Working sheep farm in South Lanarkshire with a flock of 500 ewes

South Lanarkshire

1 review • Updated 19 days ago

Hiya! We are Euan and Laura and we are farming in South Lanarkshire and are new to hosting wwoofers! (our profile says that we have been there a while, but it's only because I used to wwoof myself many years ago, that's also why we don't have reviews yet!) We are a 'relatively' young new entrants in farming. We have recently bought a small property of 50 acres which we use as a base for all our other farming activities. This is located in Auchengray, Scotland. This is where my partner has some of sheep (around 100 or so depending on the time of year, grass, etc.), and I have my sheep dogs (around 12-15 dogs). Why so many dogs right?! Well I am a sheep dog trainer (for other people's dogs) and I also train dogs to sell to farmers. I work with my dogs of course, but also compete. We also have 2 Connemara ponies, a cat and a cocker spaniel (probably more hyper than all the collies put together! :p) We have both some more grazing that we rent outside our little home farm. The biggest one is near Biggar (which is a stunning location btw!). I have my sheep there (a flock of around 450 -ish ewes, + lambs +rams) I go there everyday, it is a short commute of less than 20 minutes. Regarding our farming practice, we are not a certified organic farm, although we operate with organic values. We prioritize animal welfare, soil health, and sustainable practices, using targeted and selective treatments only when necessary to maintain flock health and minimize environmental impact. Our home farm is quite isolated but with a bike or a car, you can easily get to bigger city like Lanark or Livingston (or even bigger like Edinburgh or Glasgow). We are 45 min from Edinburgh. Euan combines sheep farming with professional shearing and ultrasound scanning for ewe's pregnancy. What experience we can offer? If you love hiking ? We would love for someone to take some of our young dogs for hours of walk and attention to socialize them and have some fun time! The back of the farm takes you to a thousand acres wood – a mixture of commercial and native woodland. If there are some particular walks you would like to do, we are happy to drop you off to some lovely local places. i.e. New Lanark, Falls of Clyde, Tinto (hill), and those are just examples of what you could do 😊 If you are interested in community project? We are very lucky to have a community farm nearby. We have different groups during the week and weekend. Volunteering for construction, polytunnel, café, walks, bee keeping, activities, etc. If you are interested in larger animals? We would love to share some of our knowledge with sheep. Although, bear in mind that if sheep is your major interest, we might not always have work available. But if we do, you are most welcome to join in! The ponies do live outside but during the winter get brought in the stable at night. They love a fuss, someone to groom them and muck their stable. If you are confident with horses, we might arrange to put their back packs on and off you go for a hike! (Sorry no riding involved tho!) You love dogs? Our dogs might sound a bit different than pets since they are used to work, but make no mistake, they love their work! Nevertheless, they love attention too, and if you fancy spending hours in their kennels, brush them, teach them to walk on a lead, muck the kennels (if you want to help too). You will be welcome to watch some of them being trained to work sheep and even come with me to some dog trials (if there are some during your stay). Gardening and vegetable garden? Well, that's the embarrassing bit now! We moved to our new place a year ago, and with all the work in and outside the house, we haven't spend any time at all gardening or growing vege. We can't even say that this is something that we know well, as to be true this isn't really our department! But we would love to learn and the idea of growing our own vege very much inspire us! So if you have green hands, we do have a big front garden, and a back garden surrounding the farmhouse with a green house. Trees, edges and biodiversity? At my rented land, the lovely owner Lyn does a fantastic work looking after the biodiversity of the farm, growing edges between fields, nests for birds, wild flowers... etc. She is a lovely character and brilliant at sharing her knowledge. In our spare time, we also run a small social enterprise who give opportunity to vulnerable young people to work with and care for farm animals and pets. It is pretty difficult to describe a typical day, as not one day is the same! Although the animals have to be looked after everyday indeed. Checking sheep, looking after the dogs, the ponies... And There are always plenty of things needed done :-) If you 'd like to give us 4-5hours of your time (if possible), you are also very welcome to explore and do things on your own. We might also be working in other farms and not be able to be there at all time, so be prepared to be independent too :-) Our Wwoofers can stay in our "Collie Hut", a converted container with electricity, a bedroom (that can be locked) and a living space with fridge, microwave, kettle.. situated at the back of the farm yard. Showers and meals at the farmhouse. We have a very modest property, often not very tidy at all due to our busy schedule (and let's be honest, we would rather be outside with the sheep, dogs or horses than cleaning!) We cook all sort of wholesome meals, we don't order take away. We are sometimes busy fools running around like mad chickens! and as much as we try our best to eat local and healthy, we would love to share our cooking skills and your ideas of meals :-) Euan can play the bagpipes -if you nag him long enough, he might play for you! He also likes fishing and of course... and buying more sheep... (jeezo) I (Laura) , like to train and compete with sheep dogs, and ride my pony. I like to buy more ponies... (We are a bad combination, right?) If after reading this, you still want to send us an email and join the busy and chaotic schedule :-) , please send us a message!

Learning opportunities

Horse or donkey farming

Sheep or goat farming

Traditional crafts

Methods or systems

Rotational grazing

Host type

Production farm

Former WWOOFer

80.9 Hectares | 200 Acres

Accommodation

2 WWOOFers

Cabin / Mobile-home

Children not accepted

Pets not accepted

Meals

Omnivore

Vegetarian

Length of stay

1-2 weeks

Laura

Member since 2015

Languages spoken: English, French Response rate: 63% Response time: typically within 5 days

December 2025

Open

Planned visit

Closed

South Lanarkshire

Carstairs Station (and Edinburgh airport)

Reviews

Matteo

Belgium • November 2025

We stayed with Laura and Euan for 20 days and had a really good time !! They are both really welcoming, generous, funny and talkative. We instantly felt comfortable with them, included into the family and their habits. The work was varied, divided into animals work such as walking the dogs, dozing sheep and sheep work in general, taking care of the poneys. And also some wood work such as building a compost and a bird house, chopping wood and painting. Laura is really experimented in training sheep dogs and it was very interesting and funny to work with them. We slept into a fitted container surrounded by sheep, next to the main house. Every evening, we spent a few hours talking with them. They are both really interesting people and we learned a lot from them. During the last evening, Euan played the bagpipes which he is very good at ! Thank you very much Laura and Euan for welcoming us ! We highly recommend and hope to come back again.