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GEF Safari Series ended on a high at Prime Four in the final race of the series. A crisp, but sunny morning made for great racing conditions and this was certainly reflected in participants race results. 108 entrants and 30 volunteers made it possible for the Prime Four race to raise a fantastic £1,335!

Andy Dickinson, who works at Apache at Prime Four, took part in the race said ‘My wife and I ran in the Gathimba Edwards Safari Series 3Km race.  The event was superbly organised, with numerous volunteers and signage clearly indicating, parking, registration and race route.  It was a cold, clear, sunny morning and initial concerns about possible slippery sections were eliminated due to the thorough salting of the route.  The route consists of 3 laps, which was helpful as you knew what to expect and how to pace yourself for laps 2 and 3.  Encouragement from Myles and numerous spectators helped us achieve times that were better than we expected.  This and in addition, knowing that you were helping people in need in Kenya, made this a highly satisfying event and I would encourage anyone, irrespective of their running level, to participate at the next opportunity.’

Congratulations to the following leopard themed trophy winners:

Kids 1k: 1st boy, Liam Miller. 1st girl, Hayleigh Reid (Hayleigh won all 3 of the 2023 series races!)

3k: 1st male, Kyle Gibson. 1st female: Tammy Wilson.

All race results, photos, money raised and 2024 race date information can be found here.  

The impact of the funds raised from the series will go towards the £4,000 required to build a new home for Francis, Abigael and their grandmother who currently sleep under an umbrella in their house (see photos below).

2024 series

The 2024 race dates and details will be released shortly so if you missed out this year or are keen to do it all again next year then look out for the info here. However, there are other ways you can make a difference or get involved with some non-running related GEF events and initiatives coming up:

Xmas Fair – Sunday 26^th November 2023 – as part of this we have photographer Tony Jones kindly doing Christmas photo shoots for families and individuals for a £20 donation – please email us if you’d like to book.  

Cinema Sunday (The Lion King) – 18^th Feb 2024

10 Year Anniversary Dinner – Saturday 18^th May 2024 – tickets, tables and sponsorship packages are available.

This Christmas the foundation aims to provide every family they support in Kenya with a special food package.  More info and how to donate can found here.

If you like your events with an extra helping of mud, mayhem and monster challenges then this year’s Beast Race ticked all the boxes!  Race goers arrived in their droves this year, with a sell-out event.  2500 participants were expected at the stunning location of Knockburn Loch, Banchory.

The rain held off and winds stayed at bay, race goers thought luck was on their side… until they tested the chilly temperatures of Knockburn Loch!

With new obstacles, awaiting this years participants, runners had to navigate around the new challenging route to get to them.  The epic 10k obstacle race is not just a personal or group fitness challenge but also an amazing opportunity for many charities.

A successful close to the event seen all participants finish safely and fully mudded up and watered down. Next years event tickets are due to go on sale from October.

Our beautiful Shetland cows living and working in Prime Four.

Our cattle are pure bred pedigree Shetlands. The Shetland, known natively in the Scots language as Shetland kye,is a small, hardy breed of cattle from the Shetland Islands and is classified as at risk by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust in Britain. They have an ancient lineage thought to date back to the cattle the Vikings brought to the Shetlands Islands in the period 700-1100 AD. The majority of Shetlands are black and white but red and white is now firmly established and even whole colours are reappearing. The Shetland has delicately shaped inward and slightly upward curving horns, appropriately Viking style.

Hester and Klara, who are half-sisters, were bought in November last year from the Scottish Wildlife Trust Fleecefaulds Herd to carry out the important function of conservation grazing on the pastures of the North Park at Prime Four. Kasper was born to Hester on the 30^th of May this year.

The Shetland has many great qualities that make it suitable for conservation grazing as they eat a wide range of grasses including rushes, coarse herbs, and thistle tops. They also browse a wide variety of shrubs, including young heather. Their hooves break up bracken and rushes, so they are essential for managing the spread of invasive and undesirable plant species. Conservation grazing is a natural and sustainable alternative to mechanical mowing and the selective nature of the grazing opens up the meadows, providing a diverse range of structural habitat for insects, reptiles, and amphibians. The conservation grazing function is part of a wider habitat and biodiversity programme we have in place at Prime Four.

In the winter they have a long hairy coat which starts growing in August and by May they become sleek and shiny with their summer coat. All calves are born with a woolly coat whatever time of the year they are born. Check out how shiny and sleek Hester and Klara are in comparison to Kasper and his thick woolly coat.

The Shetland make excellent mothers and tend to need little to no intervention during birthing or the early days of motherhood. They just work it out and get it right! Shetlands tend to have fewer health issues than bigger, commercial breeds which, when managing vegetation is the priority. Low maintenance livestock is a big plus point.

A virtual fence linked to the collars worn by the cattle allows the Park Management team to manage the location of the cattle without fences.

Look out for more updates on our “Kye” over the coming months.

The GEF Safari Series, licensed by Scottish Athletics, gives runners the chance to compete over 3 different distances whilst also receiving a unique Kenyan safari animal medal at each event.  The Prime Four sponsored 3k race will take place on Sunday 12th November – a fast and flat 3k (1k for kids aged 11 and under) race around Prime Four.
Races start from 10am with the Kids 1k starting first, followed by the 3k race.. Start lists and start times (based on predicted times) will be sent out a few days prior to the event.

Entries are open now and will close 2 weeks before the race date.  Register your entry here or visit gathimbaedwardsfoundation.org to find out more information on what the event supports.

Saturday 24th June 12-6pm

Head along to Webster Park on Saturday 24th June 12pm-6pm for lots of fun, entertainment, food and drink at the Kingswells Gala.

Sit and relax with food and drink from the Four Mile, Aberdam, The Horse’s Tipple and Kippie Lodge, or an ice cream from Little Miss Whippy.

Be entertained and join in with local activity groups putting fantastic demonstrations throughout the day, along with bouncy castles, a magician, craft stalls, face painting and much more.

To top it all off there is a free mini bus circling Kingswells picking up and dropping off visitors around the village and at the Park & Ride.

Entrance £1 adults & 50p for children.

Organisers are also looking for owners to take along their good boys and girls and enter them into Kingswells Kruftz 2023. Categories are:

1. Dog Agility – Can your K9 complete the course in the fastest time and the least mistakes!

2. Dog with the waggiest tail – Strut your mut on the catwalk to see Who has the best sWAGger!

3. Best Ball Catcher – How many balls can your pooch catch in 30 seconds!

4. Most Pawsome Party Trick – Show us your furry friends special moves.

5. Junior Handler – Get the kids involved pups and show us what they can do together.

If you would like to get involved/enter please contact KCCWPGALA@GMAIL.COM

Aberdeen’s first net zero carbon HQ

There is increasing demand from occupiers to make workplaces more sustainable as businesses strive towards net zero targets. Drum Property Group, developers at Prime Four, recently completed an operational net zero carbon HQ for the Student Loans Company in Glasgow and are now proposing to replicate that level of performance via the delivery of the Crescent Office at Prime Four – the first of its kind in Aberdeen.

The 30,000 sqft building will be located opposite the Northern Meadows at Aberdeen’s only International-class business park. All the buildings on the park have been built to an exceptional standard, but the focus for the Crescent Office is very much on net zero carbon improvements and providing flexible space that is tailored to tenants’ requirements and working practices in a post-pandemic world.

Designing a net zero carbon building requires the coordination and integration of many different processes, including energy efficient building envelope design, a renewable energy network and monitoring and control systems to ensure the end user has a simple, efficient and easy-to run building. The design team will also prioritise the selection of sustainable materials, reduce waste and consider the entire lifecycle of the materials used. This ‘best practice’ approach will ensure that this new all-electric office building will be ‘operational net zero carbon’.

The 30,000 sqft Crescent Office will also look after the health and wellbeing of its occupants. The building will be a state-of-the art workspace, designed to encourage socialising and collaboration and to complement and build on the sense of community at Prime Four. All those that work at Prime Four have access to free yoga and pilates classes, PT sessions and running groups. There is also a strong focus on biodiversity on site with guided nature walks, beehives producing hundreds of jars of honey each season and recent additions Hester, Klara and Kasper the Shetland cows, who live on the park and help keep the meadow areas in shape.

If you are looking to relocate to a “futureproofed office” that is both flexible and can be tailored to suit your business needs, please view the brochure here or bring you business to life and contact one of the agents: arron.finnie@ryden.co.uk jonathan.nesbitt@fgburnett.co.uk  or derren.mcrae@cbre.com

2022 race completed with great turn out.

Some heavy showers in the days leading up to race day made for a boggy course this year.  Undetered, nearly 50 entrants from Prime Four joined the thousands who turned up for another challenging, yet exciting, Beast Race.  A revamp of the course each year keeps participants on their toes and this year was no different with some added extras to current obstacles, along with some new ones.  

Congratulations and Well done to everyone who took part.

Trim your travel costs

Make sustainability a key focus for your return to the workplace or during Liftshare week, by helping make greener commutes. 

A shared journey is twice as efficient and half as expensive as driving alone, with substantial C02e savings contributing to our net-zero goals.

Work at Prime Four?  Join the Prime Four Liftshare scheme for free.  Travelling doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Become a supercommuter and try effortless cost saving – Share the ride, save the planet and split the cost!

Hundreds of runners test their endurance in one of the most enervating physical events

Armed with big smiles and passion, entrants ran, crawled and dragged their way over muddy obstacles, crossed a giant A-frame wall and faced blasts from ice-cold jets in the beautiful setting of Knockburn Loch, Banchory.  Brave participants battled through thick, chest-deep swamps and threw themselves down a giant water slide as part of the Beast Race, held on Saturday 25th September.

The hugely popular 10k course features a total of 30 different obstacles to challenge the participants’ strength, endurance and ability to withstand mud and water.  Many workers from Prime Four, along with runners from all over the country, geared up for the brutal competition to raise cash for their charity or just to enjoy the race and test themselves.  This years top times were:

1st Male: Ronnie Duncan (00:51:53.463)

2nd Male: Colin Whiteford (00:53:34.531)

3rd Male: Dwayne Batt (00:53:43.857)

1st Female: Julie Menzies (00:56:00.327)

2nd Female: Kym Booth (00:59:01.187)

3rd Female: Jessica Carns (01:01:40.315)

Nearly 1500 participants conquer the Loch Ness Beast Race

With the sun shining, the scene was set for great racing conditions on Aldourie Castle Estate, Loch Ness,  With it’s highest entries to date at this location, runners from across the Highlands turned out in force for the gruelling 10k obstacle event’s return on Saturday 28th August.  

Brave entrants ran, crawled and dragged their way over muddy obstacles including crossing a chest-deep swamp, a giant A-frame wall and being blasted with ice cold jets.  They contended freezing loch water and threw themselves down a giant water slide as part of the physically demanding course.  There are 27 different obstacles in total around the Beast race to test runners’ endurance and strength.  The top male race time was achieved by Ricci Carrino at an astonishing time of 51 minutes 21 seconds, while the top female time was set by Kata Markus at 1 hour 3 minute

Whilst some took part as a personal challenge, many took on the challenge to raise for funds for charity.  The nominated charity for the event is Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland (CHSS).   

Hayley Simpson, fundraising manger at CHSS said: “What an incredible day we had at the Beast Race.  The weather was glorious with the sun shining all day. Our amazing supporters tackled the course with enormous enthusiasm. It was such a great atmosphere.”

“Thank you to everyone who joined us it was great to see people in-person again.  Raising funds for us that we are able to make sure that people living in Scotland get the support they really need when they return home from hospital.  Every penny raised will make sure that people can do more than survive.”

Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland provide vital services to support people and their families who are living with effects of serious chest and heart conditions and stroke.  These services include rehabilitation support, specialist nurses, community groups, advice and information.