Ballogie Estate is a place of stunning natural beauty lying on the south side of the River Dee in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire. Whether you are looking to stay at one of our luxury self-catering lodges or cottages, enjoy our field sports or salmon fishing in some of the most splendid waters in Scotland, our aim is to ensure your experience is both special and memorable.
Ballogie Estate has belonged to the Nicol family since 1850. The estate is managed by Malcolm and co-owned with his brother Randall. Malcolm and his wife have brought up their family at Ballogie and live on the estate. The family and the estate staff are dedicated to the maintenance, conservation, redevelopment, and safekeeping of the estate for future generations. They are members of the Investors in People scheme, for employee training and development and have been proud to be part of this since 2000, achieving silver accreditation in Spring 2017. They have recently been nominated as a finalist for the Investors in People Awards 2017 for their 'Excellence in Social Responsibllity'.
The estate is the birthplace of the 19th century’s greatest athlete Donald Dinnie, who was born at Balnacraig. His sporting career began at the age of 16 and spanned over 50 years competing successfully in 11,000 competitions. Donald, like his father Robert, was a stonemason. On a market day at Potarch Green sometime in the 1860’s, he entertained the crowds with an amazing show of strength by carrying two boulders, with a combined weight of 332.49 KG, a distance of 4.6 metres across Potarch Bridge. From August this year, following the Aboyne Highland Games, we are proud to have the ‘Dinnie Stones’ on display at a special site in the garden of the Potarch Café and Restaurant beside Potarch Lodge, the gateway to Ballogie Estate.
Much of the forest area is being converted to continuous cover mixed species and mixed age forestry relying on natural regeneration from mature seed trees, leaving the traditional British system of clear fell and replant to only the most productive sites on good soils. Some small-scale amenity planting of broadleaves takes place. The forestry is dominated by Scots Pine with smaller plantations of other conifers, mixed broadleaves and birch. The policy woodlands are dominated by older trees and broadleaves and these along with riparian woodlands and birch woods, provide diverse woodland habitats
A 20-year Forest Management Plan agreed with the FCS covers our 1372 ha of commercial forestry and 262 ha of native pinewood. Ballogie Estate Enterprises produce timber certified under UKWAS.
Ballogie Estate Enterprises is a founding member of Deeside Woodland Products (Marketing & Harvesting Co-operative), which coordinates marketing of over 9500 ha of forestry and is a key producer of all timber products from quality saw logs to biomass renewable fuel.
The Sheep Enterprise
We run a flock of pure Blackface in the Forest of Birse. Some are crossed to produce our own replacements for the 500 head Mule flock, which are crossed with Texel rams. Lambing begins in April. A proportion of our lambs are sold prime in August, but the majority are finished on forage rape from October through to January. They are then sold, apart from flock replacements.
The Cattle Enterprise
We run a closed herd of 200 suckler cows on a grass based system with most progeny taken to finishing or sold on as breeding heifers to other farms. Cows are outwintered on kale, silage and straw. Home produced barley is used to feed the finishing cattle. The herd calves in March through to May.
The Arable Enterprise
The 70 ha of spring barley is grown to support the livestock enterprises with all grain and straw fed to the livestock. The arable break is also used to correct any nutrient deficits, control weeds and aid the re-establishment of good grass swards by under sowing the barley.
Contact us: +44 (0)13398 86497
Ballogie Estate, Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, AB34 5DS Find Us
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