Cairn magazine - Spring 2025

spring 2025 cairn The magazine of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Cairngorms 2030 Deer lar­der boost for loc­al food banks

Inside Our sur­vey says Res­ults from the res­id­ent survey

Roy­al wel­come Cot­tage used by Queen Vic­tor­ia fully restored

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For more inform­a­tion head to cairngorms​.co​.uk/ magazine or scan the QR code

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Do you have a ques­tion about some­thing in the Nation­al Park? The con­tacts on this page will help you reach the cor­rect per­son or organ­isa­tion for support.

Busi­ness sup­port Grow­Biz connect@​growbiz.​co.​uk Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship office@​visitcairngorms.​com

Loc­al coun­cil ser­vices Aber­deen­shire: 01467 534 333 Angus: angus​.gov​.uk High­land: 01349 886 608 Moray: 0300 123 4561 Perth and Kinross: 01738 475 000

Land man­age­ment and con­ser­va­tion landmanagement@​cairngorms.​co.​uk nature@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Paths and access­ing the Nation­al Park outdooraccess@​cairngorms.​co.​uk outdooraccess-scotland.scot

Plan­ning All plan­ning ques­tions should go to the rel­ev­ant loc­al author­ity in the first instance (see con­tacts on the left) or vis­it eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk to view and com­ment on live applications.

Recruit­ment and cur­rent vacan­cies recruitment@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Volun­teer­ing volunteers@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Vis­it­or inform­a­tion vis​it​cairngorms​.com vis​itscot​land​.com

Some­thing else? enquiries@​cairngorms.​co.​uk Switch­board: 01479 873 535 Or to vis­it in per­son: Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square Grant­own-on-Spey PH26 3HG

Front cov­er image: Helen Stew­art, seni­or part­ner at Knock­barry Farm © Wun­ner Film. Oth­er images © Air­borne Lens, Ben Addy / Mox­on Archi­tects, Brenna Jessie, Cairngorm Vets, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, Cath­leen Nicol, Dan Har­ris, Gra­ham Niven Pho­to­graphy, Horse­back UK, Jak­ub Iwan­icki, Kaye Nicolson, Land­mark Forest Adven­ture Park, Liam Ander­str­em, Louise Took, Mal­colm Smith, Neil G Pater­son Pho­to­graphy, Paul Dav­is­on, Pete Short, Rachel Keen­an, Ron­an Dugan / Wild­Land Lim­ited, RSPB, RZSS, Vis­it­Ab­er­deen­shire, Vis­itScot­land, Wun­ner Film. 2 cairn spring 2025

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The magazine of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Fàilte / Welcome

Wel­come to the spring edi­tion of Cairn, the magazine for res­id­ents of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

With the days stretch­ing and the weath­er improv­ing, there’s no bet­ter time to make the most of our beau­ti­ful sur­round­ings here in the Nation­al Park. But if you don’t know where to start, this edi­tion will hope­fully bring you some fresh inspir­a­tion and a wel­come remind­er of the health bene­fits of nature.

An early high­light of the year has been the launch of our deer lar­der pro­ject, part of our Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme sup­por­ted by The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund. We’ve been work­ing closely with two farm­ing fam­il­ies to address the over­pop­u­la­tion of deer on their land. The pro­ject aims to solve that prob­lem, while giv­ing nutri­tious meals to people in food poverty and enga­ging bud­ding cooks in loc­al schools.

Mean­while the UK’s first out­door demen­tia resource centre at Bad­aguish has inspired a sim­il­ar pro­ject in Edin­burgh, and more people than ever are get­ting involved in our nature pre­scrip­tions ser­vice – bring­ing the thera­peut­ic bene­fit of the out­doors to a wider audience.

This issue also marks the pub­lic­a­tion of our first ever res­id­ent and work­er sur­vey. Along­side a range of key issues, it’s not­able that over 80% of you said that liv­ing in the Nation­al Park is good for your men­tal and phys­ic­al health. So wheth­er it’s a bike ride through the hills or a short stroll on a com­munity path, be sure to head out and enjoy your Nation­al Park this spring.

High­lights

Page 4 Demen­tia care

Page 7 A Park for All

Page 9 Our sur­vey says

Let us know what you think about this issue of Cairn: call 01479873 535 or email haveyoursay@​cairngorms.​co.​uk This doc­u­ment is avail­able in oth­er formats on request.

Use your smart­phone to scan the QR codes to quickly access fur­ther information.

Page 12 Field to food banks

Please pass this on when you’re fin­ished, or recycle spring 2025 cairn 3

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In your community

Spring in your step

With spring (finally) in the air, many of us will be spend­ing more time outdoors.

The phys­ic­al and men­tal health bene­fits of con­nect­ing with nature are well known; how­ever, it’s not always easy for people to do.

Work­ing with the NHS in Badenoch and Strath­spey – as part of the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme – we have developed a ​‘nature pre­scrip­tions’ ser­vice to help those who do not tra­di­tion­ally con­nect with nature bene­fit from time in the outdoors.

The pro­ject offers tailored sup­port to join activ­it­ies like access­ible nature walks, garden­ing pro­jects or forest bathing. Nearly 50 people have already benefited from the service.

Green Health Week takes place this May and now is the per­fect time to get involved. If you are registered with a prac­tice in Grant­own-on-Spey, Aviemore, Kin­gussie or Lag­gan speak with your loc­al GP. Or if you know someone who may bene­fit from the ser­vice, you can sign­post them to their registered GP’s web­site to self-refer.

RZS 4 cairn spring 2025

Bring­ing the out­doors in

As part of Cairngorms 2030, the Park Author­ity partnered with Alzheimer Scot­land to cre­ate the UK’s first Out­door Demen­tia Resource Centre at Badaguish.

Stud­ies sug­gest that con­tact with the nat­ur­al world can offer com­fort, stim­u­la­tion and a sense of free­dom and mean­ing to people liv­ing with demen­tia, and the centre was designed to max­im­ise con­tact with its nat­ur­al surroundings.

Just a few years later, we’re delighted to report that Alzheimer Scot­land and The For­get-Me-Not Trust are now open­ing a second centre in June this year in the grounds of Laur­is­ton Castle, Edin­burgh, inspired by Badaguish’s example.

Mean­while, back in the Cairngorms, centre staff partnered with the Roy­al Zoolo­gic­al Soci­ety of Scot­land to run activ­it­ies in care homes through­out Strath­spey dur­ing the winter months. These vis­its involved inter­act­ive, sens­ory activ­it­ies includ­ing sounds and smells relat­ing to anim­als and their habitats.

The groups looked at pic­tures and mod­els, listened to anim­al sounds and even learned to identi­fy which anim­als were vis­it­ing by what they leave behind. The ses­sions were designed to evoke memor­ies and enable every­one to con­nect with nature, even when the weath­er pre­vents them from going outside.

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In your community

Gal­lo­way gath­er­ings A 14-week pub­lic con­sulta­tion on Scot­tish Government’s pro­pos­al for a new nation­al park in Gal­lo­way ended in February.

NatureScot ran over 30 con­sulta­tion events and more than 1,000 people atten­ded from across the region. They are now ana­lys­ing all the responses they received and will pub­lish their find­ings — along­side their advice to Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment – later this spring.

Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment also pub­lished a draft Nat­ur­al Envir­on­ment Bill in Feb­ru­ary, which set out over 100 actions to pro­tect and restore Scotland’s nature. The bill includes a change to the aims of Scotland’s nation­al parks, recog­nising the cent­ral role they play in tack­ling the nature and cli­mate crisis.

The bill will now be debated by the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment and we look for­ward to play­ing an act­ive part in this work going forward.

Fire away A detailed plan has been drawn up to help land man­agers tackle wild­fire risk across the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

The Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan offers guid­ance in redu­cing risk, tack­ling wild­fires and mak­ing the land­scape more resi­li­ent. This is sep­ar­ate to the Nation­al Park sea­son­al fire byelaw, which is now with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment for review fol­low­ing a second pub­lic consultation.

For more info on the plan go to shor​turl​.at/​ebBT8 or scan the QR code

Prom­ising devel­op­ments Thank you to every­one who has come along to events over the past few months as we pre­pare for the next Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

Com­munity action plan­ning events have taken place in Strath­don, Dul­nain Bridge and Boat of Garten, where we’ve heard from res­id­ents about their pri­or­it­ies and ambitions.

There have also been events with young people at Kin­gussie High School and mem­bers of the Badenoch and Strath­spey Access For­um. where we used the Place Stand­ard Tool. The tool helps to identi­fy what works well and what needs improve­ment in the Nation­al Park, with themes includ­ing hous­ing, access to ser­vices and pub­lic spaces.

In Feb­ru­ary an event in Aviemore saw com­munity mem­bers par­ti­cip­at­ing in a game, developed in part­ner­ship with the Uni­ver­sity of Edin­burgh, that encour­ages dis­cus­sion on policy mat­ters and high­lights pri­or­it­ies and issues.

Fur­ther com­munity events are planned for the rest of 2025 all over the Nation­al Park.

For more info go to cairngormsldp. com​mon​place​.is or scan the QR code

spring 2025 cairn 5

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In your community

Fèis Spè hit­ting the right note Telling stor­ies and shar­ing con­nec­tions through music is part of the rich fab­ric of High­land culture.

We are work­ing with Fèis Spè young musi­cians and the Uni­ver­sity of Edin­burgh on a new piece as part of the Cairngorms 2030 programme.

The band will vis­it the Nation­al Centre of Excel­lence for Tra­di­tion­al Music and receive tuition from world- renowned musi­cians, in pre­par­a­tion for a debut per­form­ance of the work on the inter­na­tion­al stage at Celt­ic Con­nec­tions in 2026.

6 cairn spring 2025

Farmil­i­ar face A respec­ted Strath­spey farm­er has been appoin­ted as the Park Authority’s new Agri­cul­tur­al Adviser.

Mal­colm Smith will act as the first point of con­tact with the farm­ing and croft­ing com­munity and will be out and about a lot over the com­ing months.

Mal­colm will be tak­ing for­ward a range of pro­jects to sup­port sus­tain­able farm busi­nesses in pro­du­cing qual­ity food, increas­ing biod­iversity, and mit­ig­at­ing and adapt­ing to the nature and cli­mate crisis. He will also work closely with the newly formed Cairngorms Agri­cul­tur­al Advis­ory Group.

A job well done Glen Tanar Char­it­able Trust rangers have been work­ing with Horse­back UK to sup­port young people who may have struggled at school, or with find­ing dir­ec­tion since leav­ing education.

The 12-week pro­gramme aims to inspire and empower par­ti­cipants through work­ing with horses and oth­er out­door activ­it­ies, help­ing them real­ise their strengths and think about their future with con­fid­ence and pur­pose. The ranger ser­vice also sup­ports young people to achieve the John Muir Award as part of their King’s Trust certification.

The most recent pro­gramme saw young people tak­ing part in con­ser­va­tion work and camp­ing overnight on Glen Tanar Estate. The group were par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in the many wells built on the estate in the late 1800s. Over the course of their com­munity pro­jects fort­night, the group decided to map the wells, clean them up to expose their inscrip­tions and find out the stor­ies behind them.

This was a huge task requir­ing a lot of team­work and plan­ning, par­tic­u­larly as one of the young people uses a wheel­chair and some of the wells are remote and not very accessible.

For more inform­a­tion on the pro­gramme, vis­it horse​back​.org​.uk/ courses/y­outh-devel­op­ment

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In your community

Pot of gold Last year we awar­ded £370,000 to 18 pro­jects in the Nation­al Park through the Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund – and the fund­ing pot is open again for 2025.

The pro­jects all needed cap­it­al for activ­ity that would address cli­mate change, such as equip­ment to man­age wild­fires, flood pre­ven­tion meas­ures, green energy solu­tions and nature-friendly farming.

One of the recip­i­ents was New­ton­more-based tim­ber cladding

man­u­fac­turer Russ­wood. A £24,000 grant assisted Russ­wood to invest sig­ni­fic­antly in its largest sol­ar upgrade to date. This included extend­ing exist­ing install­a­tions, adding pan­els to its floor­ing shed, and equip­ping two bat­tery stor­age ​‘hubs’ to sup­port the run­ning of pro­duc­tion machinery and char­ging of elec­tric vehicles at their office.

Applic­a­tions for the first round of this year’s Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund close on Sunday 20 April. For more inform­a­tion and to apply head to cairngorms​.co​.uk/ fund­ing or call 01479 873 535.

A Park for All Five groups have been selec­ted as the first recip­i­ents of the Cairngorms Trust’s ​‘Park For All’ fund.

The pion­eer­ing ini­ti­at­ive, which aims to increase access to the out­doors for a vari­ety of eth­nic minor­ity com­munit­ies, attrac­ted con­sid­er­able interest.

Over £5,000 has been awar­ded to pro­jects ran­ging from guided hill­walk­ing with the loc­al Chinese Asso­ci­ation, to cre­at­ing a safe space for asylum seekers and refugees. They were selec­ted by a lived exper­i­ence group made up of people from dif­fer­ent eth­nic minor­ity back­grounds. The group helped to design the fund to pro­mote inclus­iv­ity, envir­on­ment­al aware­ness and wellbeing.

Free range Winter might be a quieter sea­son for much of the Cairngorms, but not for our Juni­or Rangers!

Since the last issue of Cairn they’ve won the Youth Action Award at RSPB Scotland’s Nature of Scot­land Awards, helped out at the High­land Wild­life Park, planted trees with Wild­Land Lim­ited and removed plastic tree guards from wood­land at Castle Fraser. The free pro­gramme for 11 – 18 year- olds con­tin­ues this year.

For more inform­a­tion, email rangers@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

For more info on the suc­cess­ful pro­jects go to cairngorm​strust​.org​.uk or scan the QR code

spring 2025 cairn 7

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In brief

Fruit of their labours Our 10^th anniversary orch­ards have been bear­ing fruit in Glen­liv­et, where primary pupils have been learn­ing about food pro­duc­tion. They har­ves­ted apples to make 340 bottles of juice, which they sold to raise money for the school.

Starry starry hide A new sky hide in Tomin­toul is now open to the pub­lic. The hide is cir­cu­lar, has seat­ing, and provides a semi- enclosed area where star­gazers and aurora hunters can come togeth­er to view and learn about our night skies.

In your community

Winter warm­er Over the past three years the Park Author­ity has worked with the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship to sup­port loc­al tour­ism busi­nesses and encour­age winter vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park.

The cam­paign – called ​‘Where Winter Comes to Life’ – is part of our Part­ner­ship Plan com­mit­ment to sta­bil­ise vis­it­or num­bers over the busy sea­son and sup­port busi­nesses through the quieter winter months. Whilst it is still early days, data shows that vis­it­or num­bers remained stat­ic between 2019 and 2023 over the sum­mer, but increased by 28% from Janu­ary to March and Octo­ber to December.

If your busi­ness would like to take part in next year’s cam­paign, con­tact the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship on office@​visitcairngorms.​com

River­side repairs Part of the river­side path at Dul­nain Bridge has been upgraded thanks to fund­ing from the Park Author­ity, with sup­port from the loc­al com­munity. The path was resur­faced and drain­age prob­lems resolved to improve con­di­tions underfoot.

Drumin’s dram­min’ dig A dig at Upper Dru­min has won the pres­ti­gi­ous Cur­rent Archae­ology Research Pro­ject of the Year award. The pro­ject, a part­ner­ship between Nation­al Trust for Scot­land and The Glen­liv­et Dis­til­lery, excav­ated the site of an old still room, uncov­er­ing the his­tory of dis­tilling in Glen­liv­et in the 19^th cen­tury. 8 cairn spring 2025

Per­fect pic­nic A pic­nic cot­tage enjoyed by Queen Vic­tor­ia on her vis­its to Bal­mor­al has been saved from ruin and will open to vis­it­ors this summer.

The cot­tage, near Linn of Quoi­ch on Nation­al Trust for Scotland’s Mar Lodge Estate, was built around 1850 and has been restored to its former glory.

As part of their research into the cottage’s past, archae­olo­gists dis­covered post holes from an ori­gin­al porch, which has now been rein­stated. Spe­cially com­mis­sioned fur­niture has also been cre­ated so vis­it­ors can immerse them­selves in the world as Queen Vic­tor­ia would have seen it.

The cot­tage is accessed by a path from the car park at the end of the estate road. The Park Author­ity con­trib­uted to improved park­ing and path facil­it­ies at the location.

For more info go to nts​.org​.uk/​v​i​s​i​t​/​p​l​aces/ mar-lodge-estate or scan the QR code

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Res­id­ent atti­tudes sur­vey Our sur­vey says… Earli­er this year we asked you to share your views on what it was really like liv­ing and work­ing in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Over 1,300 people took part and now, for the very first time, we can reveal what you told us.

About our res­id­ents 1,357 people took part

Age break­down

Sat­is­fac­tion * with work tak­ing place in the Nation­al Park to… Help com­munit­ies adapt to cli­mate change +12 Adapt to cli­mate change in gen­er­al +26 Pre­serve cul­tur­al her­it­age +37 Reduce wild­fire risk +41 Pro­tect wild­life and hab­it­ats +47 Improve avail­ab­il­ity of hous­ing ‑45 Improve con­nectiv­ity of com­munit­ies ‑12 Improve avail­ab­il­ity of shops and facil­it­ies ‑8 Improve avail­ab­il­ity of employ­ment ‑6 Reduce vis­it­or envir­on­ment­al impacts 4

• Cal­cu­lated by sub­tract­ing those ​‘unsat­is­fied’ with work being under­taken from those that are ​‘sat­is­fied’

Activ­it­ies and opin­ions In the past 12 months…

feel the Cairngorms has 59% benefited from becom­ing a nation­al park Cairngorms res­id­ents are more sat­is­fied with their life than the aver­age Scot­tish res­id­ent (7.65 out of 10 versus 6.13)

2/​3rds walk at least once a week, 23% cycle This is just a snap­shot of the find­ings from our first ever res­id­ent and work­er sur­vey. To view the full report scan the QR code or go to cairngorms​.co​.uk/​r​e​s​i​d​e​n​t​-​s​urvey spring 2025 cairn 9

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Nature news

Busy beavers Beavers released in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park at the end of last year have settled in well to their new sur­round­ings, with not even the cold weath­er dampen­ing their spirits.

Over the winter our team have been keep­ing a close eye on all the beaver release sites, check­ing cam­era traps and imple­ment­ing our man­age­ment and mit­ig­a­tion plan where required.

One example was a report of beavers build­ing a dam in a drain­age ditch which could have caused some flood­ing on agri­cul­tur­al land. Dams that are less than two weeks old can be removed without a licence so, in line with our plan, we were able to inter­vene and reduce poten­tial impacts.

Cat coop-era­tion As the Sav­ing Wild­cats pro­ject enters its third year, the part­ner­ship is com­mit­ted to work­ing closely with res­id­ents and land managers.

Some have been affected by chick­en pred­a­tion and pheas­ant dis­turb­ance by the released wildcats.

The pro­ject has been offer­ing coops to small-scale chick­en hold­ers and farm­ers, as well as con­sid­er­ing fund­ing for upgrades to lar­ger coops. A couple 10 cairn spring 2025

The beaver team are cur­rently final­ising details of the next set of releases in the Nation­al Park, in line with our ori­gin­al licence con­di­tions. Keep an eye on our web­site for all the latest.

of released wild­cats have also tar­geted pheas­ant pens. The pro­ject is in dis­cus­sion with game­keep­ers on how best to mit­ig­ate this issue.

Lead­ing the way Scotland’s world-lead­ing Scot­tish Out­door Access Code, which encour­ages people to enjoy the out­doors respons­ibly, is cel­eb­rat­ing its 20^th birth­day and this spring we’re encour­aging dog own­ers to lead the way.

Spring­time means lamb­ing and bird nest­ing sea­son so wheth­er you are out and about on the Cairngorms plat­eau in the com­pany of dot­ter­el and ptar­mig­an, or around fields of sheep – it’s vital to keep dogs on a lead or under close con­trol. Just the pres­ence of a loose dog can cause havoc.

This sea­son RSPB Aber­nethy will be reward­ing respons­ible dogs, and their own­ers, with a branded buff or patch as a thank you for help­ing spread the word. To take part, vis­it @rspb.abernethy on Instagram.

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Nature news

Hope and glory The Rare Inver­teb­rates in the Cairngorms pro­ject is gear­ing up for its ninth year of action.

This award-win­ning part­ner­ship aims to con­serve and enhance pop­u­la­tions of the most threatened min­ibeasts in the Cairngorms.

This spring the pro­ject will focus on col­lect­ing data on the Kentish glory, a spec­tac­u­lar moth that used to be found across the UK but is now restric­ted to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. The cater­pil­lars feed on young birch scrub and emerge as adults in April, when RSPB Scot­land will be work­ing with loc­al volun­teers to dis­cov­er new breed­ing locations.

If you would like to volun­teer head to cairngorms​.co​.uk/​v​o​l​u​nteer

Eagley awaited Data from a five-year study of rap­tors on Wild­Land Cairngorms has been released, high­light­ing the pos­it­ive impact that hab­it­at res­tor­a­tion has had on birds of prey in the region.

The study focused on a tag­ging and mon­it­or­ing ini­ti­at­ive for hen har­ri­er, golden eagle and goshawk.

A 100% sur­viv­al rate was recor­ded for hen har­ri­er nests in 2022 and

Lynx latest Back in Janu­ary, four lynx were released illeg­ally in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

An expert team from the Roy­al Zoolo­gic­al Soci­ety of Scot­land, work­ing closely with Police Scot­land, Wild­Land Lim­ited and Park Author­ity rangers, 2023, and there were also increased num­bers of golden eagle, up from four breed­ing pairs to sev­en. And 2021 saw two pairs of gos­hawk – pre­vi­ously per­se­cuted to extinc­tion in the UK — breed suc­cess­fully on Wild­Land for the first time.

Our Rap­tor Con­ser­va­tion Officer has also been busy com­pil­ing data from the first sur­vey of per­eg­rine fal­con in a dec­ade, which will inform long-term con­ser­va­tion efforts for the spe­cies in the Nation­al Park. We will update fur­ther in the sum­mer edi­tion of Cairn.

were able to safely trap the anim­als and return them to captivity.

Sadly one of the lynx died overnight, but the remain­ing three were trans­por­ted to Edin­burgh Zoo for quar­ant­ine. We are pleased to report that all three cats are healthy and recov­er­ing at the Zoo, with an appeal now launched to sup­port their ongo­ing veter­in­ary care.

As with the more recent incid­ents of fer­al pigs being released in the Nation­al Park, the Park Author­ity con­demns the illeg­al release of wild anim­als in the strongest terms and will con­tin­ue to assist Police Scot­land with their enquir­ies. spring 2025 cairn 11

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Nature news From field to food banks Helen Stew­art is the wear­er of many hats. Seni­or part­ner at Knock­barry Farm near Pit­lo­chry, gin dis­til­ler, dir­ect­or of a com­munity interest com­pany and one of two farm­ing part­ners in the Nation­al Park’s ground­break­ing deer lar­der project.

“There’s people in our imme­di­ate com­munity that are really need­ing help,” says Helen. ​“We’ve exper­i­enced agri­cul­tur­al dam­age from extremely high deer num­bers on the farm and I wanted to find an eth­ic­al and sus­tain­able way to reduce deer numbers.”

The solu­tion was simple yet effect­ive. Work­ing closely with Mike Cot­tam, the Park Authority’s Land Man­age­ment Adviser, the two farm­ing part­ners involved would receive fund­ing to pur­chase and man­age deer lar­ders, where deer culled in and around the Nation­al Park could be butchered. 12 cairn spring 2025

This would cre­ate a loc­al, low-food- miles mar­ket for ven­ison, which in turn would sup­port reg­u­lar dona­tions of meat to loc­al food banks and schools. The pro­ject – which is part of the five-year Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme, sup­por­ted by The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund aims to inspire land man­agers in oth­er parts of rur­al Scot­land and bey­ond to try some­thing similar.

“The major­ity of the ven­ison we pro­duce will end up going to loc­al food banks in saus­ages, meat­balls and bur­gers,” Helen explains. ​“We’re hop­ing to sell the steaks and ten­der­loin and that will fund pay­ing for the butcher, and we’ll donate the rest. If we donate about half of those deer, it’s about half a mil­lion meatballs.”

Food banks and schools – from Grant­own-on-Spey to Alford and Aber­feldy — have already received large dona­tions of pre­pared, pro­tein- rich wild ven­ison and these will con­tin­ue through­out the project’s life.

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Lauren Houstoun, pro­ject part­ner and co-own­er of Glen­k­il­rie Lar­der, is pas­sion­ate about edu­cat­ing people on the bene­fits of loc­al pro­duce. She and her hus­band Andrew have already sup­plied more than 100kg of ven­ison to school home eco­nom­ics depart­ments since installing a lar­der on their farm.

“The response from schools to date is hugely excit­ing,” she says. ​“We want to build a strong net­work where high qual­ity, nutri­tious ven­ison is access­ible to schools in the Nation­al Park and beyond.”

Plans are also afoot for schools to vis­it Glen­k­il­rie Lar­der, learn about the nutri­tion­al bene­fits of ven­ison and try their hand at mak­ing ven­ison meals at the on-site cook­ery school.

“I think there are a lot of pre­con­ceived ideas about ven­ison – that it’s hard to cook, that its very expens­ive – and I think we can help young people see past that and make health­i­er choices when it comes to food.”

“The major­ity of the ven­ison we pro­duce will end up going to loc­al food banks in saus­ages, meat­balls and burgers.”

Helen Stew­art, Knock­barry Farm Mike Cot­tam of the Park Author­ity (left), Andrew Houstoun (middle) and Lauren Houstoun (right) at Glen­k­il­rie Larder

Import­antly, to ensure the lar­ders become fin­an­cially self-sus­tain­ing, the wild ven­ison will also be sold to loc­al retail out­lets, hotels and res­taur­ants through already- estab­lished routes to mar­ket, forged by the farm busi­nesses themselves.

Mike Cot­tam, the Park Authority’s lead on the pro­ject, is delighted to see over 12 months’ work come to fruition: ​“It’s incred­ible how far we’ve come over the past year. From those first con­ver­sa­tions with the two farms and the loc­al deer man­age­ment group to now where we’ve got deliv­er­ies going out to schools and food banks, it’s hugely reward­ing. None of this would have been pos­sible without the drive and pas­sion of Helen, Lauren and our partners.”

The pro­ject has also cre­ated train­ing oppor­tun­it­ies and rur­al jobs. Helen has employed a skilled butcher and a young, recently gradu­ated game­keep­er. As the pro­ject grows, more employ­ment and train­ing oppor­tun­it­ies are set to become available.

There have been sig­ni­fic­ant bene­fits on the farm too, as Helen explains. ​“The high deer num­bers pre­vi­ously meant our stock’s feed was depleted, stone walls knocked down and graz­ing decim­ated. The res­ult­ing mal­nu­tri­tion and dis­ease saw us lose a third of our sheep. Thanks to this pro­ject, we’ve recently had the con­fid­ence to invest in sheep again, which is hugely import­ant for our business.”

For more info on the pro­ject watch our video at shor​turl​.at/​xrRXz or scan the QR code

spring 2025 cairn 13

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Nature news Tree­mend­ous growth Being able to deliv­er con­ser­va­tion on a land­scape scale is one of the key bene­fits of being a Nation­al Park. In the last year alone, half a mil­lion trees have been planted near Blair Atholl and work is under­way for a fur­ther 800,000 this year.

Over on Cairngorm Moun­tain, 30,000 mont­ane trees and shrubs will be planted high up in the Spey catch­ment, cre­at­ing vital hab­it­at cor­ridors for nature and improv­ing river health. And the Cairngorms Aspen Net­work has been busy map­ping trees across the 14 cairn spring 2025

Nation­al Park, loc­at­ing rare spe­cies such as the aspen-lov­ing dark bordered beauty moth.

Along­side wood­land cre­ation, last year the Peat­land ACTION team worked with part­ners to restore more than 1,500 hec­tares of peat­land in 14 loc­a­tions across the Nation­al Park, with anoth­er 2,000 hec­tares com­mit­ted for

1. This work has wider bene­fits than car­bon cap­ture alone, improv­ing hab­it­ats and water qual­ity, retain­ing water upstream and provid­ing loc­al employ­ment for contractors.

Tree plant­ing and nature res­tor­a­tion are a key part of Cairngorms 2030, sup­por­ted by The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund. Dor­back drop-in Dor­back Estate has recently been acquired by Oxy­gen Con­ser­va­tion and they are hold­ing a com­munity drop-in event on Thursday 24 April to share their plans.

If you have any ques­tions email Estate Man­ager Chris­ti­an Wroe on christian.​wroe@​galbraithgroup.​com. If you can’t make the date, you can sign up to their newsletter.

Focus on flood­banks A detailed study has found that almost 90% of the embank­ment run­ning along the upper River Spey – cov­er­ing 87km of flood­banks from Spey Dam to Grant­own- on-Spey – is in good condition.

The assess­ment, car­ried out by con­sult­ants cbec, was com­mis­sioned by the Park Author­ity as part of the beaver mon­it­or­ing and mit­ig­a­tion plan, and fol­lows dis­cus­sions with the loc­al farm­ing community.

We are grate­ful for the sup­port of more than 70 land man­agers who To sign up to their news­let­ter vis­it eepurl​.com/​i​RPEQ6 or scan the QR code

con­trib­uted to the study, many of whom out­lined key areas of con­cern and explained how flood­wa­ter typ­ic­ally moves through their land. The res­ults were shared at a gath­er­ing of land man­agers in late Feb­ru­ary, which also gave farm­ers a chance to ask ques­tions and dis­cuss next steps.

As we con­tin­ue to exper­i­ence more severe weath­er events asso­ci­ated with cli­mate change, sur­veys like this will be essen­tial to help us plan ahead, high­light­ing the areas requir­ing most atten­tion. The same stretch will be mon­itored annu­ally over the next three years to ensure we keep track of any changes.

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Cairngorms voices

In con­ver­sa­tion with Eilidh and Nic­ola from Cairngorm Vets Set­ting up and run­ning a rur­al busi­ness is no easy task, but sup­port is avail­able for the diverse range of busi­nesses that call the Cairngorms home. When Eilidh Corr and Nic­ola Mor­ris­on decided to open their own veter­in­ary prac­tice, they reached out to Grow­Biz, who in part­ner­ship with the Park Author­ity — offer free busi­ness sup­port to rur­al enterprises.

What’s unique about hav­ing a veter­in­ary prac­tice in the Nation­al Park? We wanted to set up our own small anim­al vets in Grant­own-on-Spey. We’re both from the loc­al area [Eilidh is from Grant­own and Nic­ola from Knockando] and have fam­ily ties here so it was import­ant to us to set up a prac­tice that would serve the loc­al community.

Whilst we don’t offer ser­vices for farm anim­als, one of the biggest dif­fer­ences in run­ning a rur­al vet prac­tice as opposed to a city one is the pop­u­la­tion of work­ing anim­als we treat – we see a lot of work­ing dogs! We’re mind­ful that our rur­al set­ting means that people often choose us due to geo­graphy and that we’re serving a wide demo­graph­ic, so we listen and try to deliv­er what each indi­vidu­al needs for their animal.

When did you look for busi­ness sup­port? Des­pite the dec­ades of veter­in­ary exper­i­ence between us, neither of us had any know­ledge of what was involved in set­ting up a busi­ness. We saw an art­icle in the loc­al paper about Grow­Biz and decided to get in touch. Know­ing that we were con­tact­ing someone loc­al for busi­ness sup­port was reas­sur­ing from the out­set – we knew they’d under­stand the unique land­scape here in the Nation­al Park.

Nic­ola Mor­ris­on (left) and Eilidh Corr

How has the sup­port helped your busi­ness? Hav­ing ses­sions with the Grow­Biz team helped us under­stand exactly what we needed to do. We left the first meet­ing with a long to-do list and lots of prac­tic­al advice. From there we were giv­en tailored sup­port, from cash­flow to book­keep­ing tem­plates, advice on account­ing and even guid­ance on com­mer­cial leasing.

The sup­port we received meant that we opened the doors to Cairngorm Vets in Novem­ber last year with the con­fid­ence that we had the essen­tial ele­ments right for the smooth run­ning of the business.

For more info and busi­ness sup­port go to grow​biz​.co​.uk or scan the QR code spring 2025 cairn 15