Key Facts

  • Atholl Estates consists of two main blocks of land, the largest lies to the north and east of Blair Atholl.
  • The combined estate covers 145,700 acres broken down into:
    • Agriculture: 54,000 acres (5,800 ploughed, 48,000 grazing)
    • DeerForest (open moorland): 81,000 acres
    • Woodlands: 10,700 acres (8200 commercial woods, 2,500 native pine wood) 
  • Our head office is in Blair Atholl, adjacent to the castle, where we have a team of 7 administration assistants but we also have satellite offices at the caravan park and castle. 
  • We employ around 75 full time and 60 seasonal staff. 
  • Our two in-hand farms run 185 cattle and 2750 sheep, managed by a combined team of 7 men.
  • We employ 12 staff in our game keeping team to maintain a natural balance in our countryside and protect some of the internationally important habitats and species that live here.
  • We lease over 200 houses to locally employed people as their primary homes and a further 180 houses are provided to staff, retired staff and let farm staff.
  • Our maintenance team includes 5 multi-skilled tradesmen and a large team of self employed contractors to look after our build assets including the castle and tourism related infrastructure.
  • Forestry work covering harvesting and planting is mainly contracted out due to the scale and seasonality of these tasks but we retain a team of 4 staff who provide maintenance and specialist tree care service as well as deer control in areas of new planting.
  • We run a ranger service in partnership with Scottish Natural Heritage to help the public enjoy access to the estate and manage their impacts to the land management operations. The service has one full time ranger and two seasonal rangers, operating from an information centre in Blair Atholl.
  • The estate works closely with Perth and Kinross Council and Perthshire Housing Association to deliver new housing developments on our land for open market sale and social housing. On average 10 houses are built on the estate each year.
  • To assist with the diversification of our local economy, we have developed over 2500 square metres of commercial workshop and light industrial units in the villages of Blair Atholl, Ballinluig and Dunkeld over the last 10 years.