Let us introduce ourselves...
We are Mark and Alison Hibbert, and our daughter Elsa. We think that our small farm and fantastic surroundings deserve to be shared with visitors who, like us, enjoy the outdoor life. So, Shepherd’s Rest was born!
We are fortunate enough to live on a small farm in Foulden, a rural village in the eastern Scottish Borders, just 5 miles from Berwick-Upon-Tweed and its mainline train station. It is a secluded quiet location, free from traffic jams and suburban noise, allowing you to unwind and relax with just the sounds of wildlife and farm animals as a backdrop. We are close to some fabulous beaches, Coldingham and Cheswick being our particular favourites, magnificent castles and stately homes including Floors Castle, Mellerstain and Paxton House. Nearby Ayton, is home to The Hemelvaart Bier Café, a trendy continental style bier café bar which hosts live music, film and comedy events.
The Scottish Borders is a beautiful, relatively undiscovered region, the gateway to Scotland, convenient for Edinburgh, the Lothians and North Northumberland.
We started our family farm here in 2003, built our own farmhouse and transformed the land into a nature-friendly grassland farm, planting diverse traditional hedges for wildlife corridors and encouraging biodiversity.
By grazing our sheep and Scottish native breed ponies on a non-intensive system, the wildlife here has flourished enormously over the years. We enjoy a huge variety of small birds, from robins, yellowhammers, wrens, house sparrows, tits and woodpeckers to buzzards soaring high on the thermals. The summer is very special, with the return of swallows from Africa and skylarks hovering way up in the sky, singing their hearts out! In the autumn and winter, fieldfares and huge flocks of migrating geese pass through. At night, we are lucky that there is no light pollution, allowing fantastic stargazing opportunities – you may hear barn and tawny owls too! In the spring when we are lambing, you can see the lambs with their mums, exploring their brand new world. You can also see deer, pheasants, badgers, foxes and hares on the farm and surrounding fields.
Visitors can stay in one of our cosy shepherd’s huts or on our campsite with grass pitches for tents and a separate area for campervans