Highland Cows
You can download the information leaflet and map here.
During the Summer months two of our Highland Cows (Thelma & Louise!) are located just a short 3 or 4 minute walk from our farm restaurant, Swanston Brasserie.
Visitors to Swanston Farm are able to see the rest of our herd of Highland Cows if they are prepared to take a hike up the hill! Please be aware that our Highland Cows graze 300 acres of hill land above the farm and can be found anywhere in this area – there is no guarantee that you will find them as they can sometimes hide away in bad weather in sheltered nooks on the hills – or on very hot days they will mostly be at the highest points of the hills, where the air is coolest (this is climb is from 815ft/248m AMSL up to 1474ft/450m AMSL!).
For those prepared to walk the extra distance to see the rest of our herd of Highland Cows, we recommend sturdy trainers or preferably walking boots, along with appropriate clothing for the weather conditions before venturing out up the slopes at the bases of Caerketton Hill and Allermuir Hill of the Pentland Hills Regional Park. You can sometimes get quite close to our Highland Cattle – enough to take good photographs – however as they are not used to humans touching them, we request that you don’t try to cuddle or stroke them! Please keep dogs under strict control around them and avoid startling the cattle. You can download our leaflet about our Highland Cows which tells you where to find them, shows a map with a recommended walking route and some interesting facts about our herd. Please do not feed our cattle anything – cows have a very sensitive digestive system and can get extremely ill if fed foodstuffs not designed for cattle. Please respect the countryside and our farm and ensure that you take your litter home.
For more reading about Highland Cattle, take a look at the Highland Cattle Society.
Filming and Photo Shoots with our Cattle
If you, your TV/film production company or fashion house is interested in using our cattle for filming or fashion shoots, please contact us in the office via email or via telephone on 0131 445 2239 (option 3).
Watch the VisitScotland video campaign #ComeAlongScotland featuring our Highland Cattle here.
Fashion on the Farm!
In the Summer of 2018 we welcomed 2 male models, Glen Power at SUPA Model Management and Richard Keep (Actor & Model) at Scoop Models, photographer Simon Lipman, stylist Hannah Beck and make-up artist Oscar Alexander to Swanston Farm as part of their trip to Scotland from London, to photograph a range of clothing for South China Morning Post‘s Magazine, ‘Style’.
Our Farm Team worked alongside their Fashion Team with some of our animals, including our Highland Cows, Sheep and Horses.
You can take a look at the results in the online Style article by Chief Editor Jacqueline Tsang here.
You can also see further images on the website of the Stylist, Hannah Beck here.
Gallery of our Coos (click on images to enlarge):