Standing at a height overlooking the impressive views of Loch Dochfour, lies Dochfour House, home of the Baillie family for over 500 years.
Featuring immaculate lawns and gardens created in the 1880s, Alexander Baillie, estate director of Dochfour, credits 15 Husqvarna Automower robotic lawn mowers for maintaining its impressive estate.
First fitted in 2018, Husqvarna Automower robotic mowers now cover approximately 7 acres of the estate’s formal lawns and landscaped parkland, encompassing ground of all shapes, inclines and textures.
Featured on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, the estate regularly hosts photoshoots and corporate events, requiring picture-perfect grounds and lawns throughout all seasons. During the summer months the estate experiences the quick speed of grass growth, while the winter months encounter the full force of the Scottish Highland weather, which has proved a perpetual problem over the years.
Alexander Baillie, estate director, explained Dochfour’s switch to Automower: “For years we used the forest and groundcare department at MacGregor Industrial Supplies to service our mowers and chainsaws, and once they began selling Husqvarna Automower we knew we wanted to test them out. In total we now have 15 robotic mowers across the Dochfour estate, including the 435X, 450X, 430X and 315X Automower models.
“The unpredictable Highland weather was a big push into moving towards Automower, as well as the many steep banks which have long proved a headache in terms of the health and safety issues they present.”
Ever since the first Automower was introduced in 1995, Husqvarna has been known as the world leader in robotic mowing. With over 2 million sold worldwide, Automower is renowned for its low energy consumption, zero emissions, low noise and high productivity. Covering everything from smaller urban gardens to challenging areas up to 5,000m2, Automower can also handle difficult inclines up to 70%.
Alexander continued: “During our first year of using Automower we tested it on a small area, but after seeing its remarkable results, we rapidly increased the working area and the number of mowers in our fleet. We’ve been immensely impressed by the all-wheel-drive X-Line model which have tackled our steepest banks with ease.
“Installation of the mowers has been very straightforward, and thanks to the generation of our own electricity using hydropower, our lawns require no fossil fuel-based inputs. The Husqvarna Temporary Fences have been a great help to cordon off bulbs and wildflower patches, while still achieving lush lawns on the rest of the areas.
“Automower has made such a huge difference to the way we work, providing hours of free time to concentrate on other parts of the estate. No matter of the weather or time of day, our Automower robots take care of the grounds without worry. We look forward to extending our fleet in the future.”
