East Lothian's Carberry Cabins launched, harnessing demand for staycation cabins

A specialist joinery business has received a pandemic lockdown lift with diversification into staycation cabins, which it says have attracted “strong” interest from a variety of parties.

East Lothian-based Carberry Cabins has been spun out of long-established RF Slight, whose owner Ferrier Slight has family links working in carpentry dating back several generations.

The environmentally friendly pod-style cabins are being launched at the GWCT Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace, which starts this Friday, and are being targeted at businesses in need of luxury holiday accommodation, following a huge spike in demand for vacations in rural settings.

Ferrier Slight said the inspiration to launch Carberry Cabins followed strong take-up of its design-build of smaller garden rooms supplied to homes across the UK. Since the start of the pandemic, the company has built and installed more than 50 stand-alone rooms of this type, to be used as, say, a home office or as independent accommodation for relatives.

From left: Derek Brodie, Ferrier Sleight, Robert Sleight and Willie Kinghorn of Tranent-based Carberry Cabins. Picture: Scott Louden.

Additionally, the Carberry Cabins management team has been strengthened by appointing two partners. Derek Brodie, owner of building company D&G Developments, will oversee on-site construction, while Willie Kinghorn, who was construction operations manager for an Australian and New Zealand building products provider, will be responsible for design and sales.

The eco-friendly timber-framed cabins are made to order at Carberry Cabins’ Tranent yard, and can be assembled on-site in less than one week.

Mr Slight said: “Our core joinery business, RF Slight, is busy and continues to grow, and this provided us with the opportunity to diversify and to look at the design and manufacture of bespoke garden rooms… we have gone from supplying one unit per week to building five garden rooms per week.

“We are continuing to supply garden rooms but the next natural step was to move up a level and launch Carberry Cabins to satisfy a demand for high-quality staycation accommodation.

“Carberry Cabins are ideally suited to estate-owners and landowners, including farmers, who are looking to increase revenue streams by offering UK holidaymakers a rural holiday, but with all the comforts of their daily home life.

“We have also had interest from caravan-park-owners… and we believe there is a market for housebuilders, with a Carberry Cabin being the ideal structure to serve as a marketing suite and office at new homes development sites.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.