If someone were to tell you that there was an old tweed shop in the Scottish Highlands, Campbell’s of Beauly is exactly what you’d picture. An old stone building, worn wooden shelves, stacked with dozens of bolts. 

There are similar piles of tweed caps, shetland jumpers and brightly checked blankets. Stuffed birds, old gun cases and other shooting paraphernalia fill the gaps. It feels like it hasn’t changed in the 150 years since it was founded – and it hasn’t much. 

Interestingly, the thing that has changed is that the owners – John and Nicola Sugden – bought it in 2015 when it was slowly drifting into obscurity, and transformed it into a stable business. There used to be a lot more places like this in Scotland, but now this is pretty much the only one left. 

It says something about the lack of authenticity in retail today that those stuffed birds and old gun cases remind me a little of the things shipped in to decorate a new pub, or indeed a new branch of a country-inspired brand.

But there’s nothing inauthentic here. Campbell’s has been outfitting people in the area since 1858, and is still doing so. People come for caps, for bags, for shooting vests and plus-fours, and much of it can be made by a bespoke team in the workshop. 

These kinds of activities are becoming increasingly dominated by tourists, especially Americans – that’s a live subject in the Highlands – but Campbell’s also supplies the people that work on the local estates, and take the tourists around.  

It’s natural that I – and I think most PS readers – would react positively to this kind of place, where heritage is very much underplayed rather than overplayed. 

Oh, and of course, it helps that they had the Royal Warrant for the Duke of Windsor.

John’s family were historically weavers in Huddersfield. After college, he did an apprenticeship at Johnston’s of Elgin, spending two years in the mill itself before moving into sales. 

“Campbell’s was one of the places I sold to back then,” John (above) says, “but if I’m honest I found it a little boring. I could see the character, but it was very different to the modern shops I was selling too around Europe.”

It was only after leaving Johnston’s, and a few years at Mackintosh, that Campbell’s of Beauly came up again – this time at the suggestion of his father. “At first I couldn’t see the appeal, but Dad presented it as an opportunity, as somewhere with a lot of tradition that hadn’t been changed in a long time.”

Campbell’s was owned by three siblings, descendants of the founders, who were all in their seventies. “They were wonderful,” says John. “They gave us three years to buy it out, and they were keen to sell to a family, to someone who would live above the shop. I still have lunch with James [Campbell] most weeks.”

Change came slowly, and it took John and Nicola four years to get the shop to break even. One of the things they did early was streamline suppliers. 

“Campbell’s used to work in a very haphazard way, which was quite standard then,” John says. “For example they bought knitwear from every mill in Hawick, which made for scattered stock. They’d phone around and see who had navy V-necks when they needed some, for example, even if the details were all different.”

That was the case with ends-of-lines as well. It was normal to buy several different shades of grey gloves, for example, because they good value. “You can do that in a shop to an extent, because people can see what they’re buying,” says John. “But it can’t work online.”

It’s the online business in the past few years that has really been transformative. 

“Marcus at Nitty-Gritty in Stockholm was a good friend – I used to take my squash racket over when I went selling, and we’d play together,” says John. “I remember him saying to me, be careful with online, because it’s not as easy as everyone thinks.”

He meant things like photography, customer service, and returns and exchanges, all of which require investment. John did that, and this year online will account for 50% of the Campbell’s business, from less than 10% at the start of Covid. 

“The great thing about this is that we sell all year-round,” says John. “Because the Highlands are cold, we can sell knitwear all the way through the summer. Spaniards and Italians come to escape the heat at home, and even if it gets to 20 degrees in the day, it drops right down in the evening.

“Then in the winter, the shop is quiet, because nobody comes here. Large parts of the Highlands shut down for tourism. But we sell online to everywhere else.”

I personally bought some gloves, a headband and a beret for my wife and daughters when I visited Campbell’s last month, and I can attest to the quality. It’s all solid, traditional stuff, often made in Scotland, and fairly priced. 

The tweed you see when you enter the shop – sitting on shelves that somehow are actually 150 years old – is largely estate tweeds, so heavy, bulletproof stuff designed for the Highlands. (See tweed guide here for more on the different types.)

Some of them are exclusive to Campbell’s, but many are not. “We do small pieces with Lovat, and I go to every archive sale to get old bolts,” says John, “but we’re not big enough to buy full exclusive pieces.”

I found most of the colours and patterns too rural for me (not surprising, given they’re not aimed at a city-dweller like me) but I did have a jacket made out of Saxony tweed 82053, which proved to be very nice. That’s it pictured below, made by The Anthology. 

John is also adding more shetlands – softer, lighter tweeds – to the range. “Locally, people want the estate tweeds but online it’s different,” he says. “There they’re more likely to want things for making with their tailor in London or New York.”

The bespoke workshop at the back of Campbell’s uses these tweeds to make country clothing to order. It’s run by Lara (above), a cutter whose background is in theatre and runs a team of five (including one intern).

It’s proper bespoke, but their strength is things like kilt jackets and plus-fours, rather than the kind of suits we normally cover on PS. It is decent value though – jackets start at £2000, plus fours at £750. 

Kilt jackets is what Campbell’s makes for King Charles. The company has a long historical connection with Balmoral, and had royal warrants from the Queen Mother as well as the Duke of Windsor when he was Prince of Wales. The King likes to spread things around though – his kilts are made by Kinloch Anderson and his socks come from elsewhere too.

It helped put the new Campbell’s on the map immensely when the King opened the new workshop in 2019 (below).

John and I talked a fair bit when I was up there, and we chatted on the phone again for this piece. I realised one reason I wanted to support Campbell’s so much was that we both know traditional makers that are going out of business – and that this was one that has been saved. 

“It’s scary Simon seeing how many mills and other suppliers of ours are in trouble. Demand is not always the problem either, it’s the fact people don’t want to go into the business. I love a hand fashioned shetland, with the V-neck put in by hand and the saddle shoulder. But people don’t want to offer that anymore, because they can’t rely on the labour,” says John. 

“It’s got so bad that it’s made us think whether we need to start some old machinery ourselves, just to keep it going.”

Of course you, dear readers, are unlikely to be in a position to go to Scotland and become a mill worker, but you do know the value of this craft and what happens when it’s gone. So please do support Campbell’s and other places like it whenever you can.