Marcassie Farm Project

Sven and Betsy met, married and started their family in Norway, where they lived on Sven’s family croft near Bergen for 8 years. They came to Scotland in 1991, fell in love with Moray, and decided to put down roots here and stay. By 1997 they had found the land they were looking for, somewhere to create a place where innovation and creativity could happen, where enterprise and stewardship of the land through working with nature could provide meaningful connection and empower something new, a way forward grounded in spiritual rather than purely material principles.

That place was Marcassie Farm. When they moved on to the farm in 1998, the farm steading was in a dilapidated state and the farmhouse was a burnt-out ruin, with the 18 acres of arable land one big field. Marcassie would have been a big farm in its day, with the farmhouse built around 1820, and a large farm steading around an open courtyard, a corn mill, sawmill and an assortment of cottages and bothies. There used to be water works to turn a bruising mill, a flour mill and a sawmill. The farm was registered for one year as a distillery farm in 1898. The house is B Listed by Historic Scotland and the farm considered to be of historic importance agriculturally.

Restoration of the land and buildings has been a long slow labour of love, inspired by nature, craftsmanship and creativity, and the wish to leave a positive legacy of human living which encompasses care and regeneration, for self, others and the land. They set to work on the land and began the two year process of organic conversion, and were lucky to secure agri-environmental funding to fence it in to smaller fields, dig two ponds and, with the help of friends, plant 10,000 hedge plants and 200+ trees. This work created extensive lengths of fruiting hedgerow and multiple habitats for wildlife and birds. They sowed beetlebanks down the main field where they grew barley, wheat, rye and oats, had several batches of their own brand of oatcakes commercially produced, had horses at grass, and eventually acquired laying hens and a flock of friendly Gotland x Shetland sheep. Latterly in addition to keeping sheep and birds, they have been growing fruit, vegetables and herbs and making cordial and conserves. Shearing at the end of May and hay making in late summer have also been part of their annual seasonal calendar.

It took them ten years to restore the Farmhouse, first with the help of local stonemasons, then of the wonderful journeyman carpenters (Wandergeselle) who came their way. During those years they lived in chalets, caravans and huts, did what they could to patch up the farm steading building and from there, ran NorBuild Timber Fabrication & Fine Carpentry, a sawmill and bespoke joinery shop specializing in Scottish grown timber for a wide range of products both for joiners and self-builders as well as architect led projects privately as well as in the public domain.

NorBuild was a founder member of ASHS, the Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers, and worked collaboratively with Forestry Commission Scotland to develop government policy around management, marketing and uses for the Scottish timber resource, and with Napier University to develop technology for glulamination of beams and panels using Scottish timber.

Their EU LEADER funding award in 2018 enabled them to build the Lodges and made possible the realisation of a long held dream to share this beautiful farm and the beauty of Moray with others. The design and construction of the Lodges reflect Sven and Betsy’s values and nearly 20 years of working in the Scottish timber industry. The octagonal units combine the look of traditional whisky spirit vessels with a local design for an octagonal dovecote. Materials, fixtures and furnishings were chosen with consideration for their aesthetic, health and environmental impact. Most of the timber is Scottish-grown. The internal timber linings, shelving, furniture and finishings are of Oregon Pine reclaimed from Scottish whisky spirit vessels and made in the farm Woodshop and the heating and hot water are generated from a wood-chip-fired district heating system.

Marcassie Farm is intended to be a peaceful and contemplative place where you can find yourself and also be with others, a haven in which to unwind, digitally detox, smell the roses, touch the soil, hear birds and see stars. A space in Scotland where innovators and creatives can meet, and magic can take place.

Their vision for the farm has been to bring together on a small, human and replicable scale, and through the combined activities of business enterprise, demonstration and education, the creation and production of those products, services and activities which are essential to human survival, right human relations and service to the whole.

These services and activities – food, shelter, energy, arts & crafts, healing and spiritual training – are represented in a six pointed star which has provided the form through which our vision has gradually emerged. Our strap line for the Project is ‘New Light on Ancient Craft’.

Part of this journey has included a wish to preserve and support the modern application of traditional rural skills and heritage crafts, and to provide recreational, experiential, educational and work opportunities especially for younger people.

From early on we have also held the vision that somehow we would be able to support the emergence within the energy field of this place, of a tangible quality of being that would touch, inspire and draw out of every individual who comes here their authentic best self and the part they play in service for the greatest good of the whole.

Our guiding values and principles are:

• Context – the interrelationship of parts to the whole; local resourcing / sharing; working innovatively, cooperatively and creatively within the parameters that local resourcing entails; combining the best of the old with the best of the new.

• Circular Processes – rhythms, cycles, recycling; learning to use resources innovatively and creatively; maximizing re-use, minimizing waste.

• Whole Processes – joined-up thinking, from raw material to finished product; how understanding and control of whole process on a small scale increases flexibility, empowerment and opportunities for creativity and innovation.

• Human Scale – personal, meaningful, achievable, bringing together knowledge and experience in a meaningful way and with due regard for the social, cultural and environmental context.

The streams of endeavor we support and foster are - Enterprise, Exposition, Education and Empowerment.

The current live-in community on the farm consists of individuals and micro-businesses engaged in the skills and promotion of heritage crafts, food growing, processing and preserving, gourmet mushrooms, artisan and gourmet cooking, wild foraging, bushcraft, film-making, Ayurveda wellbeing including yoga, meditation and sound healing, music, psychosynthesis counselling, energy healing and the Ageless Wisdom teachings.