an usual venue for groups, Retreats & Celebrations

Take the whole of Dod Mill for yourselves. Four individual self-catering properties and a studio space, set on five private acres in the Scottish Borders, just under an hour from Edinburgh. Everyone gets their own space. Everyone can come together. That, in a sentence, is what Dod Mill does best.

Exclusive-Use

group accommodation on an exclusive-use basis

Book all four of our properties and the five-acre site is yours alone. No other guests, no shared gate, just your group and a great deal of quiet Borders countryside.

Your party stays across our two cottages, Old Mill and The Bothy, and our two quirky cabins, Stilt House and the Fishing Hut. In total we sleep 10 adults very comfortably, or up to 13 if some guests are happy to share king beds. The properties are deliberately different from one another, which matters more than you might think for a group: couples, families with little ones, and the friend who is up at dawn for the birdsong can each land somewhere that suits, rather than all being shoehorned into identical rooms.

This is exactly why Dod Mill works so well for groups of friends and for intergenerational family gatherings, the kind of stay where grandparents, parents and small children are all in one place except, mercifully, not all in one building. Everyone has their own front door. Everyone can also wander over and end up round the same firepit by evening.

Need more shared indoor space? Our Kiln House studio can be brought into your exclusive-use booking as a central space for meals, games and gathering together.

Thinking about a group stay? Get in touch with Ruth and tell us a little about your group. We will help you work out what fits.

The Details

What’s Included, and What We Can Arrange for You

Part of the appeal of an exclusive-use booking is that we can help shape the stay around your group. We provide all of the staples that come with our cottage and cabin bookings (linen, towels, essentials like shampoo, oil, salt pepper etc). When it comes to group stays, a few of the touches people most want are things we hire in rather than keep permanently fixed, which means they stay in good condition and you only pay for what you actually want:

Hot tubs and saunas can both be brought in for your stay. Just tell us what you are after and we will help arrange it.
Catering can be organised, from one celebration dinner to someone in the kitchen for the whole stay (vegetarian and other diets happily catered for). Or self-cater easily, using the fully equipped kitchens in Old Mill and The Bothy plus outdoor cooking options.
Party tents can provide a useful back-up plan when the weather is unpredictable (which is most of the year in Scotland!). There are some super local suppliers who can help you, and we’ll guide you in the right direction for what works well at Dod Mill.
Activities can be built into your stay and brought to the site, so the fun happens on your own patch. More on those below.
A few extra tents can be added between mid-May and mid-September for larger groups, a lovely way to give teenagers or extra friends their own independent corner. We can even provide bell tents.

The Outdoor Space, Which Is Really the Point

We have a five-acre site on the edge of the Lammermuir Hills, with the Boondreigh River running right down the middle. There is a large grassy meadow by the river and a separate garden by the mill pond, both made for the happily unstructured business of a group holiday: rounders, frisbee, small children running off energy, adults pretending they are not joining in and then joining in.

There are firepits for cooking outdoors, which on a clear Borders evening is hard to beat. You can wander through woodland, past the mill pond with its wild ducks, along the mill lade, through our little orchard and our fields of rare-breed sheep and ponies. A footbridge means easy walking on both sides of the river, and you can stroll straight off our site into neighbouring farmland, forest and up into the hills.

Do ask us about using the grounds for small marquees or outdoor dining, including picnics, barbecues and parties.

Activities We Can Build Into Your Stay

This is where a Dod Mill group stay becomes more than just somewhere to sleep. The site lends itself beautifully to bringing instructors and makers to you. Things that work particularly well for groups here include:

Archery and tomahawk throwing, both great for mixed-age groups
Outdoor and campfire cooking, making proper use of the firepits
Writing and creative retreats, with the quiet and the river doing much of the work
Art, sketching and painting, with the landscape as the subject
Crafting workshops, from candle making to printing
Floristry, using seasonal and foraged Borders material
Foraging and wild food walks, ending, naturally, back at the firepit
Wild swimming and cold-water dipping in the river, for the brave
Yoga, pilates and wellness sessions, especially good paired with a hired-in sauna
Stargazing under genuinely dark Borders skies
Bread making, cheese and gin tasting and other sociable food-and-drink workshops

Tell us the shape of your group and what you are hoping for, and we can help put a programme together. A milestone birthday, a hen weekend and a family reunion all want quite different things, and that is half the fun of it.

Getting here, getting around & eating out

Dod Mill is just outside Lauder (postcode TD2 6SE), far enough into the countryside to feel properly away from things, and much closer to Edinburgh than people expect. The drive to Edinburgh takes around 45 minutes, and Edinburgh Airport is roughly 34 miles away, a little under an hour by car. The nearest train station is at Stow on the Borders Railway, around three-quarters of an hour from Edinburgh Waverley. We are also about 90 minutes from Glasgow, Dundee and Newcastle.

In practice, friends scattered across the country can converge here without anyone facing an epic slog, and people flying in can land and be sitting by the mill pond the same afternoon.

For all the appeal of cooking over a fire, most groups want at least one night where nobody lifts a finger. There are good options for meals out nearby, from pub dinners to more of an occasion, and the wider Scottish Borders has plenty to see and do. One tip from experience: local taxis are easy to come by, but do book them in advance, especially for a larger group at the weekend, so everyone can relax over dinner without drawing the short straw as designated driver.

Kiln House

KILN HOUSE STUDIO & GROUP SPACE

The Kiln House is our unique studio building. It is the central, communal space at Dod Mill and is available to groups hiring the venue on an exclusive use basis. It can also be rented on a per day or half day basis for other groups – e.g. for meetings or craft sessions.

The Kiln House layout is really flexible and can be set up with comfy seating (up to 10 guests), with dining / meeting tables (up to 12 guests), or a combination of the two.

For guests hiring Dod Mill for group accommodation or as a yoga retreat venue, the Kiln House works really well as a central space for meals or as a chill-out room.

It’s a gorgeous space, with windows of three sides of the room each with views out to the surrounding countryside. The stone entrance area has plenty of space for coats and bags if needed.

We can provide tea and coffee making facilities as well as all the glasses, crockery and cutlery you may need.

Yoga, Meditation & Retreats

Dod Mill is a unique venue for hosting retreats. We love to welcome yoga, meditation, art, craft, reading, writing or education groups to our site. Our unique accommodation and studio are all beautifully and individually interior-designed. They are peaceful and soul-lifting spaces!

Groups can easily self-cater, making use of fully-equipped kitchens in Old Mill and The Bothy, plus a choice of outdoor cooking facilities. It’s also possible to arrange for sumptuous and wholesome catering if required (vegetarian available).

We feel that outside space is as important as inside space when it comes to retreats. Dod Mill is a 5 acre dell with a river running through the middle (with foot bridge!). You’ll also be treated to woodland, orchard, friendly and rare-breed sheep, fields and a mill pond.

Day retreats, weekend retreats and week-long retreats are all available. Our rural location is just 40 minutes from Edinburgh and 90 minutes from each of Glasgow, Dundee and Newcastle. There is absolutely loads to do and see around here if your timetable allows guests free time.

Old Mill and The Bothy can both be set up as yoga studios with capacity for 12 and 7 mats respectively (plus an instructor mat). Similarly, these spaces can be used for other activities. Both have woodburning stoves, and Old Mill also has underfloor heating.

Dod Mill has hosted quite a number of yoga and meditation retreats in recent years and in the past. If you are a retreat leader, Ruth is very happy to have a chat with you about what we offer and to arrange a site visit. In the first instance, simply get in touch.

Meeting & Event Venue

We are delighted for groups to come to Dod Mill for all sorts of meetings and events. You might be looking for somewhere to host a candle making workshop, art class, a meeting or a small social event including a boutique wedding.

Tea, herbal tea, coffee, water and homebaking can be provided to suit. We have loads of lovely artisan crockery, glasses and cutlery too. Please ask us about outside catering as we can organise delicious soups, bread, salads and cakes for lunches.

The Kiln House is a studio which is perfect to hire for a half day, whole day, weekend or evening. The seating and table arrangements are very flexible. For example, we can set comfy sofa seating around the edge of the room (up to 10 guests). Instead, you might need meeting or dining tables (12 guests, 16 at a real push!). We can also provide a combination of two sofas and one table (up to 8 guests).

The other option is to pitch a small marquee, canvas tent, yurt or teepee for your event. We have a lovely flat space in the field by the river, near the Fishing Hut.

Artist Residencies

Dod Mill has had a very creative history with various artists living here in the last 40 years. That includes photographers, a stained glass artist and at least two painters that we know of. Creatives and artists have also come here for temporary studio space and for inspiration.

Anyone is welcome to book our cottages or cabins for their own artist residency, research residency, writing residency or creative residency.

This is a great place to completely immerse yourself in a particular project or master a new style. You’ll find tonnes of natural inspiration as well as vernacular buildings at Dod Mill and in the area.