Plans have been lodged with South Ayrshire Council, seeking permission for a restaurant/cafe and shop at Dalduff Farm, Crosshill. The owners of the popular Ayrshire farming business hope to boost revenue streams by demolishing an existing barn and building the new venture in its place.
Proposal details
Agent in the proposals is Greenfinch Ltd and the applicant is James McFadzean, of Dalduff Farm Food & Events Ltd, based at the farm. The operating plan states: “Dalduff Farm has been in the same ownership since 1965 and remains an active agricultural holding. It supports two established rural businesses: an online farm shop and butchery, whose produce, including butcher’s meat, gourmet pies and homemade ready meals, is prepared in the on-site commercial kitchen by six full-time staff; and the Dalduff Weddings venue, added in 2018, which offers couples exclusive use of the barns, farmhouse and annexe. The two already work together, with the kitchen supplying the wedding catering.”
The plan continues: “The original farm shop closed on 1 January 2025 when the business moved online, and the building it traded from has since been converted to venue accommodation. This proposal brings a physical shop and café back to the steading.”
Design and timeline
The building replaces a disused 1978 dairy barn on its existing footprint. It is formed from refurbished shipping containers clad in natural vertical pine timber, delivered as volumetric units and set on concrete block foundations bearing on the demolished barn’s slab, so the units can be demounted and relocated in future, if required. The café unit measures 12.2m wide by 4.88m deep by 2.88m high, providing around 59 square metres internally, with a separate accessible toilet unit. Seating is provided for 20 covers inside plus an outdoor garden area for a further 20.
According to the submission, the applicant is keen to bring the shop and café into operation by late autumn 2026, ahead of the busy Christmas trading period. “This is an important window for a rural retail and food business of this kind,” the statement says, “and an early start would allow the new venture to establish itself while demand is at its strongest.”
Impact
The statement adds: “The proposed farm shop and café is a modest, well-managed diversification of an established rural business. It reuses a redundant barn on its existing footprint, creates local employment, gives the farm’s produce a physical home, and is timetabled around the wedding venue so the two uses complement one another.”
