We, Paul and Kathryn Shrimpton, live in the beautiful Tyne Valley. In May 2018 we moved into our bespoke Norwegian Log Cabin on the very land we bought to help expand our alpaca breeding business in 2014.

We first met alpacas at the Northumberland County Show in 2002 and fell in love with them immediately.

After lots of study and research Kathryn started our Nero Black Alpaca herd in 2006, with five animals. In 2010, Paul gave up his job in financial management, initially to help build up our B&B business, and is now engaged in the development of our alpaca herd full time.

Since 2006, we have selectively grown the herd and are proud to have won many awards and accolades, but most of all ~ we are chuffed to have had years of enjoyable alpaca ownership. Having experienced over 80 births our knowledge has grown exponentially but we never lose sight of the fact that there is always more to discover. We have been determined to keep manageable and enjoyable numbers, so have sold many alpacas and, selectively, bought new ones to diversify bloodlines.

We combine our alpaca ownership and breeding with an alpaca knitwear business, and in the Spring of 2018, launched our latest enterprise ~ Alpaca Encounters. It has very quickly developed into of the the most popular things to do in Hexham on Trip Adviser.