About Us
Our Ethos
Improving mental health in the Scottish Borders through caring, creativity and collaboration
At Birkhill House CIC has created a unique environment, a centre for creativity and wellbeing based in a sympathetically renovated Georgian stable block and new in the beautiful Scottish Borders countryside. Our interconnected workshops and outdoor areas provide inspirational spaces and room to breathe.
At Birkhill House CIC has a holistic ethos incorporating the gardens, grounds, animals and people. Everything has a use and a purpose, from the composting that allows us to grow our own fruits, vegetables and animal feed, to the recycling and upcycling in our crafting activities. Our animals provide companionship and comfort, and their fleece and wool is used for yarn, weaving, creative projects and to support a yearly fleece residency for textile students.
How to find us
Find us by public transport
Birkhill House sits between Lauder and Earlston, just off the A68. Border Buses route 51 (St Boswells to Edinburgh) will drop you off a short walk from our gates. You will need to request the Birkenside road stop when you get on. There are also a very limited number of Border Buses route 61 (Galashiels to Oxton) buses that pass by each day. Once you have gotten off the bus, cross the A68 and follow the Birkenside road as it curves gently round to the right and then a sharp left around a corner and over a little stone bridge. Almost immediately on your left after the bridge, you will see the start of a stone wall. That’s our wall. If you follow the wall along straight (don't turn right toward Legerwood), you will see iron gates. Pass these and then pass a wooden gate on the left across from a white cottage. The entrance is at the next gate along (rolling wood and iron) and is sign-posted with our logo. You can view the Border Buses website here.
Find us by car
Birkhill House sits between Lauder and Earlston. When travelling along the A68, it is five miles south of Lauder and three miles north of Earlston at Birkenside/Legerwood turning. Satellite navigation doesn't always reliably take you directly to our door, but we are working on this! Google Maps knows where we are, Apple Maps not so much, and your car's sat nav system is 50/50, so here are some directions to help you find us: Once you make the turn sign-posted Birkenside/Legerwood, the road curves gently round to the right and then will send you sharp left round a corner and over a little stone bridge. Almost immediately on your left after the bridge, you will see the start of a stone wall. That’s our wall. If you follow the wall along straight (not right toward Legerwood), you will see iron gates. Pass these and then pass a wooden gate on the left across from a white cottage. The entrance is at the next gate along (rolling wood and iron) and is sign-posted with our logo. You can also reliably find us through What3Words: ///mango.design.rises
Our Funders
As a not-for-profit social enterprise, we have benefitted from generous funding support to enable projects like the establishment of our natural dye garden, development of our fleece and fibre education programme and the delivery of a number of community projects. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our funders for their support and acknowledge them here.
Through innovative design and partnership working, we strive to also generate revenue from the sale of products and provision of workshops in order to be able to ensure that the offering here is as accessible as possible for our community.