cairn

The magazine of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Autumn – Winter 2022

Elec­tions

YOUR chance to shape the future of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Inside

Com­munity news: Afford­able hous­ing push

Nature spot­light: Wild­cat breed­ing success

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[QR Code: To find out more inform­a­tion on the stor­ies with­in this magazine please 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 get to the cor­rect per­son or organ­isa­tion to help you.

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

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

Volun­teer­ing volunteers@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

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

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

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

Land man­age­ment — estates and farming landmanagement@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

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

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: view from Cre­ag Bheag near Kin­gussie Neili­ann Tait / Alamy Stock Photo. Oth­er images Alpha Pro­jects, Air­borne Lens, Cairngorms Con­nect, Char­lotte Mil­burn, Eilidh Camer­on, James Lee, James Stevens, Josie Slade, Juno Snow­don, Laurie Camp­bell, Luke Mas­sey / 2020VISION, Mark Ham­blin, Naomi Mcin­tosh, Rachel Keen­an and Sav­ing Wildcats.

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The magazine of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Issue high­lights

Fáilte / Welcome

Wel­come to this first edi­tion of Cairn, a magazine which has been cre­ated for all the folk who live and work in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

We all know how spe­cial the Nation­al Park is our majest­ic mun­ros, rivers and lochs, the vari­ety of rare and endangered spe­cies found here, our rich and diverse cul­tur­al heritage.

The Park Author­ity exists to pro­tect and enhance all the things that make the Cairngorms spe­cial and this magazine – which will come out three times a year – show­cases how we and over 100 part­ners are going about it.

Col­lect­ively, we sup­port pro­jects and activ­it­ies in every com­munity across the Nation­al Park, from nature con­ser­va­tion to plan­ning and busi­ness support.

This magazine will bring you news of what’s tak­ing place in your area, as well as across the whole Nation­al Park.

It will let you know how you can get involved and who to con­tact if you have ideas or ques­tions for us.

We’ve also taken steps to ensure this pub­lic­a­tion is as envir­on­ment­ally friendly as pos­sible. Prin­ted on 100% recycled paper using veget­able-based inks, we’ll bal­ance any car­bon impacts by cre­at­ing nat­ive Scots pine, birch, row­an, wil­low and aspen wood­land right here in the Nation­al Park.

We’d love to hear what you think of this first edi­tion. You can get in touch with us by call­ing 01479 873 535 or you can email us on haveyoursay@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

Please pass this on when you’re fin­ished, or recycle

Page 4 Hous­ing hope

Page 6 Top cats

Page 8 Get on board!

Page 10 Cairngorms 2030

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In brief

Roy-al open­ing 400 people gathered for the open­ing of Castle Roy to the pub­lic this autumn. The open­ing was made pos­sible thanks to 29 years of com­munity-led fun­drais­ing by the Castle Roy Trust, includ­ing grant fund­ing from the Park Authority.

Power up A new bat­tery energy stor­age facil­ity has been approved by the Park Authority’s Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. The 49.9 MW facil­ity will be built just out­side Boat of Garten, next to an exist­ing elec­tri­city sub-sta­tion. The com­mit­tee also approved a 200m sur­face tow on Cairngorm Mountain.

Top of the range Juni­or Rangers is an excit­ing out­door learn­ing pro­gramme for ages 11 to 18. Monthly ses­sions run in Badenoch and Strath­spey and Deeside, and five-day Juni­or Ranger weeks are also avail­able through loc­al high schools. Check out cairngorms​.co​.uk/​j​u​n​i​o​r​-​r​a​ngers

Green shoots Our new Volun­teer Exper­i­ence Pro­gramme is reach­ing out to people that don’t usu­ally have an oppor­tun­ity to exper­i­ence nature in the Nation­al Park. The pro­gramme is work­ing with part­ners to provide safe and enga­ging intro­duc­tions to volun­teer­ing. See cairngorms​.co​.uk/ volun­teers for more info.

Hous­ing hope

12 new homes are near­ing com­ple­tion in Tomintoul.

The houses, developed by Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Devel­op­ment Trust, have been built on the site of an old sec­ond­ary school and will be avail­able for afford­able rent and dis­coun­ted sale. The pro­ject is part-fun­ded by the Park Author­ity and is sup­por­ted by the Com­munit­ies Hous­ing Trust.

Else­where, the Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship — sup­por­ted by High­lands and Islands Enter­prise – have launched a part­ner­ship to improve access to homes for loc­al work­ers. Four fam­il­ies who work for busi­nesses near Aviemore moved into new homes earli­er in the year and around 30 mid- mar­ket rent­al prop­er­ties will be made avail­able over the com­ing years.

Cosy boxes

£242,000 has been awar­ded to 19 pro­jects through the Cairngorms Com­munity Led Vis­ion Fund, led by Cairngorms Trust and sup­por­ted by the Park Authority.

Pro­jects which have received fund­ing include the cre­ation of a log bank in the Marr Area (to the east of the Park) and the pro­vi­sion of ​‘cosy boxes’ to help eld­erly res­id­ents facing fuel poverty in Badenoch. Three com­munit­ies also received fund­ing to help devel­op afford­able hous­ing, which will hope­fully inspire oth­er com­munity-led pro­jects to come forward.

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In your community

Way ahead

A new £191,000 pro­ject will bring major improve­ments to the Spey­side Way through Anagach Woods in Grantown.

The pro­ject includes resur­fa­cing the exist­ing path, upgrad­ing drain­age to remove muddy sec­tions, and cre­at­ing a large sec­tion of new path. New sig­nage and way­mark­ers will also be installed.

Work will be com­pleted by the end of 2022 and, whilst vis­it­ors should expect some dis­rup­tion, the Spey­side Way will remain open to users through­out. The pro­ject is led by the Anagach Wood­land Trust and sup­por­ted by grant fund­ing via Scot­tish Government’s Agri-Envir­on­ment Cli­mate Scheme, admin­istered by NatureScot.

Cul­ture cabin

The win­ner of a new arts res­id­ency at Inshriach Bothy has just been announced as part of the Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme. Naomi Mcin­tosh will begin a two-week res­id­ency later this month.

The res­id­ency will allow Naomi to plan and make new work, con­nect­ing dir­ectly with some of the var­ied com­munit­ies in the Park. The pro­ject will con­clude with a pub­lic event where Naomi will share her work with those who live in and vis­it the area.

Naomi Mcin­tosh. Cocoon 2, 2020. Photo by Juno Snowdon

Spot­light on the Cairngorms

An innov­at­ive, low-impact light­ing pro­ject has illu­min­ated nation­al parks across the UK, includ­ing here in the Cairngorms.

Green Space Dark Skies began in the Peak Dis­trict to mark the 70^th anniversary of the Mass Tres­pass and took in the UK’s four highest peaks, as well as vis­it­ing Loch Insh earli­er this year.

At the heart of the pro­ject were 20,000 ​‘Lumen­at­ors’ – people from all walks of life, each car­ry­ing a GPS-enabled light so organ­isers could cre­ate unique pat­terns in the landscape.

The event at Loch Insh fea­tured storyteller Merryn Glover, musi­cian Wil­lie Camp­bell and visu­al artist Claire Mac­Don­ald, and spe­cific­ally tar­geted people who do not usu­ally get to exper­i­ence the Cairngorms. This included a group of Ukrain­i­an cit­izens who had a chance to explore the loch by boat, and guests from Equal Adven­ture, a com­munity interest com­pany which spe­cial­ises in offer­ing water sports for dis­abled people.

A Coun­try­file spe­cial on the pro­ject aired recently and can be seen at bbc​.co​.uk/​p​r​o​g​r​a​m​m​e​s​/​m​0​0​1drlr

autumn — winter 2022 cairn 5

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Nature news

Top cats

The Sav­ing Wild­cats pro­ject is cel­eb­rat­ing a suc­cess­ful breed­ing sea­son. 22 wild­cat kit­tens were born in a ded­ic­ated breed­ing for release centre in a quiet area away from vis­it­ors at the High­land Wild­life Park, near Kincraig.

It’s hoped these kit­tens will be amongst the first of their kind to be released into the wild in the Cairngorms next year. Led by the Roy­al Zoolo­gic­al Soci­ety of Scot­land, along­side part­ners includ­ing the Park Author­ity, the pro­ject team have been busy con­duct­ing field­work across the Cairngorms in pre­par­a­tion for these releases.

They have gathered a sig­ni­fic­ant amount of inform­a­tion about spe­cies pres­ence in poten­tial release areas and, whilst there’s a lot still to do, many pro­ject mile­stones have already been reached. Vis­it sav​ing​wild​cats​.org​.uk/ news-events to find out more.

Bird’s eye view

The Park Author­ity is work­ing with land man­agers, con­ser­va­tion part­ners, loc­al com­munit­ies and gov­ern­ment to secure the long-term future of the crit­ic­ally endangered capercaillie.

The latest nation­al caper­cail­lie sur­vey, under­taken by RSPB Scot­land and part-fun­ded by the Park Author­ity, has estim­ated that only 542 of the birds remain in Scot­land, with 85% liv­ing in the Nation­al Park.

There are sev­er­al issues facing caper­cail­lie, not least avail­able hab­it­at, pred­at­ors and human dis­turb­ance. The Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject is work­ing with com­munit­ies and land man­agers to increase aware­ness of the bird’s plight; redu­cing dis­turb­ance in sens­it­ive areas along­side moun­tain bikers, dog walk­ers and oth­er recre­ation­al users; and fund­ing pred­at­or con­trol work through a ded­ic­ated pro­ject gamekeeper.

The pro­ject is also wait­ing on the res­ults of a genet­ic diversity study into the caper­cail­lie pop­u­la­tion to determ­ine wheth­er the gene pool needs to be expan­ded. To find out more vis­it cairngormscapercaillie.scot

Bring­ing back beaver

The Park Author­ity has been asked by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment to help bring beavers back to the Cairngorms.

The beaver is a European Pro­tec­ted Spe­cies and can bring sig­ni­fic­ant envir­on­ment­al and social bene­fits, but their impacts need to be care­fully managed.

Research com­mis­sioned by our Beaver Work­ing Group has iden­ti­fied the Spey catch­ment as one of the poten­tial areas for release. How­ever, pri­or to sub­mit­ting an applic­a­tion to NatureScot, we’ll be work­ing closely with land man­agers and res­id­ents to explore options and explain the pro­cess in more detail.

A Beaver Officer is cur­rently being recruited to coordin­ate all our activ­ity with the spe­cies. This includes provid­ing advice and sup­port to land man­agers around mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures, and arran­ging a series of com­munity drop- in events in the spring.

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Nature news

For peat’s sake

Our Peat­land ACTION team has been work­ing with loc­al civil and plant busi­nesses to increase the num­ber of skilled con­tract­ors able to carry out peat­land res­tor­a­tion work.

Peat­land res­tor­a­tion forms a key part of the new Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, with a tar­get of restor­ing at least 38,000 ha by 2045. Con­tract­or avail­ab­il­ity is a major hurdle to scal­ing up activ­ity. To tackle this – and to cre­ate fur­ther green rur­al jobs – a new entrants’ pro­gramme has been cre­ated, provid­ing train­ing for eight loc­al con­tract­ors so far (with more to fol­low). To get involved or to learn more see cairngorms​.co​.uk/ cairngorms-peatland-action

High fly­ers

Crit­ic­ally endangered pine hov­er­flies have bred suc­cess­fully thanks to con­ser­va­tion efforts by the Rare Inver­teb­rates in the Cairngorms part­ner­ship, part- fun­ded by the Park Authority.

The spe­cies is only found in a single loc­a­tion in the UK, a small forest patch in the Nation­al Park. Sur­veys found lar­vae in pre­vi­ously unoc­cu­pied tree stumps, mean­ing at least some of the pine hov­er­flies bred by the Roy­al Zoolo­gic­al Soci­ety of Scot­land and released across three sites in Octo­ber 2021 and March 2022 have com­pleted a full breed­ing cycle, mark­ing a real step for­ward in efforts to save the species.

Wader work

Des­pite declin­ing nation­ally, waders con­tin­ue to do well in the east­ern Cairngorms, where mem­bers of the East Cairngorms Moor­land Part­ner­ship have taken steps to con­serve these spe­cial birds. Latest fig­ures show that pop­u­la­tions of a vari­ety of wader spe­cies on part­ner land­hold­ings remain stable.

Loc­al venison

Cairngorms Con­nect have partnered with Lyn­breck Croft to pro­duce a range of ven­ison products. Pro­ject part­ners con­trol deer on their land to reduce the impact of graz­ing on the land­scape, and this qual­ity loc­al pro­duce is not only sus­tain­able but helps sup­port con­ser­va­tion work on the ground.

Per­fect pair

Efforts to pro­tect the rare twin­flower have been show­cased in a recent epis­ode of the BBC’s Land­ward. The Cairngorms Rare Plants and Wild Con­nec­tions Pro­ject, led by Plant­life and sup­por­ted by the Park Author­ity, fea­tures in epis­ode 19 of the pro­gramme and can be viewed at bbc​.co​.uk/​i​p​l​a​y​e​r​/​e​p​i​s​o​d​e​/​m​0​0​1dljp

autumn — winter 2022 cairn 7

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Elec­tions

Get on board!

Board elec­tions: what you need to know

• You can stand in one of five areas (see map on right)
• You don’t need to live in the Park to stand, but do to vote
• You need to be 21 or older to be a board member
• Elec­tion day is 23 March 2023
• You have until 15 Feb­ru­ary 2023 to sub­mit your paperwork
• Board mem­bers con­trib­ute two or three days a month and are paid for their time
• We’re seek­ing can­did­ates from a wide range of back­grounds includ­ing yours

In March 2023 res­id­ents of the Nation­al Park will vote and elect mem­bers to join the board of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. There are places to be filled across five elect­or­al wards and the Park Author­ity are seek­ing people from a wide range of back­grounds to stand.

Could that be you?

Back in 2011 Kat­rina Far­quhar decided to stand for the Park Author­ity board. She explains: ​“When I first con­sidered stand­ing for elec­tion I was unsure if I was the right type of per­son for the board of a major organ­isa­tion. I assumed I’d need lots of exper­i­ence in policy mak­ing or loc­al gov­ern­ment. But what I came to real­ise was that an effect­ive board needs a diverse mem­ber­ship that rep­res­ents all the people of the Nation­al Park. An under­stand­ing of what it means to live and work here is just as import­ant a qual­i­fic­a­tion as exper­i­ence in a par­tic­u­lar sector.

“Being a board mem­ber was per­son­ally reward­ing and gave me new skills and con­fid­ence. You get train­ing when you start and because meet­ing dates are pub­lished 12 months in advance there is plenty of time to plan around oth­er work or fam­ily commitments.”

“Loc­ally- elec­ted mem­bers bring a unique per­spect­ive to the board which is key to help­ing the Park Author­ity deliv­er for the com­munit­ies and busi­nesses with­in the Park.”

Anne Rae Mac­Don­ald, cur­rent board member

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“We’re keen to see can­did­ates from a wide range of back­grounds and exper­i­ences come for­ward for the elections.”

Xan­der McDade, Convener

Dal­whin­nie

Kin­gussie

Elect­or­al Ward 1

Blair Atholl

Elect­or­al Ward 3

Grant­own-on-Spey

Tomin­toul

Nethy Bridge

Aviemore

Elect­or­al Ward 4

Elect­or­al Ward 2

Brae­mar

Elect­or­al Ward 5

Bal­later

Age need not be a bar­ri­er either. When Xan­der McDade — the cur­rent Con­vener of the board – joined in 2017 he was the young­est ever mem­ber at just 23.

“We’re keen to see can­did­ates from a wide range of back­grounds and exper­i­ences come for­ward for the elec­tions,” says Xan­der. ​“This is a reward­ing and var­ied role, offer­ing people the chance to make a dif­fer­ence to life in the Nation­al Park, work­ing with part­ners to tackle crit­ic­al issues that relate to its people, nature and places and ulti­mately address the cli­mate and nature emergencies.”

The Park Author­ity board guides and shapes the work of the organ­isa­tion and the role of a board mem­ber is both chal­len­ging and reward­ing. Board mem­bers ensure that both the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment and loc­al com­munit­ies of the Nation­al Park are cared for and pro­tec­ted, help­ing deliv­er the key pri­or­it­ies set out in our five-year Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan.

Anne Rae Mac­Don­ald has served on the board for the past four years. She adds: ​“I have found being part of the board to be very reward­ing and a great oppor­tun­ity to work along­side people with a wide vari­ety of back­grounds and skills. The loc­ally-elec­ted mem­bers bring a unique per­spect­ive to the board, which is key to help­ing the Park Author­ity deliv­er for the com­munit­ies and busi­nesses with­in the Park, as well as for the many nation­al and inter­na­tion­al interests the Park serves.”

We are hold­ing an inform­al online ses­sion on 18 Janu­ary to give poten­tial can­did­ates an oppor­tun­ity to ask ques­tions of cur­rent board mem­bers and Park Author­ity staff. If you would like more inform­a­tion head to cairngorms​.co​.uk/​e​l​e​c​tions or call 01479 873 535.

Inform­al Q&A online ses­sion 18 January

Sub­mit paper­work by 15 February

Elec­tion day 23 March

autumn — winter 2022 cairn 9 CNPA © Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2022 OS 100040965

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Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 is empower­ing people who live, vis­it and work in the UK’s largest nation­al park to tackle the cli­mate and nature crises.

24 unique projects

Over 45 partners

£12.5m Lot­tery funding

Dùthchas [noun, ​‘tu:xəs/] The deep-rooted con­nec­tion between people and nature

Five foot­ball pitches of new wood­land a week

3,500 ha of peat­land restored

Six pilot net zero farm­ing projects

Trans­form­ing pub­lic trans­port and act­ive travel routes

Cre­at­ing the first out­door centre for people liv­ing with dementia

Pre­scrib­ing nature on the NHS

Devel­op­ing a well­being eco­nomy for people and nature

Giv­ing com­munit­ies power to decide which pro­jects to fund

Con­nect­ing people and nature through arts and culture

To find out how you can get involved vis­it cairngorms​.co​.uk/​c​a​i​r​n​g​o​r​m​s2030

Made pos­sible with help from ♡ Her­it­age Fund

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Cairngorms voices

In con­ver­sa­tion with Gil­lian Councill

Gil­lian works for Alzheimer Scot­land as their Asso­ci­ate Exec­ut­ive Lead for Loc­al­it­ies. She lives in Grant­own with her hus­band and their dog Reiff.

Gil­lian at Bad­aguish near Aviemore, home of the new Out­door Demen­tia Resource Centre

What does the Cairngorms mean to you?

The Park really is my play­ground. Moun­tains are my favour­ite place to be and liv­ing in Grant­own there are lots of oppor­tun­it­ies to get out and about. Earli­er this year I com­pleted all the mun­ros and we biked the North Coast 500 a few years ago. There’s a wel­com­ing com­munity here and that’s one of the things I find most spe­cial about the place.

Tell us about the Out­door Demen­tia Resource Centre

The pro­ject is part of the Park Authority’s Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme and sup­ports loc­al people with demen­tia. People can be for­got­ten when they get older and that’s not good enough. The centre is the first of its kind in the UK and sup­ports people with demen­tia, their fam­il­ies and care­givers to have enrich­ing out­door exper­i­ences. Any­one can get in touch with us and get support.

What role can nature and the out­doors play?

If someone has demen­tia, their brain is work­ing hard to oper­ate and when you add in a noisy house or traffic it can be chal­len­ging. Nature is really good for our men­tal health but there’s also some­thing about just being in the moment, with gentle stim­uli such as bird­song, rain and wind. The centre gives people a redis­covered sense of free­dom to explore the out­doors at their own pace.

What are your hopes for the future of the project?

I’d like us to show how well this type of activ­ity works in prac­tice and demon­strate that clear refer­ral path­ways are in place, work­ing with the NHS. Nature could be ​‘pre­scribed’ as an altern­at­ive to med­ic­a­tion in some cases. Ulti­mately, I hope our pro­ject can become a blue­print for oth­er com­munit­ies to follow.

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f Cairngorm­s­News Cairngorm­sNa­tion­al­Park ☑ Cairngorm­s­News in Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Pro­duced by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity. For more inform­a­tion, see cairngorms​.co​.uk/​m​a​g​azine

“The centre is the first of its kind in the UK and sup­ports people with demen­tia, their fam­il­ies and care­givers to have enrich­ing out­door exper­i­ences. Any­one can get in touch with us and get support.”

Gil­lian Coun­cill, Alzheimer Scotland

Read the full story on page 11

Prin­ted on 100% recycled paper using veget­able- based inks

Alzheimer Scot­land

Action on Dementia

Mak­ing every Penny count

FSC

www​.fsc​.org

RECYCLED Paper made from recycled mater­i­al FSC® C004116