Cairnton Farm
Award Winning Aberdeen Angus Farm
The Farm
Cairnton Farm is home to the Cairnton pedigree herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle, and the holiday cottages are surrounded by grass fields of black cattle and barley grown for the local whisky industry – Scotland biggest export. The Howie family have been at Cairnton for well over 30 years, and the farm has developed over that time – but the key ingredients of beautiful scenery, and a kindly climate, make it a wonderful holiday location – Ken’s favourite saying is ‘Black cows, Green Grass and Blue skies – this is heaven with an overdraft’
Not just a farm
While they may be farmers at heart, like so many others in the farming community, the Howie’s have diversified to ensure a sustainable operation. Long before Cairnton Farm Cottages came to fruition, they set up an outdoor activity business offering clay shooting, kart racing, archery and more to both corporate groups and tourists.
Initially run from Cairnton Farm, they later made use of an otherwise wasted area of land in the basin of the valley and turned it into Deeside Activity Park, a multi activity centre with a coffee and farm shop, from which visitors can taste and purchase their home-grown Cairnton Aberdeen Angus beef and other quality local produce.
Innovation
With a reliance on corporate groups from the turbulent Aberdeen oil and gas industry, Ken and Margaret recognised that the outdoor activity market could be unpredictable at best and so they set about converting the farm buildings into the luxury self-catering holiday lets of Cairnton Farm Cottages.
More recently and sitting adjacent to Deeside Activity Park is our business park which houses a number of complementary organisations, such as Hilltrek Outdoor Clothing, Norvite Farm and Country Store, and Lost Loch Distillery, which help to make our part of Royal Deeside a truly unique visitor experience.