Our Story
A family farm built from scratch. We sold everything, hit the road, and found 60+ acres of Lowcountry that felt exactly right.
Who we are, in one breath.
It started with a rabbit hole.
It started, like a lot of things do, with a late-night rabbit hole. Back in 2018, Clair fell deep into videos of families who had sold everything and taken to the road. She showed Chris. He didn't roll his eyes — that was probably the first sign. We bought a 35-foot motorhome, renovated it ourselves, pointed it west, and crossed twenty-nine states with our two girls crammed into the kind of trip that doesn't fit in a photo album.
When COVID hit, we didn't go home to wait it out — we leaned in. We sold the house, downsized completely, and set out for Costa Rica. The border was closed when we got there, so we did the only thing that made sense: we kept driving. Over the next two years we lived full-time in the RV, eventually spent about six months in Costa Rica, and somewhere between the slow mornings and the long conversations, the girls started drawing maps. Real ones, on paper, with little hand-drawn animal pens and trails through the trees. It wasn't a business plan. It was a family vision.
We looked at land all over the Southeast and kept not quite finding it. Then one afternoon, driving out near Orangeburg to see a different property entirely, something caught our eye — raw land that had been sitting on the market a long time. We pulled over. We walked almost three-quarters of those acres that first day, the tree lines and the open farmland and the little creek out back, and we didn't say much. We didn't need to. We sent in an offer, and the day after closing we were on site cutting roads.
Both girls were there for all of it — swinging on vines, disappearing into the woods the way kids do when they finally have room to roam. Our first animals arrived in March 2023: we went to meet Fred, our Highland bull, and came home with five others. That's pretty much how our animal story goes. We can't leave them behind. The rest is what you see when you pull in.
The people behind the farm.
Clair Robinson
For Clair, it all started with a simple desire: to be home raising her two girls. She never pictured herself as a stay-at-home mom growing up, but once Caroline and Macy arrived, the question of how she could be there more started driving every decision she made.
Chris encouraged her to step out and build something of her own, so she leaned on what she knew: retail, from years managing fashion stores in her early twenties. She and her mom opened a store together. It was exciting and taught her a lot, and though they closed it after four years, it showed her she could work and still be present for her kids, bringing them into the business instead of choosing one over the other.
When the family moved to Kiawah Island in 2014, Clair put her energy into helping Chris grow the cleaning company. Together they hired sixty seasonal employees a year and built it into the island's largest employer. She also sold real estate across the islands and greater Charleston. In 2017, she added homeschooling to the mix, which became her main focus, while still running the cleaning company's back office and selling real estate part time.
That same instinct, to build something that lets you stay close to the people you love, eventually led her and Chris to Outside Inn.
Chris Robinson
Chris is the dreamer of the family, the one who isn't afraid to say the big goal out loud before he's figured out how to get there. He moves fast and trusts his gut, and while some might call it impulsive, those who know him know there's always a plan running underneath it. He's had the entrepreneurial itch his whole life, and there's nothing he loves more than getting someone else fired up to chase a dream of their own.
That mindset showed up early. In 2008, Chris started a cleaning company out of the trunk of his car, using gear he already had at home. What began as a one-man residential operation grew, through years of relationship-building and high standards, into a commercial cleaning company serving Charlotte. When the family relocated to Kiawah Island, he built the business up again from the ground there, the same way: one strong relationship and one well-trained employee at a time.
These days, you're most likely to find Chris tinkering with a piece of equipment that probably didn't need fixing yet, riding the tractor across the property, or getting pulled into a long conversation with guests he just met an hour ago.
Caroline Robinson
Caroline is the firstborn, and Clair likes to think she's a version of herself, but better. She's strong-minded and kind in equal measure, the kind of person who stands firmly in her own values without ever needing to make a show of it.
She just graduated high school in 2026, closing out a twelve-year competitive gymnastics career and adding pole vault to her list of pursuits along the way. On the farm, she's usually found snuggling baby bunnies or leading guests through feeding time, a far cry from the girl who was once genuinely afraid of the chickens when the farm first began. When she's not on the property, she's likely at the beach or out on a boat somewhere around Charleston.
Macy Robinson
Macy is the baby of the family, and she wears that title proudly. True to youngest-sibling form, she's fearless, bold, and entirely unapologetic about who she is. She makes friends wherever she goes and has spent the last twelve years as a competitive gymnast, channeling that same fearlessness into every routine.
She adores every animal on the farm and will happily make a midnight trip out to the barn to "check on a new baby" or "make sure everything is just right," whether or not anything actually needs checking. In her free time, you'll find her riding dirt bikes through the fields, kicking up dust and having the time of her life.
The whole story, counted out.
A campground should feel like a place, not a product.
The animals aren't a backdrop — they're the reason we're here. Slow down isn't a suggestion; it's the whole point. We'd rather have 28 sites that feel like home than 200 that feel like parking. We're still building, and if you want to see what that actually looks like, Clair documents the real thing — no highlight reel — at @buildingoutsideinn.
Meet the farm →You'll understand it better in person.
Come for a night. Stay for the weekend. Meet Fred. You'll see exactly what we mean.
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