Welcome to At Birkhill House

At Birkhill House CIC is an animal assisted activity and crafting centre near Earlston in the south of Scotland. Our mission is to improve mental health and wellbeing in the Scottish Borders and beyond through caring, creativity and collaboration. 

Set on nine acres of beautiful land about 30 miles south of Edinburgh city centre, the workshops take place in renovated stables dating back to the early 1800s and a purpose built Fleece & Fibre Hub, which was completed in 2025 and is used to store our homegrown and donated fleeces alongside our hand processing equipment.

We engage with local groups and individuals to provide tailor-made sessions that offer opportunities to be creative, spend time with our animals, enjoy nature and help with the gardens here. 

We also offer a mixture of modern and traditional crafting activities for the general public. See our crafting directory to arrange your own workshop or see what’s on our schedule. 

In 2022, we established a natural dye garden on the estate in conjunction with the Scottish Borders Rape Crisis Centre. This is an ongoing project, which has enabled us to develop a series of natural dye and botanical printing workshops as well as a concerted line of homegrown natural dye products. We are actively looking for more groups to participate in the upkeep and expansion of this beautiful space. 

We are National Lottery funded and this provides the support we need to offer weekly Makers Groups and open craft sessions.

Our on-site shop and Etsy shop are filled with kits, patterns and products designed in-house or in conjunction with local makers. Revenue from our shop sales and commercial crafting workshops supports care for our animals and our partnership projects.