17/05/2026
A reminder of a post from August 2024 about our reclaimed school bike shed and self service shop plans.
Well things have certainly moved on since then. We now supply, firewood, kindling, peat-free compost, top soil, bark, soft fruit and eggs.
We are also just a couple of weeks away from opening our cabin shop that will serve bean to cup coffee, ice-cream and local produce.
We will aim to stock items from as local as possible, but may have to reach further afield for some stock.
We have had initial discussions with suppliers who are just minutes from us and we hope that this will result in hyper-local produce such as venison, lamb, locally grown produce and baked goods.
The field next door is barley for the whisky trade, it may be a wee while before we are able to get that in your shopping basket.
New life for an old Bike Shed. Our new self service shop.
A few weeks ago, one of the school bike sheds was blown down in a storm. I spotted it on the back of scrap truck and chased the driver down, agreed a price and had the parts delivered to our site.
This morning we employed the local blacksmith (with an extra pair of hands from yours truly) to repair and erect the shed. He also added more structural bracing to avoid a repeat of the storm damage.
Our plan is to close off the rear of the structure with wooden fencing, then add a solar powered security camera and a paypoint/cash box to create a self-service shop for passing customers and also guests.
We feel that firewood, charcoal and kindling could be popular with locals and visitors, however, there are likely to be more products that could be stocked.
One local business has suggested bird seed, its a good idea, provided we can rodent (and bird proof) the supply, but what would you stock or like to see stocked?
I would be grateful for any ideas and especially items that motorhome guests would find useful. The open nature of the structure does restrict us, however, we could introduce cabinets so nothing is totally out of the question.
NB: We currently do not permit fires anywhere on site, but may review this next time our insurance premium is up for renewal.