What is Cairns Farm?
Cairns Farm is a 9-acre park and open space offering sanctuary, a place to gather, recreation, and educational opportunities in the middle of Oregon’s gorgeous wine country. Located just 15 miles from Portland and easily accessible via I-5, our family-owned farm is the realization of a long-held dream to create an inclusive, welcoming space for all comers.
We have divided our property into two unique spaces: 1) a 5-acre Park with ancient oak groves, open fields, fir stands, a shelter crafted from a vintage red barn, expansive decking, and an antique farm house with two restrooms (the barn shelter, decking, and one of the restrooms are wheelchair accessible), and 2) a 3-acre Douglas Fir forest we call The Wood, groomed for group games and recreation like capture the flag. The remaining acre houses our family home, working barn, well and water pump, gardens and orchard, and our beloved chickens and goat herd.
Cairns Farm offers wide open places to picnic, roam, gather, play, learn, and breathe in clean, clear air.
What does it cost to rent?
Due to COVID-19, we’ve completely revamped the way we price Cairns Farm rentals. Motivated by a dual desire to adhere to all state and county health and safety protocols and to serve our community who are reeling with dramatic changes to the gatherings and celebrations they’d planned, we have reduced our rental price to $100/hour for the remainder of 2020.
Cost: $100/hour
Included: Included with your rental is exclusive use of the 5-acre Park, the 3-acre Wood, grounds, and restrooms. You may bring up to 16 vehicles which allows for ample room around parking spaces. (See “maximum occupancy” below if you need additional parking spaces.)
Not Included: Tables and chairs are not included. We recommend bringing blankets to picnic. You’re welcome to use outside vendors to provide supplies or you may bring your own. We do not provide catering, but we can give you recommendations for licensed local services.
Reservations: Your reservation is confirmed upon receipt of your 50% deposit. The balance is due one month prior to your gathering. If you’re booking within one month of your date, your reservation is confirmed upon receipt of 100% of the balance due.
Change Fees: We have waived all change fees for the remainder of 2020. If you need to change a date, you may select any other available date in 2020 and move your gathering for no charge.
Refunds: These are volatile times and the situation is changing rapidly. We don’t want to add any extra anxiety to your gathering. For the remainder of 2020, we are offering 95% refunds if you cancel for any reason. The 5% we do not refund is the money we already paid for our reservations software. We keep 0% of canceled gatherings.
Maximum Occupancy: Cairns Farm is ideally suited for groups up to 75 people. We can accommodate larger groups, but due to COVID-19 are only accepting group sizes of up to 100 people. Maximum number of vehicles permitted at the Private Park is sixteen — if you need additional parking, The Wood allows for an additional 7 spaces but it’s a bit of a walk to get from there to the Private Park area. If your group size is 50-100 people, we required advance notification because Oregon State regulations require us to provide additional staff to ensure social distancing protocols.
What about health and safety?
COVID-19: Cairns Farm is following all health and safety regulations from the State of Oregon and Yamhill County. We thoroughly clean and disinfect restrooms twice per day when the property is in use by guests. Due to State of Oregon regulations beginning July 15, 2020, guests are not required to use masks IF they are able to maintain at least 6 feet of distance from each other while outdoors; Cairns Farm offers plenty of room to maintain distance from others, but if you are unable to maintain that distance for any reason, you are required to wear a mask around other guests unless they are part of the same household. The information on this page is current at the time of publication and reflects Phase 2 guidelines and updates through July 15,2020, but Cairns Farm reserves the right to require our guests follow additional or updated precautions as issued by local authorities, even if they’re not updated to this page. Please let us know if you have any questions.
NUT-FREE PROPERTY: All tree and ground nuts are strictly prohibited at Cairns Farm. Please refrain from bringing nuts of any kind onto the property. One of our kiddos suffers from a life-threatening anaphylactic allergy to nuts. Help us keep him safe.
What are your hours?
We are open by private appointment during daylight hours every day of the week. We’re happy to provide tours by appointment, as well. Click here to inquire about farm rental or a tour.
Is Cairns Farm an event venue?
Cairns Farm is a place to gather. It is not an event venue in the traditional sense. As a park and open space, we have chosen to operate under similar restrictions and guidelines to those of public parks. Our primary focus is providing an inclusive and welcoming space for groups to play and enjoy the outdoors. While we do have ample space, restrooms, and small areas that provide shelter, we do not have an indoor venue on site. We’re open only during daylight hours, and we do not allow amplified music or audio on our grounds, both of which tend to naturally limit events. If you’re looking for an outdoor park setting for your group to gather, we’d love to chat with you!
Who are you?
We are Jeff and Kim McDonough and their four kids* and Beth and Greg Woolsey and their five*. Jeff and Beth are siblings, squabblers, and friends. And Beth and Kim are the mastermind geniuses / masterful persuaders who convinced Jeff and Greg we should all bring this crazy dream to fruition. Never underestimate the power of women on a mission!
We’ve had our share of change and challenges through the years as we’ve built our families through birth and adoption, learned to advocate for our kids who experience disability and life-threatening medical conditions, and generally died to ourselves and were reborn as different, more compassionate, gentler — and far fiercer — humans. When our church denomination split four years ago over whether to be welcoming and inclusive of our LGBTQ+ friends and family — when we lost our church building and the camps we and our children attended because we are firmly and immovably on the side of honoring and uplifting ALL people as infinitely worthy of love and full acceptance as they already are — we faced a new challenge; figuring out who our community is, after all, and what it means experientially to love our neighbors as ourselves. And so we started brainstorming and dreaming and, finally, building a space that is open to all.
Jeff and Kim have moved to Cairns Farm, and Beth and Greg live in Newberg nearby. We spend our weekends together now, working to make Cairns Farm a reality.
*We were also thrilled to add two new family members in the past year. Jeff and Kim’s oldest, Kaream, married Shali in a stunning ceremony in early March.
And Greg and Beth’s oldest, Abby, married Chandler in September in a tiny ceremony on a beach in Hawaii.
What’s in a name?
People often asked why we chose “Cairns” as the name of our farm. A cairn, for those who haven’t wandered the highlands of Scotland lately or found yourselves on the Pacific Coast Trail with dedicated backpackers, is a stack or pile of rocks used as a memorial, landmark or trail marker. Cairns can be enormous and built of thousands of rocks over months and years or tiny pieces of art that will last only minutes. Cairns for our family remind us of our Celtic and Gaelic heritage, and, when we found the farm we’d been searching for on Rocky Hill Road, we felt the name was fate. We’ve been on a journey, after all, searching for a place to put down roots and burrow into the earth, and looking for the trail markers along the way. What better way to memorialize this place — where we hope many on their own journeys will find solace and succor — than to name it for the ethereal cairns that lead us home?
