About Brucefield estate

arriving

By car: we are within an hour of Edinburgh & Glasgow, and even less to Perth & Stirling. St Andrews is an hour away.

By train/bicycle: we are easily reachable by train, arriving into Alloa station, from where a taxi or your bicycle can bring you to us (6 miles) as we’re on the Sustrans NCN764 traffic-free route: see our Strava map here. Direct trains from Glasgow (46 mins) and one change from Edinburgh. Even from as far away as London, the 12 noon train will have you in time to put logs on the stove at a quarter to six in the evening (with only one change at Stirling).

Dog-friendly

At Slackbrae and at the Schenbothies you can bring your dog with you: they’ll love to explore the scents along the woodland paths, and will be happy to return, ready for a good nap, in the evening. Due to the surrounding wildlife and livestock we do ask that you keep your dog on a lead at all times.

Food deliveries and Dining in & out

Treat yourself to a glorious afternoon tea on arrival - or book a picnic hamper to take to the woodlands with you: contact Polly’s Pantry who delivers direct to your accommodation with us. Or book our popular Cook over Coals kit to have over your firepit.

If local farm produce including lamb and pork sound tempting we can put you in contact with our carefully selected local producers including farms and farm shops, some of whom will deliver to you and others provide you a good excuse to see a little more of our surrounding countryside by popping out to collect.

We’re also delighted to recommend local chefs for special celebratory lunches or dinners, and we have several bakers nearby who delight in whipping up scrumptious patisserie and cakes for our guests.

Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Tesco all deliver to us and we’d be delighted to unpack your shop so all ready in your kitchen on arrival - just let us know in advance.

Accessibility

Slackbrae has been designed with accessibility in mind: you can park at the paved path to the front door, and there are no steps at all throughout the cottage, including out to the patio and the walk-in shower room where you’ll find a stylish pull-down seat and chrome grab rail. VisitScotland accessibility info for Slackbrae is available here. Slackbrae is suitable for:

• Elderly guests

• Guests with frail mobility

• Ambulant disabled

• Assisted wheelchair users

Please note that the bothies have a sleeping gallery which can only be accessed via a ladder and therefore not suitable for those unable to easily ascend or descend a ladder.

Outside, there are quiet roads around the estate and in particular there is a traffic-free cycle path that runs through the estate, providing access for everyone on two wheels to see the nature of the estate, whether on a bicycle or a wheelchair.

Sustainability

We aim to follow and champion good sustainability practices and share these with guests, to reduce the environmental impacts of our activities and to give something back to our environment by:

• Renovating traditional buildings in line with recognised traditional practices ie using stonemasonry, lime mortars, timber sash and case windows and encourage contractors, if not already qualified, to undertake training at eg The Scottish Lime Centre Trust.

• Utilising a ‘fabric first’ approach to renovating buildings: this maximises the performance of materials that make up the building fabric itself, before considering the use of mechanical or electrical building services systems. This can help to reduce capital and operational costs, improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions whilst reducing ongoing maintenance costs. Focusing on the building fabric is generally considered to be more sustainable than relying on energy saving products, or renewable technologies, which can be expensive and may or may not be used efficiently by occupants.

• We have a good awareness of our historical landscape since the medieval days and our aim is to share this information with guests during their stay in an informal and fun way.

• We are in our 4th year of ecological assessment working with independent ecologists and have collated data to achieve a good baseline demographic of most of the flora and fauna here. This has been fundamental for us to put together our 10-year wildlife plan which aims to protect and enhance the biodiversity on the estate.  

• We encourage our guests to become involved if they wish and learn about our heritage, our wildlife and our sustainability practices.

• We strive to use our resources efficiently and use environmetally-friendly housekeeping techniques and products.

Our farming

We grow mainly spring cereals, mainly oats but also winter cereals such as winter wheat. We strive to use mintill and controlled traffic farming where possible to reduce soil compaction. Our arable field margins support several species that are of local and national conservation status including corn marigold (Glebionis segetum), corn spurry (Spergula arvensis) and hairy buttercup (Ranunculus sardous).