In June 1940, a small group of refugees from Austria moved to the Aberdeen area. Their goal was to establish a community dedicated to supporting and teaching children with learning difficulties. With the generous support of the Haughton and MacMillan families, Camphill Estate became the birthplace and name of the Camphill Movement.

This small group, led by Dr Karl Konig, recognised a need to help these young people grow and achieve what many thought was impossible.

As the children grew, it became apparent that there needed to be another step to meet these youngsters’ needs when reaching adulthood.

The Camphill Schools bought Newton Dee Estate in Bieldside in 1945. And work began to shift from school to lifelong education, farming, and crafts. Camphill Botton Village became the first adult Camphill Community in North Yorkshire. With Newton Dee officially becoming a community for adults in 1960.

This underlying principle of meeting society’s needs is one factor that has helped Camphill continue to flourish and spread.

Worldwide there are now over 100 Camphill Communities. In Aberdeen alone, there are the Camphill Schools (made up of Camphill Estate, Murtle and Cairnlee), Newton Dee, Beannachar, Tigh a’Chomain, Simeon Care for the Elderly, and The Camphill Wellbeing Trust. All providing care, health provision, support, and education from children to older age.

Today, Camphill Communities in Aberdeen frequently welcome visitors from across the world to see our varying care and support models. With hopes to start exciting new projects in their own countries.

All Camphill Communities have developed their own models and structures, making each place unique. But all are linked through a shared ethos, a desire to create social belonging and responsibility in our communities.

Camphill has always been about developing innovative practices and serving society’s needs. Heading into the future, we hope to continue to build our support models and to become stewards of the land—leading the way in environmentally friendly initiatives and sustainable business models. We want to continue to excel and look forward to new ideas.

As always, we aim to enrich the lives of all within our communities. To enable everyone to make meaningful contributions to society and to develop communities for the future.

To find more information about the Camphill Communities in Aberdeen, please follow the links at the top of the page or in the menu. Whilst all Camphill Communities share a common ethos and heritage, it is important to know that each Community is it’s own company. With separate management structures and separate finances. This way, each community can develop it’s own unique identity, but also work together where collaboration makes sense. Much like we build strong individuals through strong community. We build strong individual communities through strong collaboration.