We are delighted to share the news that we have won the Scottish Thistle ‘Food Tourism’ award for Central, Fife & Tayside. 

We are over the moon to have been crowned Central Scotland, Fife, and Tayside’s top ‘Food Tourism’ destination at VisitScotland’s respected ‘Scottish Thistle Awards’, against strong local competition from renowned Glenturret Distillery. We will now represent the region in the national finals.

This success crowns two years of fast-paced changes here – we’ve opened our destination Deli, changed our dining style with an informal Bistro, and in 2022, launched our new Farm Tours. These offer the chance to meet and feed our ethically-reared rare-breed livestock and engage with our field to fork ethos. The changes were accelerated by the Covid-19 lockdowns, during which the new Thyme Deli was the only part of our business still operating, and we turned our attention to helping Aberfeldy’s ‘Feldy Roo’ initiative, providing free meals for the elderly and those shielding within the community.

As well as our own range of biltongs, chutneys, pickles and preserves created by Paul, Scottish Thistle’s judges were impressed with our commitment to promoting artisan food suppliers from all over Scotland. We recently introduced Scottish Cheese and Scottish Charcuterie Tasting Sessions, where you can sample a selection of some of the most awarded Scottish produce.

This Thistle’s success follows Paul being named Scotland’s ‘Sustainable Chef of the Year 2022’ by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, as well as lots of ‘Great Taste’ awards for various fine food products. We’ve got our fingers crossed that our midas touch will last until the National Finals of the Scottish Thistles in February 2023. Meanwhile, the fast pace of change continues, with the opening of two new holiday cottages, now taking bookings for the New Year!

Paul said on the night – ‘We’re blown away to have brought this regional award home to Perthshire. This is an amazing area full of wonderful food tourism experiences, and we’re delighted and honoured to be flying the flag. So many people who discover us say that they can’t think why they didn’t come before, so hopefully this award encourages even more to turn off the A9 and come and see what it’s all about!’