Pentland hills farm becomes Scotland’s smallest wildlife accredited property

A nature friendly family farm on the outskirts of Edinburgh has become the smallest landholding in Scotland to be awarded prestigious international wildlife accreditation.

Easter Bavelaw Farm, which is nestled to the south of Threipmuir Reservoir in the Pentland Hills, has gained Wildlife Estates Scotland (WES) certification following a rigorous accreditation process.

At only 193 hectares, Easter Bavelaw and its owners Becci and Graham Barr are pursuing an exemplary environmental approach to their land management.

After purchasing the farm in 2016, the Barrs have operated the farm as a low input, low output, low impact sheep farm with a modest flock of Easycare ewes. In doing so, they have implemented a holistic approach to land management and food production, ranking the enhancement of biodiversity with equal priority to creating and maintaining an economically viable business.

In the last six years, they have planted nearly 50ha of mixed commercial and non-commercial woodland, planted 200m of hedgerow and implemented minimum tillage techniques