At the beginning of 2019 we applied for planning permission for an Eco Cabin, set within our newly planted woodland. We obtained planning under the new permitted development rules, introduced in 2018 after Reforesting Scotland’s successful 1000 huts campaign.
Unfortunately due to new government legislation introduced in 2022 we had to shelve this project. The new legal requirement to have a short term letting licence changed the conditions of our planning consent. The cabin now required a building warrant. Although the cabin itself would have exceeded current building regulations, access for emergency vehicles would also be required, the cost of which would be excessive.
Unperturbed we decided to set up a new leg to our business building Shepherds’ huts
Shepherds’ huts have been around since the early 15th century. The iconic corrugated curved roof, walls and cast iron wheels are a reminder of a time when our lives were intrinsically linked with our environment. The modern variations of these quirky little dwellings are both comfortable and beautiful and offer us the opportunity to take us back in time and experience that connection once again.
So why a Dovetail Shepherds’ Hut? We believe that with our unique skillset, environmental credentials and 25 year track record in designing and building high quality products, we have something special to bring to the market.
The devil is in the detail! All the timber used in the construction of our huts are locally sourced, cut to size on our saw mill and finished in our workshops. Our steel structural base frames, for our larger huts, are also put together and welded on site by our skilled team. We use only natural materials where possible in all our huts, natural sheep’s wool insulation, non-chemically treated, durable timbers like Larch for framing and cladding and Scottish Oak for our smaller base frames. We line our huts with Pine v-lining which can be oiled or painted. The internal floor and furniture are built with various Scottish hardwoods including Ash, Beech, Cherry, Elm, Maple and Oak to name a few.
Although the windows and doors are currently bought in we are working on adapting the workshop to allow us to produce these in house. The cast wheels are as iconic to Shepherds’ huts as their curved roof, as such getting the right ones was critical. The larger of our two wheels is 1 metre in diameter and weighs in at 120kg. The smaller one is 700mm across and weighs 80kg. The smaller wheels are for the articulated axle and they fit underneath the chassis as the axle turns. The larger wheel is attached to the fixed axle. Our wheels sit outside the hut as opposed to underneath which is more traditional for a shepherd’s hut. We leave the wheels to rust gently, as cast iron rusts to a point and then stops, they will look like this for hundreds of years to come. Alternatively we can paint them to suit a specific design. Our curved corrugated roofs are made to suit our designs which can vary from 2.4m – 3m wide and 2.7m – 9m in length.
Tailor Made. Our traditional Shepherds’ Huts are built exclusively at our yard near Fintry, Stirlingshire in Scotland. They can then be tailored to suit our customer’s needs. The range of huts we offer can be put to a wide variety of uses including a garden room, art studio, summer house, and home office space, children’s playroom, fishing hut, glamping hut, physio hut, additional accommodation or even living accommodation with our largest model. The possibilities are limited by your imagination and budget of course. So give us a call to discuss your bespoke Shepherds’ hut requirements.
Available formats
1 – Constructed and completely finished, externally and internally.
2- Constructed watertight shell, finished externally only, ready for the client to finish internally.
