TALES… FROM THE FAR NORTH

Welcome to the first “Tales from the Far North”. My name is Mark Blair and I run M Fence Scotland.

I am based in Lairg, Sutherland, a small town just off the ever popular NC500 route to be exact and around 40 miles from the far north coast.

I’m a very lucky man for having this spectacular scenery on my doorstep. I’ll never take it for granted!

Some readers may have seen my recent feature in Fencing News magazine’s January issue. Not long after that I was lucky enough to be featured in a New Zealand fencing magazine called Wired.

I focus on farming as well as fencing and, together with my wife and two kids, manage the day-to-day running of our 100 acre croft in this awesome place we call home.

I am mainly an agricultural and forestry fencing contractor but cater for any type of fencing required for our large customer base. We cover everything from stock fencing on farms and crofts to large woodland creation including deer fencing, post and rail, post and wire, equestrian, electric, garden fencing and whatever is required at the time.

A typical day for me starts around 4:45 am where I wake up and get prepared for my day ahead. After my vital hit of caffeine, I’ll put my lunch box together and then I take my two border collies for a walk around Lairg.

We generally head up the lochside of Loch Shin, past the famous and iconic “Broons’ wee hoose” situated on a tiny island within the loch, crossing over up through the Main Street before cutting across the top road and coming back down the brae towards my house while trying to resist the morning temptations of the Pier Café’s delicious array of breakfast treats and then finally back home. I then top up the travel mug with more coffee, grab the truck keys and take myself and my two dogs, Ben and Craig, to my yard to prepare for the working day.

I might add that my dogs have their own Instagram page @ben_craig_border_collies so give them a wee follow if that sounds of interest!

My biggest challenge on that front is making time to keep the page updated with the latest adventures and the same with my Facebook business page M Fence Scotland. We are always kept very busy although I really need to start getting with the times and keep the pages updated and I’m working on making more time for that…so watch this space

With my social media influencer dogs in tow, we head for the yard where at this point our focus is on livestock before the fencing day begins.

I grab the quad bike and we make our way around the fields of sheep and cast the first look of the day over my wife’s two horses.In actual fact, at the time of writing, we are still lambing on the croft but are thankfully down to just 6 ewes to go so we are getting there!

With stock rounds completed, it’s now time to grab my truck and tool trailer and head for the fence line. At this particular time (and especially as I’ve been lambing too) I’ve been working within a 20 mins distance from my yard with my current job focused on dividing a 10 acre paddock into sheep, goat and pony paddocks using top quality fencing materials from Highland Industrial Supplies based in Inverness.

Thankfully the weather of recent has been fantastic which makes an amazing and spectacular job even better. I am one very lucky man indeed!