Achpopuli Farm

Hi, I’m Katharine, and since 2018 I’ve been stewarding the land at Achpopuli - a small farm nestled in a little hanging valley in the hills above Loch Ness - focusing on Holistic Management and regenerative farming methods. My team of native breed sheep, ducks and geese all help me to manage the mosaic of habitats here.

My love of wool craft stems from the love of my sheep, so having ultimate traceability and finding ways to showcase each fleece gives me a lot of joy! It is also an important part of my ethos, to have no ‘waste’, just resources - by processing them with water, eco-friendly soap and a lot of elbow grease, I can create beautiful pieces to help sustain my small business, and nothing is wasted because the unusable bits become mulch for my trees and veg patch - giving nutrients to back the soil.

The sheep are grass-fed, the younger ones born and raised at Achpopuli, using as few chemicals as possible (I haven’t quite eliminated wormers and antibiotics but I’m working on it!). The flock has a mixture of breeds for the different wool types, based on native breeds like Shetlands, Hebrideans, Scottish Blackface and a lot of crosses. I hand clip the sheep and use a variety of wet felting, weaving and needle-felting techniques, along with my mum’s excellent knitting skills, to create a range of items from my diverse and beautiful fleeces. I’m also learning how to spin my own yarn and tan my own sheepskins, and I’m about to venture into plant dyeing too.

My aim is to celebrate the provenance of each item, the diversity of fleeces and characters I have in my flock, and the amazing properties of wool. No two pieces are quite the same, so I hope you’ll enjoy browsing - please get in touch if you’d like to commission something special.

Shipping policy

Items are shipped via Royal Mail First Class Post and dispatched in 1-3 days. This sellers items are currently only available to deliver in the UK. Shipping costs are per order.