As the future King of the United Kingdom, Prince Charles estate has grown over time as he waits to be officially crowned. One of his many properties is the Dumfries House in Ayrshire, where his sheep's flock resides.
While it is not surprising how he amassed massive properties in the UK, what astonishing is how his shepherd is also enjoying a royal-like cabin in the middle of an animal farm.
As Daily Mail reported, Charlotte Darwent - the lady in charge of the Prince's 650-Scotting flock of sheep lives in a custom hut made with stained-glass windows, wool walls, and hand-made tiles.
According to the UK news outlet, Darwent is the first lady shepherd serving Prince Charles' so she deserves one of the best shepherds' huts in the estate.
Custom Hut Details
The 14 by 7-feet and 8-feet high custom-built was completed for 11 months. It is not only chic for a barn house but also exhibits artisan techniques like timber-framing, wool dyeing, and encaustic tiles or the old way of combining wax and pigment onto the surface using heat.
The wool was specially dyed using onion skins, fermented oak bark, amaranthus flower, beetroot, blackberries from the walled garden, and lichen from the Dumfries House estate trees.
The wool is transformed into thick strips of fabric, which served as natural insulation, keeping the hut cool in the summer and cozy during winter.
Showcase of Craftsmanship
Students from The Prince's Foundation's Building Arts Programme built Prince Charles estate's unique cabin. The project was in collaboration with Queen Elizabeth's Scholarship Trust - a charity supporting British craftsmanship.
Under the 9-month program, students were introduced to traditional skills, including woodwork, blacksmithing, thatching, and stonemasonry.
The custom hut at Prince Charles estate will not only be for her everyday use but also serves as an educational tool displaying the traditional skills learned by the practitioners from The Prince's Foundation.
"Our students are given a chance to not just hone their own skills but, through engaging with other trades, get a better understanding of how they fit into the wider built environment," The Prince's Foundation executive director Simon Sadinsky said.
Luxury Apartment in the Field
Meanwhile, the 27-year-old lady shepherd looking after Prince Charles' rare-breed sheep has been in charge of the estate since 2018.
Darwent said she is thrilled with her luxury space in the middle of the farm.
Nowadays, "modern shepherds' huts" are seen as a commemoration of rural heritage style, which could be traced back to the 1800s.
"The students on the Building Arts Programme have done a wonderful job of crafting a traditional shepherd's hut for me to use when needed," Ms. Darwent said.
"Typically, carpenters or farmers on-site would build these huts from found materials, so I think it's really fitting that the students crafted the hut using traditional building skills and natural materials from the estate itself," Darwent added.
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