The wait is over for the communities who bid for their very own orchard to mark the 10th Anniversary of the Cairngorms National Park.
The huge response for the anniversary orchards has led to the inclusion of an extra eight, instead of the planned ten which were to mark each year of the Park
The Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) in partnership with the Soil Association – through the Cairngorms Food for Life programme – invited community groups and organisations to nominate a site for an orchard
Now 18 Heritage Orchards, each containing eight trees, a mixture of apple, plum and pear, have been awarded to a range of groups across the Park. Funding for the project is coming from the Park Authority and the European funded LEADER programme.
Glynis Ross, the Cairngorms Food for Life Development Officer said; “We were delighted with the amount of interest from the communities across the Park. This project is about learning where food comes from, and ensuring good food is available to all.
We want communities to utilise their green spaces and become more sustainable by growing their own food. The inclusion of another eight orchards means that even more people will be able to get involved with growing their own”
The orchard sites are:-
- Abernethy Primary School
- Anagach Woods Trust
- Ardgeal Community
- Aviemore Primary School
- Ballater Community
- Blair Atholl Community
- Braemar St. Andrew’s Church
- Crathie Primary School
- Cromdale Community
- Dalwhinnie Community
- Deshar Primary School
- Glenlivet Community – Drumin Castle
- Grantown-on-Spey Primary School
- Kingussie Community
- Laggan Community
- Newtonmore Primary School
- Strathdon Primary School
- Tomintoul Community – Smugglers Hostel
The Crown Estate, who helped the community in Glenlivet to put their bid together, have agreed to match the trees provided under the project, meaning the orchard planned for Drumin Castle will benefit from 16 trees.
The timing of the planting of the orchards will depend on the preparation of the sites and weather conditions. Each group will be invited to a local training session on how to plant fruit trees correctly from Andrew Lear, who has supplied the trees from his Perthshire nursery.