Highland Wool

Before becoming a farmer at The Hirsel,  California-born Donna Gillies (nee DuCarme) enjoyed a cross-disciplinary career in the arts, onstage and behind the scenes, in the USA and The Netherlands, before settling in Scotland.

She joined Donald on the farm in 2015, where all the skills learned from a wide-ranging creative career - including project development and trouble-shooting - have turned out to be useful on the farm too. When she discovered how few processing options for their Hebridean fleeces there were in Scotland, she learned how to process fleece, and came up with the idea of building a mill on the farm. After a long period of research, and meeting

other shepherds and crafters willing to pitch in...Highland Wool CIC was formed in 2022. Donna is a founding Director of Highland wool and is responsible for general management, fundraising (with our Development Officer), public relations, and coordinating the relationship between Highland Wool, the farm, and our community.
 

The Hirsel’s website is here: https://thehirsel.com/.

Donald is the owner/farmer of The Hirsel, Highland Wool's homebase. He moved to the Highlands as a young boy from Houston (near Glasgow), and while his work has taken him all over the UK, the Highlands has always been his heart-home. He’s worked in the construction, haulage and heavy plant service industries for over 40 years. He has wide experience in all aspects of material movement and lifting, driving and operating heavy haulage.

Donald’s ability to drive or operate anything with wheels and/or a motor, and his natural inventiveness, comes in handy on a farm where DIY often saves the day. He resettled permanently on the farm in 2013, and, with his wife Donna, began exploring regenerative methods to bring the farm back into productivity after 30 years of neglect.

Donald has led the renovation of "Caroline" our Victorian era carding maching, leads our processing and machinery design and maintenance, and will be learning all about wool processing along the way. His Bio and CV are here.

Bio coming soon...