By Karen Carruth

Finding a wedding venue that offers modern facilities combined with the comforting and traditional feel of a rural building to hold your wedding in, can lead to an extensive search.

New to the market is Falside Mill, which has recently been launched by Richard Lumgair, of Falside Farm, Kingsbarns. After spending 18 months extensively refurbishing the farm to its former glory, the events space has started taking bookings and the diary is filling up fast.

Falside Mill offers several different spaces which can host from as few as 40 people in the unique mill ring building, right up to the main hall which can cater for up to 250 people, with the option of a marquee outside to extend numbers.

The location is easily accessible, only a short distance from St Andrews and from Crail. Falside Mill offers a blank canvas space that you can personalise to suit your personality. There is a tremendous amount of outside space which can be utilised, there is a courtyard which is stunning festooned under lights for a summer evening, and to the side of the venue Falside Mill has an outdoor ceremony area, where blue sky celebrations or ceremonies can be held either outside or under the timber frame gazebo overlooking the wild flower meadow.

Owner Richard says: “The beauty of a DIY space is that you have a free hand to design it as you wish, and I feel that it will keep Falside fresh as it evolves with each event bringing its own personal stamp to it.”

There’s no shortage of accommodation around this venue, with Morton of Pitmilly resort, just a stone’s throw away and the Fairmont Hotel, in St Andrews just along the road.

The redundant farm steading started life as a cattle court and the farm’s current owner Richard, who grew up on an arable farm in Angus, took on Falside in early 2017 and immediately spotted an opportunity in the booming market for events' spaces in the East Neuk.

He said: "When we took on Falside, we were given such a great opportunity to restore a farm steading which had fallen in to disrepair. It was a case of do something with it now, or let the elements get the better of it, which is why we decided to convert it in to an events space. I’ll admit the build was not without its challenges, but now looking at it, it has been worth all the work.”

Bookings were being taken before the venue was even finished, which bolstered confidence in their decision to invest in the farm buildings, and with bookings already reaching up to Autumn 2021, they are filling up the spaces in the diary fast. Of course, the venue is also available for parties and gatherings, which have a shorter lead in time.

www.falside.co.uk