Flo Macaskill
Balvicar Farm
Isle of Seil
Oban, Argyll
01852 300355
About The farm
Balvicar Farm is a small crofting scale agricultural unit. We run some suckler cows and a flock of sheep split fifty- fifty Blackface and Cross Leicester.
We also produce oysters intertidally in Seil Sound off our shoreline. We find free range egg production works well in such a small scale farming context.
Originally Seil was part of the Breadalbane Estate and at one time you could cross Scotland from coast to coast without leaving Breadalbane lands. A wood on our shore was planted by the Earl of Breadalbane to avoid him having to look across from his mainland hunting lodge at a particularly extravagant manse he had unwittingly paid for.
The farm contains a number of species of rare orchids and bird protection measures are also in place. The land runs down to the shores of Seil Sound where we regularly see otters, seals and dolphins.
At the last count we have recorded the ruins of 31 longhouses on our land.