About Us
Welcome to Dunsinnan. A place steeped in the beauty of nature and the richness of Scottish heritage. Nestled within a beautiful landscape, the estate offers a unique blend of historical charm and modern sustainability. Explore ancient woodlands, rolling fields and the heather clad hills that tell tales of the past. Experience the warm spirit of Dunsinnan, a place where history and nature harmoniously intertwine.
The Estate.
Dunsinnan Estate, which incorporates part of the Strathmore Valley and Sidlaw Hills, including the historic Dunsinane Hill, was historically the seat of the Nairne family including the distinguished lawyer Sir William Nairne, Lord Dunsinane, 5th Baronet.
In the late 19th century it was bought by Edinburgh industrialist John Mackay Bernard who expanded it to include almost the entirety of the historic parish of Collace. It includes three prominent hills of the Sidlaw range, Dunsinane Hill, Kings Seat and Black Hill as well as the villages of Kinrossie, Collace and Saucher.
Mackay Bernard carried out significant alterations and improvements to the Estate during the early 20th century. After his death in 1919 it was transferred to his 4th cousin and has been in the ownership of the Fleming Bernard and subsequently Sinclair family ever since.
In the late 1980’s the Estate was significantly restructured and taken on by Jamie and Karen Sinclair with a focus on traditional Estate activities of farming, forestry and residential lets. Today the Estate is run by their son Alex and his wife Alice, the 5th generation of the family to live and work here.
community
Dunsinnan's history and connection with the local community stretches back many years
The Kinrossie village hall was gifted by Dunsinnan Estate to the community in the 1950s and it remains a vibrant hub for the village today used by all generations for activities from morning yoga to the Christmas pantomime!
Kinrossie Recreation Ground was formally given to the community by the Estate in the late 1980’s but has been the home of the Kinrossie Amateur Football Club since the 1930’s. Community fundraising efforts and grant funding enabled the building of a children’s playground, pavilion and floodlights for the football pitch in the early 1990’s. All inhabitants of Kinrossie and district are deemed to be members of the Kinrossie & District Recreation Club who currently manage the ground.
Collace Kirk has been a place of Christian worship since 1242. The current building was erected in 1813 and was overhauled in the early 1900s thanks to the generosity of John Mackay Bernard of Dunsinnan.
Nature & Sustainability.
Dunsinnan is home to a rich mix of woodland including ancient forest, riparian woodland, native birch, hardwoods and commercial softwoods. We sustainably manage the forestry to produce HETAS accredited woodchips for biomass. Our woodlands help to capture around 2000 tonnes of carbon every year, which is over twice the amount we generate, ensuring we are a carbon negative organisation.
Dunsinnan has invested significantly in renewable energy sources over the past decade. We have three biomass boiler systems running with an installed capacity of over 400kW, these produce renewable heat for a significant amount of the business needs. Over a hundred solar panels across two sites enable us to produce almost 50% of our current total electricity demand and we are in the process of increasing our solar capacity and upgrading our properties from oil based boilers to air or ground source heat pumps.
We work hard to provide habitats for wildlife around the estate and as such red squirrels, grey partridge, hares, red grouse, roe deer and osprey can be readily seen running on the hills, nestling in the woodland and burrowing into hedgerows.
History & Legends.
The Estate is home to several historic monuments, including little Dunsinane Broch an ancient iron age fortification, Kings Seat trig point and Dunsinane Hill. It also has strong literary connections with Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Macbeth. In the play, the three witches stir up a cauldron of frightful visions, one declaring “Until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him".
In the present day Dunsinane Hill provides amazing views for walkers and is topped by the remains of an Iron Age fort, also known as Macbeth’s castle. It is believed to have been the site where the Earl of Northumbria defeated King Macbeth of Scotland in 1054.
The Stone of Destiny is the coronation stone of the Kings and Queens of Scotland and England and today can be seen in Perth museum. However, legend has it that the true Stone is hidden in a secret chamber on Dunsinnan Hill. The story goes that in 1296 the Abbot of Scone, knowing that King Edward I’s army was coming to take the Stone to Westminster, hid the true Stone and swapped it for a replica. Excavations carried out in the 19th Century on Dunsinane Hill did indeed uncover a hidden chamber rumoured to contain a 500lb meteoric stone with engraved bronze plaques. Mysteriously this stone was never seen again….
There is some debate as to the meaning of Dunsinane or Dunsinnan. One Gaelic translation is ‘hill of the ants’, probably a reference to the number of people required to build the Iron age fort. Another is ‘fort of the fairy hills’ and indeed this ties in with local legends of faeries dancing in the moonlit meadows of Fairygreen Farm.
Farming.
Arable farming is a significant part of the business and today includes around a thousand acres of arable ground. Our crop rotations include wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, beans, peas, oilseed rape, broccoli, carrots and rye.
We have around a hundred breeding shorthorn cross cattle on the farm managed as a closed beef herd. Every year, in the early spring, new calves are born in the barns and once weaned they are let out to graze over the heather moorland and grass pastures. We are also lucky enough to have blackface sheep roaming the hills as well.