Going out for dinner and don’t fancy the hassle of driving round the streets of the capital trying to find a parking space? Think a little outside the box and head to the slower delights of the Scottish countryside where a group of artists have created a new way of dining. The Free Company hosts a series of dinners in their newly restored hay-loft event space at a farm situated at Cockdurno Farm, Balerno at the foot of the Pentland Hills. After the success of their inaugural festival dinner series in August, The Free Company have once again opened the doors of their hay-loft for their winter dinner series.

The young group of friends, Jack Fletcher, Stella Stewart and Angus Buchanan-Smith, have created a menu that champions the finest local food, drink and design in a space where you could experience a little of that famous Scottish hospitality while taking an evening’s rural respite from the relentless hurly-burly of life – and the final surprise, you pay only what you feel the meal is worth.

Guests are greeted on arrival into the courtyard where a fire crackles welcomingly. Then they are brought into the hay-loft where two long tables simply decorated set the tone. A heather installation the length of the room hangs from the ceiling like a long rustic chandelier, leading to a bar stocked with organic and natural wines as well as delicious seasonal cocktails.

The evening is lead by front of house hosts, Jack and Angus while Stella prepares and cooks the locally sourced Scottish produce in their self-designed FireHouse, a custom-built wood-fired oven down in the courtyard.  

The menu is seasonal, and delicious as Stella creates dishes with fish from Loch Earn, pork and lamb from their own farm and those of their neighbours. The vegetables are grown in their own garden and the fruit foraged locally.

The meal ends with a brief talk from the three founders of The Free Company who, along with their team explain their donation payment system. Everyone was given the opportunity to pay what they wish. This open-handed approach allows The Free Company to accommodate a diverse and eclectic mix of people around their table, opening up the evening to everyone who wants to join in the feast.

Butchery courses

The Free Company is excited to announce that they will be running three different hands-on butchery courses throughout November. Each course will teach you how to properly prepare pork, lamb or game birds.

About The Free Company  

Earlier this year The Free Company was founded as a multi-disciplinary rural design house by Jack Fletcher, Stella Stewart and Angus Buchanan-Smith, a group of young friends and recent art-school graduates based in Edinburgh. The Free Company’s long-term goal is to attract other like-minded creatives to utilise their design house and farm-steading, encouraging architects, artists, designers, writers, chefs and farmers to both work together and bring light upon the declining state of rural Scotland.

They also aim to enable other rurally located producers to be able to grow their platform and voice.

The heart of rural Scottish life has been built round community. With the steady move into cities and a shift towards mechanisation, this connection between people and land has faded. This also has affected the mutual reliance on others in the community.  The Free Company’s Dinner Series and Butchery Courses are inspired by an attempt to rekindle this ethos, bringing people together and back into a rural setting.

The space the Free Company inhabits is very important to their design mission since Cockdurno Farm has been in Angus’s family for four generations. Over the past year, The Free Company has begun to rebuild and, where they can, restore the 17th century steading.  As a hands-on design-and-build team, they’ve established an artist’s studio by converting an old byre, built a workshop in the old milk processing room, restored the old farm bothy and farm house into their home and have established a state-of-the art commercial kitchen situated in the heart of the courtyard. Finally they have restored the old stone hay-barn that had lain empty for 60 years, turning it into a contemporary public events space where the winter dinners and butchery courses will take place. With the culmination of the year’s work this winter will mark a new chapter in the farm’s 400-year story.

Cockdurno Farm, Balerno, Edinburgh, EH14 7HZ

Event information:

www.the-free-company.com/events/

Contact Us:

hello@the-company.com

Instagram: @thefreecompanysco

Butchery courses:

November 11-12 and January 6-7 - Game Birds with The Free Co.

November 18-19, and January 20-21 - Lamb with Chunky Hamilton

November 25-26, and January 27-28 - Pork with Mark McGill

Dinner Series:

1st, 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 9th, 10th, 16th, 17th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd

The Free Company has made the decision to make their festival dinner series pay-what-you-wish to make the experience more accessible to a larger and more diverse audience. To reserve a spot at the table there is a reservation fee of £10. There is a cash bar, contact them regarding disabled access.