Highland Wool

Before becoming a farmer at the Hirsel, a small Nature Friendly farm owned by her husband’s family since 1969, 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 the general management, fundraising (with our Development Officer), public relations, and coordinating the relationship between Highland Wool and the Hirsel.
 

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

Jan Charge is a smallholder, Shetland sheep breeder and enthusiastic exponent of all things British wool. Since moving to East Sutherland in 2013, she has rekindled her love of knitting, learnt to spin and, in partnership with a fellow Shetland sheep enthusiast, established a small business selling mill-spun yarn and hand-knitted accessories.

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This is in contrast to her previous life as an Army officer of 18 years and her subsequent work as a learning and development practitioner. She has experience in the design, delivery and management of training for varied clients, and was a leadership and management trainer, facilitator and coach. Her particular area of interest was Equality and Diversity, including writing policy for a variety of public sector bodies. She also sat as a board member for a Probation service and a charity.

Katharine is a farmer and maker on Achpopuli Farm, a small upland farm near Loch Ness, focussing on native breed sheep, ducks and geese.  The sheep provide meat, fleece and tallow for skincare.  Her woolly education started relatively recently and has been a steep learning curve, with so much more to experiment with! 

She moved to the highlands in 2017, to be nearer her parents, having become interested in ecosystem health, agroforestry and holistic management.  Prior she was working on a small city farm in East London for 7 years, which was incredibly formative for learning, ethos and outlook - but became limiting with the practical restrictions.  In life before farming Katharine trained as a doctor - but it was not the right fit.  Farming offers different but important ways to improve health and wellbeing of both people and our environment.

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More information about Katharine and Achpopuli Farm can be found here.

Donald 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 will be integral to our processing and machinery design and maintenance, and will be learning all about wool processing along the way. His Bio and CV are here.

Anna George is a weaver, spinner and maker of woolly things. She has a passion for all things sustainable and moved into the Highlands with her husband in 2021. In her previous life she lived in Suffolk with her husband and two children, who are now grown up and remain in East Anglia. She worked in education and then for the Emergency Ambulance Service as a Senior EMT.

She has been a maker of things all her life, focussing on green woodworking and spoon making among other things and always had a longing to move to Scotland and live in a more sustainable way. With a strong interest in permaculture and self sufficiency and a natural ability to turn her hand at most things, in recent years she has discovered a true passion and fascination for all things wool and her adaptability and enthusiasm has enabled her to become an important part of the team. Her Instagram page is here.

Bio coming soon...

Originally from Nottingham, David moved to Sutherland in 1991 when he took up the amazingly rewarding role of Highland Regional Manager of the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust (PSYBT). PSYBT helped hundreds of extremely talented and motivated young people across Scotland to explore self-employment and develop their own businesses.

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Prior to his relocation, David had been part of business development teams in a variety of industries including engineering, clothing, brewing, and construction; helping to design and implement systems for production control, performance, business and personal appraisal . 

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When PSYBT was dissolved, he became one of Business Gateway’s Regional Managers, helping all sectors of business to access relevant advisory and financial support. 

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David retired in 2021 and, in between the inevitable gardening, fishing, travelling, he’s learning to play the ukulele and, in a small way, getting involved in some community projects. 

David will be the first to admit that his knowledge of agricultural matters is entirely second-hand but he’s very pleased to be a new member of the Highland Wool team at this exciting stage of the project. He’s hopeful of bringing something to the venture whilst learning more about the potential of one of our most underutilised resources.