Help at a Rural Cottage, Scotland

Our Cottage is a private home rather than a working estate or tourism business, dating from around 1800 and set in an acre of garden and woodland surrounded by Angus farmland. As a volunteer, you’ll have the older part of the cottage to yourself, including a comfortable bedroom with king-size bed, your own snug with a log fire, and a bathroom with shower. It offers a nice balance of having your own space while still being part of the household. One of the best things about staying here is the location. Although rural and peaceful, the cottage is easy to reach by road and makes a great base for exploring. The Angus Glens are around 30 minutes away, while heading north takes you towards the Cairngorms and Aberdeenshire, making Dove Cottage a natural gateway for exploring more of Scotland. I’m looking for people who would enjoy contributing to the ongoing care and improvement of a much-loved old home and its land. In return, you’ll have a comfortable and characterful place to stay, plenty of independence, and time to explore a beautiful and less touristy part of Scotland with Pictish stones, history and the River Esk. Walking in the `Glens is particularly fabulous as often you will be alone in the landscape. The main help I need is with the acre of garden and land around the Cottage, including a small woodland. Much of the work is about reclaiming overgrown areas rather than light gardening. A priority is removing old black weed-suppressant fabric from borders and clearing established nettle patches. It can be physical, messy work involving digging, pulling, clearing and moving garden material, so I’m looking for people genuinely happy to get stuck in. Depending on the season, there’s also tree and shrub pruning, planting and general garden maintenance. Gardening, horticultural, landscaping, woodland or tree-care and fencing skills are especially welcome. I’m also open to a different skills exchange: I run a wellbeing business, so photography, marketing, content or website skills could be exchanged instead of, or alongside, garden work.