Meet the Roxburghe Estates Team

On the 11th July 1994, 28 years ago, Roxburghe Estates employed 20 year old local lass Karen Fairley, who had just graduated from an Office Administration Course at Borders College.

When Karen arrived there were only 2 computers in the whole Estates Office! When she started she took on the role of Computer Processor, which involved processing all the data for the entire office and all departments including payroll. Back then everyone else was still working with pen and paper. As the company has grown so has Karen’s responsibilities. She is now Accounts Assistant and looks after many departments including Floors Farming, Bowmont Farming , Floors Energy, the Trusts and The Firm of Roxburghe Estates, this involves all purchase ledgers, job costing, answering phones.

Karen’s favourite thing about her job is each month end. She enjoys the job satisfaction of making sure all the suppliers are paid and seeing how much money leaves the business every month. As a horse lover herself, Karen also has fond memories of doing the accounts for Floors Stud when it was based here on the Floors Estate under the management of the 10th Duke of Roxburghe.

When asked what memory stands out most throughout her 28 years here, Karen chuckled! She recalls when Land Rover was launching the new Discovery 4, there was a challenging purpose built off-road course on the Estate where people were invited to test drive Land Rovers latest 4 wheel driving experience. Karen received a phone call from a distressed tourist who was visiting the Castle this day and had decided to follow the branded Land Rover Experience arrows that were located around the Estate. The problem being, said visitor was driving a very small 2 wheel drive car and ended up stuck and beached on a tree stump in the middle of nowhere down a dirt track, and had to be rescued by the now Duke of Roxburghe!

Karen speaks fondly of working at Floors Castle and says the novelty of driving into work every morning and seeing the Castle never wears off. The Estate office is part of the Castle itself, and the view from her desk is one she never tires of.