rent a farm or smallholding with a house, land, and at least a building or two.  No preference for area so if anyone knows of anything please let me know or point us in the right direction.  Thank you. 

[Factotum]

Maybe you should start with the larger land agents up here- CKD Galbraith, Strutt & Parker, Savills-Smiths Gore and Bowlts.

All have extensive websites.

Could try some Estates - around here there's Altyre, Knockando, Seafield or Dallas.

Also, try the various Solicitor Property Centres (solicitors are estate agents in Scotland). Start at this website:

http://www.sspc.co.uk/

It's a bit difficult to be more specific - Scotland is a large place...

Sue

[jward]

Thanks, I'm already obsessively checking the estate agents but will check out that site and those estates too.

I forgot to mention more about our situation on my first post - we'd be predominantly wanting to run sheep, but also a few cattle if the place would be suitable.  We've some pigs now but I'm reducing them down to just four sows.  We've got a small flock of sheep currently and have been wanting / trying to expand where we are now, but haven't got enough land and opportunities for more are non-existent so it's just not feasible to continue here so we've decided to sell our current place.

[verdifish]

Good luck and keep us all informed.

[jward]

Thanks, I'll try that too.

[ellied]

What kind of acreage/house size do you need?  A few sheep may mean different things, cattle likewise... And by buildings do you mean animal housing or a hay barn and handling areas?

I'm probably looking to sell up but just trying to consider options as it's a big decision to quit and hard to be sure what a good timeout break might do to my opinion..

[jward]

3 bed house and preferably towards 20 acres - happy to rent more land nearby from someone else if it was available to. I've 16 sheep currently, mainly Shetlands in lamb but would be wanting to increase the flock size if commercial breed sheep to whatever I could sustain on the land. Building wise, somewhere to store hay and to house my horses, even if I just turned them into barns as they live in.

[jward]

Now urgent as it seems things could be moving faster with the sale of our place than anticipated. Will consider anything so long as there's a house, somewhere to put 4 or 5 horses and a field to put the ewes I've got and can then look at renting additional fields later.

[ellied]

OK mine no good in that timescale and only 2 bed plus a poss dining conversion and only 10 acres.  Good luck.

[jward]

Thanks for all the replies.   Things are still up in the air right now as to whether the sale is going through or not so I'm kind of at a lost as to what we're doing in the short term.  It's possible that we'll be sticking where we are for now and I'll probably try and rent a few extra fields for the summer while we continue looking and applying for tenancies on the estates in Scotland, but if anyone knows/hears of anything in the mean time then please let me know.  One of these days I will know what I'm doing...