A Look Ahead at February 2026

WE ARE OPEN for overnight parking and longer stays for wildlife watchers, hut users, campervans and motorhomes (max 7.5m). The Scottish weather can be rather unpredictable and we are completely off-grid so come prepared. Ensure you have enough fuel, water, power and food to sustain you during your stay. You need to be fully contained with on-board toilet. We have waste emptying facilities but in extremely cold weather, water tanks can freeze so rinsing water isn't always available. There is no fresh water supply on site, our water is rain harvested. No electricity and mobile signal is patchy. 

WILDLIFE WATCHING can be done from the comfort of your campervan or motorhome. We have 2 prime parking spots this month, each with opportunities of spotting badgers, foxes or pine martens by night and red squirrel by day. It is highly recommended that you bring binoculars and visitors are welcome to set up trail cameras overlooking the feeding stations. An overnight stop costs £15, or £25 for 2 nights. We are a fully registered and insured site with space for a maximum of 5 vehicles. 

RULES are simple. Arrivals between noon and sunset, parked up before dark, departures by 11am. Although well behaved pets are welcome, they cannot be walked outside of the parking area after dark as we have rescue ponies on site that can be easily spooked. We also have goats and cats, plus all the wildlife so please drive slowly and be aware of what is around you. At the moment, the badgers and red squirrels cross the drive so we have a 5mph speed limit. Noise and movements to be kept to a minimum during wildlife watching so no generators, loud music or late night walkabouts. Consider neighbours if there are others sharing the park-up spaces for wildlife watching.

ACCESS TO THE HUTS is by prior arrangement. Members £25, non-members £50 per day/night, subject to availability. This includes parking. Each of the huts has a wildlife feeding station in view and for overnight watchers, small spotlights illuminated the platforms when the sensors are triggered.

THINGS YOU CAN BRING FOR WILDLIFE include fresh eggs, wild bird peanuts, monkey nuts, hazelnuts, peanut butter (100% peanuts) or complete dog biscuits. (If you want to bring treats for the sanctuary ponies, goats or cats, such gifts are always gratefully received.)

NEW FOR 2026 We are planning to introduce basic supplies into our the barn store. Items such as kindling, logs and night blocks, organic toilet fluid, water and some general fundraising items, as Frugaldom is run voluntarily and on a very small scale.

OTHER PLANS we have include fencing work and driveway improvements. We also have a filming day on 17th February as part of a short documentary about the Scottish hutting movement so the huts will not be available on that day. During work, the site will be closed to visitors while the driveway is blocked.

HOW TO BOOK - Mobile signal is intermittent so it is best to either text or WhatsApp to 07795 870688 or email frugaldom@gmail.com If you are booking ahead, we can accept payments via PayPal and balance on arrival. No booking is required for general overnight stops unless you want to guarantee a wildlife watching spot. 

HOW TO FIND US - "Frugaldom, Kirkcowan" is pinned on Google maps. We are approximately 5 miles off the main A75. What3Words://photo.regal.fencing will bring you to our main gate. Our postcode is DG80ET but that is shared with several of our neighbours. We are listed on Park4Night and Search for sites.

Frugaldom operates voluntarily and is not for profit. The project is supported by Friends of Frugaldom members. If you would like to join, take a look at our page here. You can choose whichever tier membership suits you best.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog post. I hope you will book a visit to come and see this quirky little off-grid wilderness wonderland for yourself. Don't forget to post us a review after your stay. 😊

January, So Far

We got off to a great start this year with the arrival of our first red squirrel to the feeding platforms.

The feral cats have been feeling much friendlier and we now have 3 of them coming close enough for furry-friend attention.

We have received numerous gifts and donations of pet food, peanuts, feeding boxes and even a new fairy to add to the fairy garden. Thank you to everyone who has sent gifts and items from our Amazon list.

January has also seen the arrival of a fifth cat, which has now been spotted on the trail cameras several times. 5 cats! It's getting to be like a cat sanctuary around here. 😹

Badgers are still active almost daily despite the torpor state that they are meant to enter during winter. 

The foxes and pine martens are also visiting regularly for their share of the tasty snacks we put out for them all.

We had a bit of damage done to the roadside fence - seen here after propping it up to keep ponies off the road. The vehicle was driven off, mess cleared up from road and no notifications given to us so it was like playing detective, putting bits of evidence together to work out how, when and by whom. Powers of deduction are great when you find bits of the vehicle with the make stamped on them. Police were notified, as was the nearby wind farm and an appeal for help that we sent out over our Facebook page was successful. Temporary repairs have been done but the damaged fence needs to be renewed. That's the next job.

Ginger has now gone into his 33rd year. His Cushing's seems to be fairly stable but as any horse person will know, there is no cure. Our ginger geriatric seems happy and is brought out every day for some extra feeding. On cold, wet days, he has his rain sheet as a little added protection from our Scottish winter weather.

The river well and truly burst its banks so the lower wetland turned into what looked like a loch. That will certainly have swept away any cobweb that ventured into 2026! Now it is time to start preparing for the real winter weather. 

We hope to get solar panels swapped around about and incorporate some more off-grid power so all three huts have lights and phone charging. There's also a plan to lease out the small hut. These ones looked like a bargain so I've included our affiliate link, just in case anyone else wanted to try similar. Now that our support group members are visiting to photograph wildlife, we thought it best to provide usb charging points for phones and a portable gas stove for making a cuppa during overnight vigils. 

We are still open to new members joining the Friends of Frugaldom support group, pricesstart from £5 per month.

Overnight parking for vehicles (max. 7.5m) costs £15 for 1 night, £25 for 2 nights or discounted for longer stays. Booking is advised as we have limited parking. Campervans and motorhomes welcome all year round as we are fully certificated by The Caledonian Touring Club. Waste facilities on site but no other services.

Welcome to 2026

This past week has been great for our visitors to Frugaldom. The weather stayed fine and dry with just one night of rain that helped replenish the water tanks.

The fox arrived to feast in some dog food - I bought a 12kg bag of complete dog food for under £10 from supermarket so that should last a good few weeks. The badgers occasionally crunch on these biscuits but they seem to be in a state of torpor in this freezing weather, although 4 were spotted by campervan visitors during the week.

The pine martens arrived as usual and are now settled and happy incorporating the new feeding platform into their nightly food patrol. Thanks once again to whoever sent us the new squirrel feeding boxes, which the pine martens happily feast from through the night.

Huge happy surprise to us was witnessing (and photographing) the first red squirrel to arrive at the new platform and snack on peanuts from the feeders. This was a rather monumous event as our long-term tree and hedge planting plans have all been geared towards providing new habitat for red squirrels. We are over the moon that the first one has arrived at the feeders.

This is the third small tortoiseshell butterfly to emerge inside the hut so I'm guessing the log burner is warming them up and waking them from hibernation.

And finally, this was the Wolf suoermoon riding over the Galloway Hills. It was quite a spectacle against the pink sky. It rise quickly and was soon followed by Jupiter. Appreciating nature more and more as the years go by and can't wait to share the wild space we call Frugaldom with more of you in 2026. We can accommodate any camping vehicle up to a maximum vehicle length of 7.5m and for a mere £25 you can stopover and enjoy getting back to nature for 2 nights. 

There is always a discount available for longer stays and we will be opening up hut 2 for visitors to enjoy whenever it is available. Overnight parking with all night access to the wildlife hut costs £50 for non-members. If you would like to join us as official Friends of Frugaldom, you can do so at www.ko-fi.com/Frugaldom 

Huge thanks to all our existing members, volunteers and those who send anonymous gifts to help us keep all the animals fed.

Happy New Year

From all the people, pets, ponies and goats at Frugaldom. Thank you for being part of this journey. All the very best for 2026.

Winter Garden Preparations

The herbery will be getting an overhaul to bring all the strawberries under control. There are numerous raised beds here, all constructed as one of our lockdown projects. Since then, the herbs and sedum have thrived but I haven't had enough time or energy to keep on top of the weeding, thinning and trimming. It is absolutely fabulous to see someone tackling this job, despite the sub-zero temperatures, so I'm looking forward to getting the strawberry and rhubarb beds mulched over and the others topped up with the composted pony manure.

Here are the beds that have been cut back today. The lungwort in the centre is actually flowering. The strawberry plants have never yet died back and have sent out runners in all directions so these will be left until spring then potted on for moving out to our Trading Post at the main gate. I'm still not sure what to plant in the spare beds here as I really don't use many herbs but this also becomes a butterfly and bee garden, so I may introduce some buddleias. There is a patch of rhubarb, which fairs quite well. I can already see it bubbling below the surface of the soil so that will get some straw over it when I'm putting it around the strawberry plants. Aside from that, I can't think of anything else suitable for growing in these herb beds. All suggestions welcome.