Ilderton Dod Barns

24/11/2024

Ella's Adventures in Northumberland - "From picnicking in the sun last week to clearing snow this week, it's been quite a change! Mummy and Emily went through about 500 lambs vaccinating them against pneumonia and treating lame ones, probably too late before the weather turned and made both these problems worse. There were a lot of logs chopped this week and gates painted to get more sheds ready for cattle to move down from the shed at The Dod, to Wooler.
Last night, Mummy, Daddy and their friends were very grateful for a yummy and warming meal at The Oaks Hotel Alnwick - we missed out on that one, but they did at least take us out for lunch today at The Morpeth Larder! Our huge bowl of tomato soup fuelled us around the Christmas trail, looking for stamps in the windows of 26 shops. We couldn't resist the play park, but we cut that visit short to pick up our free hot chocolate at The Pavillion where we posted our entry to the trail competition, along with our letter to Santa. Then, we couldn't resist another walk around the bright lights of the town!" Visit Northumberland Northumberland National Park Independent Hostel Guide We Accept Pets

17/11/2024

Ella's Adventures in Northumberland - "Back to non-stop sheep work this week; all 800 sheep at The Dod were through the pens for clipping bums and mineral pills, then again a few days later for the dipping men. They all got a bath to kill ticks, lice and mites before the tups go out. Mummy and Drew helped with this, most days after fighting with the electric fence on the kale field at home which the lambs kept getting through!
We've had our own adventures this week, but we've not visited as many castles as Mummy has; the Christmas Extravaganza at Bamburgh Castle at a Visit Northumberland networking event on Wednesday, then a ghost tour at Chillingham Castle on Thursday. Me and Drew have been to Chillingham Castle before, but I'm not sure I'd like to go in the dark!" We Accept Pets Northumberland National Park Independent Hostel Guide

10/11/2024

Ella's Adventures in Northumberland - "After weeks of sheep work, this week we added in some cattle work too - bringing home the 18 month old cattle from the hills at The Dod to the sheds at Wooler, to feed them up before we sell them over the winter. The mummies and young calves are still outside for now and they're enjoying the sunny, warm autumn so far.
Mummy and Daddy also did a carbon audit this week - I'm not sure what that means, but they say all businesses will have to do one eventually. I just know it involved Daddy's least favourite job - paperwork!
We had a day out with Granny G and Grandpa today, but Mummy and Daddy managed to break off from work to have a nice breakfast at The Running Fox - maybe they'll remember to take us next time!" Visit Northumberland We Accept Pets Northumberland National Park Independent Hostel Guide

08/11/2024

Ilderton Dods Barn (sleeps 6) and Cottage (sleeps 2), offer toasty warm , super comfortable accommodation on a working hill farm. Escape from the hustle and bustle of modern life, relax, unwind and start the new year with your batteries recharged surrounded by 1,800 acres of farmland down a 1.5 mile...

03/11/2024

Ella's Adventures in Northumberland - "Although it's been a busy week on the farm, and I've been off school to help, it's mainly the usual stuff that I've seen before; moving around lots of sheep, putting daddy sheep in with the next lambing group, fencing, chopping logs etc. But it's all good fun!
We're just about pumkined out now! We saw quite a few on our annual trip to Ford & Etal Scarycrow Trail on Tuesday which Mummy used as a good excuse to make us walk quite a few miles. It's different every year, but always seems to involve coffee from Cafe at the Mill at some point, while we play in the sandpit at Heatherslaw! We were worried that Daddy had missed out on all the Halloween fun so today we all went to The Alnwick Garden and did their autumn scavenger hunt. Mummy said it was too cold to play in all the water features, but Drew still managed to get soaked! We didn't eat there though because we'd already had our lunch (and practice tractor ride) at Carnaby's!" Visit Northumberland We Accept Pets Northumberland National Park Independent Hostel Guide

27/10/2024

Ella's Adventures in Northumberland - "This week is the start of lambing, well, sort of! It's the week the tups went out with the first 800 ewes around Wooler. The teaser tups are out with the next 200 old Blackies and the proper daddy sheep will go in there next week.
After Drew's success in the school pumpkin competition, we felt we didn't need to do any more carving this week so instead went to Druridge Bay Country Park today to do their ghost trail. There were 10 to find on the 1.3 mile loop around the lake and we zipped around on our bikes to get our prize at the end, plus lunch and park play of course!" We Accept Pets Northumberland National Park Visit Northumberland Independent Hostel Guide

22/10/2024

20/10/2024

Ella's Adventures in Northumberland - "As long as nothing goes wrong, our final tups have arrived for this year. Four were ones we bought straight from their breeders, and two from the Hexham Blackie sale on Monday. Unfortunately I'm too busy these days to go to these tup sales so I sent Granny B, Granda and Emily instead!
We've been through a lot of lambs this week weighing, worming where needed, and separating into different fields, and this continued into this morning but, as we were in the shed, that meant we missed most of the 'storm'. By lunchtime it was sunny again and pretty hot sitting in the conservatory for lunch at Oxford Farm Pumpkin Patch, and ideal conditions for choosing the pumpkins for our school competition. Luckily Daddy was there to help us make them look good, safely!" Northumberland National Park Visit Northumberland We Accept Pets Independent Hostel Guide

16/10/2024

We look forward to this every year.

A date for your Halloween 🎃 diaries! The Scarycrow Trail 🧟‍♂️ is back again this year at Ford & Etal from 28th October - 3rd November and it’s going to be spooktacular… will you be visiting? Don’t forget to collect a trail map from various locations around the Estate or you can download a copy online from Thursday 24 October

14/10/2024

Ella's Adventures in Northumberland - "Most of the week has been spent continuing to get mummy sheep ready for tupping but I'll spare you any more sheep bum photos for now! We've also spent quite a lot of time repairing our driveway at home and at The Dod - the boys do love their digger and other big machines!
We had another horse and his owners come to stay last week. We have acres of grazing to use but we don't have any horse houses. This time of year however, the cattle shed is empty so Drew helped Mummy spread some of our straw around so the horse could shelter if the weather turned. We also sold his owners some hay bales for the journey home.
As if Drew hadn't had enough of diggers at work, he got very excited when we went to Nelson's at the park for lunch yesterday; they've always had a great park but now there's a new digger and sandpit!" Visit Northumberland Independent Hostel Guide We Accept Pets Northumberland National Park

06/10/2024

Ella's Adventures in Northumberland - "Not long until the mummy sheep meet the daddies, so this week we started getting them ready - clipping their bums, giving them a mineral pill, and after all the wet weather this year they're all getting vaccinated for footrot. My apprentice, Drew, did a very good job helping with this, along with clearing overgrown hedges from around the sheep pens so we could actually get the gates open; he's still complaining about the thorns in his fingers though!
We've also started moving cattle towards home - the yearling heifers have been moved closer to The Dod and I'm looking forward to them coming home later this month for fattening.
As a reward for all our hard work, today we went for a trip on a boat from Berwick out into the sea. It was awesome! We saw the port, the lighthouse, the beaches we often visit, lots of birds, some seals, lots of little boats, and the lifeboat even came up to wave to us. Of course, no Brown family day out would be complete without at least 1 cafe visit; we had lunch on the way at Lavender Tearooms & Village Shop at Etal which didn't disappoint - good value, tasty food in a pretty little garden." Visit Northumberland We Accept Pets Northumberland National Park Independent Hostel Guide

01/10/2024

29/09/2024

Ella's Adventures in Northumberland - "All the lambs at the Dod have now been gathered, weaned, vaccinated, had their mineral pill, and some moved to Wooler to be fattened. Their mummies have been checked over - the good ones have gone back to their hills, the old ones have been moved to Wooler for another year or 2 of lambing inside, and some will be fattened up and sold.
They're claiming it was work, but I'm not so sure; Mummy and Drew went to a 'networking event' at Tiger Flights at Eshott Airfield last week. After the presentations by Visit Northumberland they had a tour of the hanger and saw lots of special, old planes. I always seem to miss out these days, but Mummy has promised to take me there next summer to the cafe, then maybe one day I'll even get to drive one of the planes (it can't be much different to a tractor!)." We Accept Pets Northumberland National Park Independent Hostel Guide

22/09/2024

Ella's Adventures in Northumberland - "There seems to have been sheep moving here, there and everywhere this week - lots treated for lice, some old ewes sold at Wooler mart, 1 hill at The Dod gathered for weaning next week. Mummy and Emily also vasectomised 6 tup hoggs so they can be used for teasing ewes before the real daddy sheep go out next month.
I'm not only good at sheep handling though; yesterday, me, Mummy and Drew took Granny G out to the Cheviot Tap to walk the alpacas. Porter, Hops and Malt were well-trained on the lead rein and even though it was too foggy to see the views of the Cheviots, we had a lovely walk. The pizza party there afterwards, with the rest of the family, was the icing on the cake (expertly iced by me and Drew of course!)." We Accept Pets Northumberland National Park Visit Northumberland Independent Hostel Guide

21/09/2024

15/09/2024

Ella's Adventures in Northumberland - "It was really Drew's adventure, now that I'm so busy with school, but he went to Kelso Ram Sales on Friday with Mummy and Daddy, and splashed out on 5 new daddy sheep, which are now in our isolation field at home. He's had an easy week - I don't know how, but he managed to miss the real work - all the hay stacking!
We all made it to Ingram Show yesterday where there were the traditional competitions for cooking, sewing, photography, tossing the sheath, tug of war etc, but also snakes, tarantulas, chinchillas and other animals that we don't have on the farm!
I could write a whole page about our day out today for Berwick upon Tweed Heritage Open Days but I'll just share the photos - this is my 4th year of going and we still haven't been to all the sites yet!" Independent Hostel Guide Northumberland National Park Visit Northumberland We Accept Pets

14/09/2024

IT’S SHOW DAY!!🎉😆👩🏼‍🌾🧑‍🌾🍻

We can’t wait to welcome you all and spend a day filled with lots of fun for all the family☺️

Gates open at 10:30am
Entry is £5per person Children under 16 go free.
Cash & Card payments accepted.

Keep an eye on our page throughout the day for regular updates/news.😁

👨🏼‍🌾I👨🏼‍🌾🐑