Rearing the UK’s largest herd of Cashmere Goats to produce genuine Scottish Cashmere, grown, processed and spun in Scotland, and help secure the future of the breed.
Scottish cashmere fibre is currently not grown in Scotland but from goats in China, Mongolia, Iran and Afghanistan. Farming Cashmere goats in Scotland has almost died out so the imported fibre is classed as “Scottish”, as it processed in Scotland. Many believe it is unethical to source from countries where the goat’s overpopulation is damaging the environment, and from communities who shear their goats’ coats leaving them without insulation over the winter months.
As guardians of the largest remaining farmed herd of Cashmere goats in Scotland, we believe this unique natural fibre is gift from our goats and should be treated with the utmost respect. Every Spring, we ethically harvest our goats’ cashmere fibre by hand combing to leave our goats with glossy new coats for the summer. Goats would naturally spend the summer months rubbing themselves against fences and gorse to remove their unwanted cashmere so we are just giving them a helping hand.
Securing the future of this heritage breed is important to us. Once our Cashmere ladies retire from having kids, we let them live out their natural lives at Lunan Bay as a “Thank You” for their fibre, kids and company.
Our Scottish Cashmere project is in its early days, and we have tested our fibre for quality, looking at length, micron size and curvature profiles, and collaborating with Cashmere fibre experts. Our average micron size is 15uM, which is classified as a very high Grade B. Some of our herd are producing micron sizes of 14 which is indicative of the highest quality of Cashmere, Class A.
We have run several trials with Scottish Cashmere with our artisan mill, Border Mill located in Duns in the Scottish Borders and are delighted to have produced high quality Scottish Cashmere, grown and processed in Scotland, albeit in small quantities. The feedback from the fibre experts at Border Mill after processing the first batch of 100% Cashmere was that they were extremely pleased with results, and after some minor process tweaks, they though the resulting yarn, in their professional opinion, was gorgeous, very soft and had that distinctive Cashmere glean.
We have blended our Cashmere fibre with fleece another impressive fibre breed with Scottish provenance, the Shetland sheep, resulting in supersoft, sustainable yarn that you’ll love. We have collaborated with craft knitted to produce the Lunan Bay Bunnet, a stunning handknitted hat using our Cashmere yarn.
Our homegrown Cashmere and associated garments can be purchased via our Etsy shop for delivering worldwide:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/LunanBayCashmere
Read more about our Scottish Cashmere, a first in 30 years, in this article in The Times.
