Cairn magazine - Winter 2023

winter 2023 cairn The magazine of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Nature news Breed­ing suc­cess for birds of prey

Inside Big birth­day 20 years of the Nation­al Park Beaver­ing away Spe­cies a step closer to return?

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 to get to the cor­rect per­son or organ­isa­tion to help you.

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: 01738475000

Land man­age­ment and con­ser­va­tion 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 left) or vis­it eplan​ningcnpa​.co​.uk to view and com­ment on live applications.

Recruit­ment and cur­rent vacan­cies landmanagement@​cairngorms.​co.​uk nature@​cairngorms.​co.​uk 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: A golden eagle chick © Nation­al Trust for Scot­land. Oth­er images © Angus Find­lay, Alaska Stikova, AW Laing Join­ers and Build­ing Con­tract­ors, Beaver Trust, Brenna Jessie, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, Cairngorms Trust, Colin Arm­strong Archi­tects, Dav­id Lin­tern, Euan Rae, R Ger­aldine McClure, GirlDream­er, James Lee, James Stevens, Joanna Hampson, Louise Fen­lon, Mark Ham­blin / 2020VISION, Mark Ham­blin / Scot­land: The Big Pic­ture, Mark John­ston, Nation­al Trust for Scot­land, NatureScot, Pete Short, Steven Ren­nie, Vis­it­Cairngorms. 2 cairn winter 2023

The magazine of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Issue high­lights Fàilte / Welcome

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

On 1 Septem­ber 2003, the Cairngorms Nation­al Park was opened by Liz Hanna – the great, great grand­daugh­ter of John Muir, founder of the nation­al park move­ment – and Allan Wilson, the Deputy Envir­on­ment Minister.

In this edi­tion of Cairn we cel­eb­rate 20 years of the Nation­al Park and explore what lies ahead for the nature and com­munit­ies of the Cairngorms.

Page 8 Back in 2003 our first Con­vener Andrew Thin out­lined what he believed would be a key pri­or­ity for the new Nation­al Park:

“Above all we believe… that this must be a Park for all. Not just a Park for the fit and the few, not just a Park for the bet­ter off, but a Park that is wel­com­ing and attract­ive to all… whatever their age, abil­ity or circumstances.”

Whilst much has changed over the past two dec­ades, these words feel every bit as rel­ev­ant now as they did all those years ago. This is, and always will be, your Nation­al Park.

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

This doc­u­ment is avail­able in oth­er formats on request.

Page 6 Beaver­ing away

Page 7 Roy­al appointment

Page 12 Top gear

Page 14 Please pass this on when you’re fin­ished, or recycle Cairngorouth Action Team Look­ing to the future winter 2023 cairn 3

Nature news Bog standards

The Park Author­ity has teamed up with Cairngorms Con­nect and NatureScot to teach loc­al school pupils how to mon­it­or peatland.

Park Author­ity Rangers Polly and Judy, Cairngorms Con­nect Com­munity Learn­ing Officer Lotte and Sea­son­al Reserve Assist­ant Kirstin showed the pupils from Aboyne Academy, Kin­gussie High and Grant­own Gram­mar the ins and outs over a series of days this autumn.

This is the start of a yearly school pro­gramme and the mon­it­or­ing will feed into the Moor­lands as Indic­at­ors of Cli­mate Change Ini­ti­at­ive, a UK- wide net­work of stu­dents car­ry­ing out peat­land mon­it­or­ing in their loc­al nation­al parks. 4 cairn winter 2023

Nature nur­tured The nature and wild­life of Scotland’s nation­al parks is set to bene­fit from a new £550,000 award from Scot­tish Government.

The Nature Res­tor­a­tion Fund will sup­port eco­lo­gic­al res­tor­a­tion and spe­cies recov­ery pro­jects in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs and the Cairngorms over the next 12 months.

Min­is­ter for Green Skills, Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy and Biod­iversity Lor­na Slater MSP made the announce­ment on a recent vis­it to the Cairngorms. She explained: ​“Both nation­al parks have a vital role to play in secur­ing a more sus­tain­able future for Scot­land and help­ing us meet our ambi­tious tar­get to restore biod­iversity by 2045.

“This fund­ing will help achieve land­scape-scale con­ser­va­tion of spe­cies and hab­it­at across our nation­al parks, help­ing some of Scotland’s most spe­cial wild­life to thrive. It will also help sup­port smal­ler, grass­roots ini­ti­at­ives and inspire every­one to play their part in restor­ing nature.”

The Cairngorms is home to 25% of Britain’s threatened bird, anim­al and plant spe­cies and is one of the most import­ant areas for nature con­ser­va­tion in the UK.

Nature news Tales of the riverbank

Tree plant­ing on riverb­anks can help reduce flood­ing down­stream, sta­bil­ising the banks and slow­ing rain­wa­ter run-off.

The River Dee catch­ment in Glen Clunie is a key area for res­tor­a­tion work, with over 5,000 nat­ive broadleaf trees hav­ing been planted so far and anoth­er 3,700 to fol­low. A fant­ast­ic team of volun­teers have helped with the pro­ject, which is fun­ded by the Cairngorms Trust’s Nature Resi­li­ence Fund, Mossy Earth and the Wood­land Trust.

Use your Ed The Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship have been work­ing with stan­dup comedi­an, author and keen hiker Ed Byrne on a series of videos encour­aging vis­it­ors to enjoy the Cairngorms responsibly.

Top­ics include wild camp­ing, dog walk­ing, water safety and fires. Head to vis​it​cairngorms​.com to watch the short videos.

Fly­ing high Mar Lodge Estate is cel­eb­rat­ing a suc­cess­ful breed­ing sea­son with a record num­ber of bird of prey chicks doc­u­mented at the Nation­al Nature Reserve.

Nation­al Trust for Scot­land recor­ded 32 hen har­ri­er chicks this year, the most pro­duct­ive sea­son since the spe­cies col­on­ised the area in 2016.

The num­ber of breed­ing pairs has grown year on year, reach­ing a high of 11 pairs in 2023, with eight breed­ing suc­cess­fully. A pair of white-tailed eagles also bred for the second suc­cess­ive year and pro­duced two chicks, both of which fledged successfully.

The Park Author­ity has also wel­comed Isla Gra­ham as its new Rap­tor Con­ser­va­tion Officer. Isla will work closely with part­ners to devel­op an evid­ence-based approach to rap­tor con­ser­va­tion across the Cairngorms, raise aware­ness about rap­tors and their import­ance, and deliv­er a pro­gramme of work to secure the future of spe­cies such as golden eagle, hen har­ri­er and per­eg­rine fal­con. winter 2023 cairn 5

Nature news You beauty The dark-bordered beauty is one of our rarest moths, with only three known pop­u­la­tions in the UK (two in the Cairngorms). The Rare Inver­teb­rates in the Cairngorms Pro­ject has rein­tro­duced the spe­cies to a site in Strath­spey, releas­ing over 200 lar­vae onto small aspen tree suck­ers. Non-leth­al light traps were used to see if any of the lar­vae had made it into adult­hood and the team were delighted to find three males drawn to the light. It is hoped that they have begun a new, wild population.

Beaver­ing away Beavers could be a step closer to return­ing after an absence of over 400 years, with the Park Author­ity about to sub­mit a licence applic­a­tion to relo­cate beavers from Tay­side to three loc­a­tions in the upper River Spey catchment.

The first sites iden­ti­fied for poten­tial releases are Rothiemurchus, Wild­land Cairngorms and RSPB Scot­land Insh Marshes. A six-week form­al engage­ment peri­od with res­id­ents, farm­ers, land man­agers and oth­er stake­hold­ers fin­ished at the end of Septem­ber. Over 100 people atten­ded 6 cairn winter 2023

Liv­ing the dream GirlDream­er sup­ports the devel­op­ment of young women of col­our to tackle social inequal­ity and pur­sue their dreams. Along­side our part­ners Back­bone and Glen Tanar Estate, we wel­comed a res­id­en­tial group this sum­mer, many of whom had nev­er been north of the Cent­ral Belt before. One attendee said: ​“This retreat felt like I belonged some­where even when I was miles away from any­one I knew from my usu­al life.”

six pub­lic events and 500 people respon­ded to our online sur­vey. Just under three quar­ters of sur­vey respond­ents were sup­port­ive of the spe­cies return­ing to the Nation­al Park; how­ever, the need for clear mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures was also raised by a num­ber of land managers.

We are cur­rently com­pil­ing a report on the pub­lic engage­ment pro­cess and this will form a crit­ic­al part of the licence applic­a­tion to NatureScot. We hope to have a decision in Novem­ber and, if approved, the pro­cess of bring­ing beavers back could begin before the end of this year. For more inform­a­tion on the pro­ject go to cairngorms​.co​.uk/​b​eaver Cut above Wild­flowers are crit­ic­al for pol­lin­at­ing insects but 97% of mead­ows have been lost in the last cen­tury. Volun­teers on a Crown Estate farm in Glen­liv­et have been work­ing to address this using the cen­tur­ies-old tech­nique of scyth­ing. As well as being a great com­mun­al workout, scyth­ing is less impact­ful to wild­life than mow­ing and allows seeds to be har­ves­ted for future use.

In your com­munity A roy­al appoint­ment A pro­ject to con­serve his­tor­ic farm build­ings was cel­eb­rated recently as His Majesty The King vis­ited the spir­itu­al site of Scalan in the Braes of Glenlivet.

His Majesty toured the site and viewed a num­ber of restored build­ings, built in the late 19^th and early 20^th cen­tur­ies to provide corn thresh­ing machines for the Glen­liv­et farm­ing com­munity. Still in place, the thresh­ing machine in North Mill is one of the old­est sur­viv­ing in Scotland.

The King also viewed the restored water­wheel and lade in the North Mill, as well as objects and his­tor­ic graf­fiti that cov­ers the walls of the build­ings, provid­ing an incred­ible record of farm­ing life from past inhab­it­ants and workers.

At the com­ple­tion of his tour, The King unveiled a plaque to com­mem­or­ate the vis­it and met some of the many pro­ject part­ners and volun­teers who were instru­ment­al in bring­ing the pro­ject to fruition.

The pro­ject was led by Crown Estate Scot­land, the Park Author­ity and the Scalan Asso­ci­ation, with sup­port from the Nation­al Lot­tery-fun­ded Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Land­scape Partnership.

Per­fect pre­scrip­tion We all know that nature is good for our men­tal and phys­ic­al health and a new pro­ject is help­ing ensure the bene­fits can be felt by people across Badenoch and Strathspey.

The nature pre­scrip­tions pro­ject – part of Cairngorms 2030 – is sup­port­ing people to con­nect with nature and feel health­i­er and hap­pi­er by doing so.

The pro­cess begins with a con­ver­sa­tion with our Green Health Link Work­ers to help you decide what activ­it­ies you would like to do and what fits your life­style. There are plenty of activ­it­ies going on with­in the Nation­al Park’s com­munit­ies, or you may just want to find time for your­self with nature.

To get involved, talk to your GP, health­care or oth­er sup­port work­er, or simply click the ​‘nature pre­scrip­tions self-refer­ral’ but­ton on the web­site of your GP prac­tice. winter 2023 cairn 7

20^th anniversary to start a park 8 cairn winter 2023

It was a chilly day in March 2003 when the Park Author­ity board gathered for the first time at Bal­mor­al Estate for their inaug­ur­al meet­ing. 25 mem­bers with a range of dif­fer­ent per­spect­ives and experience.

The bound­ary of the Nation­al Park had been the sub­ject of some debate. Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Her­it­age (now called NatureScot) had been tasked with scop­ing out pos­sible areas for this new­est of nation­al parks and had presen­ted six options, includ­ing one which only included the Cairngorm plat­eau, before the final decision was made.

“There was a real sense of excite­ment and every­one in the room felt that they had been giv­en a blank sheet of paper,” recalls Andrew Thin, the Park Authority’s first Con­vener. ​“Nation­al parks in Scot­land were markedly dif­fer­ent to Eng­land and Wales because there was new legis­la­tion which had added a key fourth aim – to pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s communities.

“I think we all hoped to respond to the unique legis­lat­ive approach taken to Scotland’s nation­al parks in 2000 by estab­lish­ing some­thing that was genu­inely nov­el and innov­at­ive. We were full of optim­ism that we were going to break out of the stale con­flict between envir­on­ment and com­munity that had bedev­illed Scot­land for decades.”

Jane Hope was there too, fresh from set­ting up Loch Lomond and the Trossachs Nation­al Park. Instru­ment­al in writ­ing the legis­la­tion, she had been seconded in as inter­im CEO for an ini­tial six months but was to stay in the role for the next dec­ade. Cairngorm NATION Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mho

One of over 20 gran­ite markers

20^th anniversary NAL PARK naidh Ruaidh The first board meet­ing ​“It was an excit­ing time,” she reflects. ​“Some people were appre­hens­ive, not know­ing what this new Nation­al Park would mean for them, and wor­ried it would bring all sorts of restric­tions. But many were excited, see­ing new pos­sib­il­it­ies for the vis­it­or eco­nomy and for the nat­ur­al environment.”

“We had an ambi­tion to cre­ate some­thing that would bene­fit both people and nature.” Elean­or Mack­in­tosh, Park Author­ity board mem­ber There were dif­fi­cult decisions to be made. Would the focus be industry, busi­ness and people, or more tour­ism which would boost the loc­al eco­nomy but would also put pres­sure on the envir­on­ment? The geo­graphy of the Nation­al Park makes for very dis­tinct com­munit­ies and cul­tures and there was a chal­lenge in how to pull every­one togeth­er. Elean­or Mack­in­tosh, who has served on the board since those early days, remem­bers the dis­cus­sion on how this could be achieved, includ­ing the decision to have an office in Bal­later to ensure the focus didn’t rest solely on Speyside.

Look­ing back on 20 years, have those early hopes been achieved? Elean­or believes many of them have. ​“We had an ambi­tion to cre­ate some­thing that would bene­fit both people and nature and we have man­aged that in many areas. Some issues – such as loc­al trans­port and afford­able hous­ing — are still not fully resolved, but we are here for the long term and pro­gress is being made.”

Jane Hope agrees that, des­pite all the chal­lenges, they man­aged to cre­ate some­thing very spe­cial. ​“There is inter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion of the won­der and import­ance of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. It has been the sub­ject of many TV pro­grammes, but now they are spe­cific­ally focus­ing on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park and not just a bit of the High­lands. I still get a feel­ing of pride every time I pass one of the entry mark­ers made from Cairngorms gran­ite – like them we have built some­thing to last.” winter 2023 cairn 9

In your com­munity Fun and games It’s been a wet sum­mer over­all but that didn’t stop the cal­en­dar of shows and games tak­ing place.

These events are part of the cul­tur­al fab­ric of the Cairngorms and we were delighted to sup­port a num­ber of shows across the Nation­al Park. This included the Grant­own Show and the Atholl Gath­er­ing – both in the sun­shine – as well as a very damp (but his­tor­ic!) Lon­ach Gath­er­ing. More than 500 people stopped by our stands to say hello and loc­al chil­dren made hun­dreds of seed bombs to take home.

Over the next 12 months we’ll be com­ing to a com­munity near you, dis­cuss­ing TSA the issues that mat­ter most and under­stand­ing how the Park Author­ity can help. Next on the list is the Bal­later Winter Fest­iv­al on 25 Novem­ber, where we’ll also be offer­ing Christ­mas craft activ­it­ies. Pop into our offices on Sta­tion Square to join in the fun.

Walk this way There are 12 health walks tak­ing place each and every week in com­munit­ies around the Nation­al Park.

We know that walk­ing can make us feel bet­ter, but it’s not always easy to know where to start. Health walks are short, social walks with a trained lead­er to show you the way. Each walk lasts up to one hour, is open to every­one and all abil­it­ies are welcome.

To find your nearest health walk vis­it cairngorms​.co​.uk/ health­walks and use the inter­act­ive map, or call 01479 873 535.

Park Pride The Park Author­ity atten­ded High­land Pride earli­er this sum­mer. We were grate­ful to hear from so many attendees about how import­ant it was to sup­port increased vis­ib­il­ity, com­munity and access­ib­il­ity with­in the Nation­al Park, and what we can do to ensure this spe­cial place is truly a Park for all. 10 cairn winter 2023

His­tory high­lights Badenoch: The Story­lands con­tin­ues to show­case the area’s rich her­it­age, cul­ture and land­scapes. This includes the annu­al Badenoch Her­it­age Fest­iv­al in Septem­ber, 13 loc­al trails, a ded­ic­ated vis­it­or app, and a unique mix of tales and tunes as part of the Story­lands Ses­sions. Vis­it badenoch​story​lands​.com Tul­loch Homes CA ANACHD CUP FINAL WINNERS

Shinty suc­cess Huge con­grat­u­la­tions to Kin­gussie on their Caman­achd Cup vic­tory and to New­ton­more for retain­ing the Suth­er­land Cup this sea­son. Shinty is deep-rooted in the his­tory and cul­ture of Badenoch. Check out the Shinty Trail to find out more: cairngorms​.co​.uk/the- shinty-trail

In your com­munity Afford­able homes giv­en the go-ahead New afford­able homes for Aviemore and Nethy Bridge are set to be built after plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted by our plan­ning committee.

Play­ing it cool With Team GB win­ning gold and sil­ver medals at the 2022 Winter Olympics, curl­ing is now cool in more ways than one. 12 new rent­al prop­er­ties will be built on the site of the old primary school in Aviemore, while 21 afford­able homes will be built on a former sta­tion yard in Nethy Bridge. Plan­ning con­sent was also giv­en for the redevel­op­ment of the Inver­cauld Arms in Brae­mar – cre­at­ing ser­viced apart­ments and vari­ous leis­ure facil­it­ies as well as a com­munity- owned camp­site in Tomintoul.

Aviemore Ice Rink has been run­ning taster ses­sions from loc­al curl­ing legends for any­one want­ing to give the sport a go.

This is the latest offer­ing from the com­munity-run rink, which has been wel­com­ing skaters since it opened two years ago, allow­ing many people to take up new ice hob­bies, as well as hav­ing fun on the rink at ice dis­cos and skat­ing events.

Run­ning an ice rink takes a lot of energy, but own­ers the Aviemore and Glen­more Com­munity Trust plan to reduce con­sump­tion by a huge 75% this winter thanks to insu­la­tion and new chillers, pur­chased with fund­ing from the Park Author­ity, High­land Coun­cil and High­lands and Islands Enter­prise. In brief Latest devel­op­ments Work on gath­er­ing evid­ence and views to help pre­pare the next Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan con­tin­ues. This month we are look­ing for your views on the land­scape, his­tor­ic and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the Nation­al Park. Find out more and get involved at cairngormsldp​.com​mon​place​.is

Path it on If you have a loc­al path in need of improve­ment, your com­munity might be eli­gible to apply to the lan Find­lay Path Fund. The fund helps improve paths with­in and between com­munit­ies and is sup­por­ted by Trans­port Scot­land. Com­munit­ies can apply for up to £100,000. Find out more about the fund by scan­ning the QR code.

Glen­more cen­ten­ary 2023 marks 100 years since Glen­more was pur­chased from the Duke of Gor­don, mak­ing it one of the longest peri­ods of con­tinu­ous pub­lic own­er­ship of a forest in Scot­land. In that time Glen­more has exper­i­enced many changes with­in the wider forestry sec­tor, from the early years of forest expan­sion to an increase in recre­ation and large- scale hab­it­at res­tor­a­tion. winter 2023 cairn 11

In your com­munity E‑spoke A num­ber of e‑bikes have been made avail­able to res­id­ents thanks to fund­ing from the Cairngorms Trust.

Aviemore Bikes are now offer­ing to loan bikes for four to six weeks to res­id­ents from Dal­whin­nie to Glen­liv­et and in the Tomin­toul area, with 17 e‑bikes, three cargo e‑bikes and an e‑trike avail­able. A sug­ges­ted dona­tion of £10 per week is requested.

The Trust’s Com­munity-Led Vis­ion Fund is sup­port­ing Back­coun­try Bikes to devel­op a com­munity cargo e‑bike that will be avail­able for short loans and a com­munity bike recyc­ling pro­ject – more tak­ing old bikes and mak­ing them good again, for low- or no-cost own­er­ship. The fund has also sup­por­ted Able2Adventure to pur­chase hand bikes, as well as adapt­ive e‑bikes, trikes and a minibus to trans­port them around the Cairngorms.

And finally, the Trust is work­ing with the NHS to help make their three staff e‑bikes more access­ible — look out for staff from Aviemore hos­pit­al doing their rounds on them in the near future!

Pumped up Part-fun­ded by the Cairngorms Trust in 2021, the Wood­land Wheels pump track in Boat of Garten is a free-to-use bik­ing facil­ity for both loc­als and visitors.

This sum­mer the track played host to the High­land and North East Scot­land heats for the Ride the Worlds pump track race. The nation­al finals took place in Glas­gow as part of the UCI World Cham­pi­on­ships and two Car­rbridge riders, Joe Pater­son and Gordy Arch­er, fin­ished in 2^nd and 3^rd place. Well done to all that took part.

Top gear The Cairngorms Youth Loc­al Action Group has been sup­port­ing a range of cyc­ling activ­it­ies as part of its Youth Fund.

Fund­ing has been made avail­able for indi­vidu­als and groups aged 30 OFF THE WAL and under for bikes, bike sheds, bike- pack­ing equip­ment, fest­ivals, coach­ing, exped­i­tions and film­ing equipment.

The Youth LAG brings togeth­er a group of young people aged 14 to 26 to co-design and run a £15,000 fund which con­nects young people to nature and helps tackle the nature and cli­mate crisis.

Com­munity gains A total of 22 com­munity pro­jects have been awar­ded over £300,000 as part of the Cairngorms Com­munity- Led Vis­ion Fund, man­aged by the Cairngorms Trust and sup­por­ted by Scot­tish Government.

Suc­cess­ful pro­jects include new com­munity-owned access­ible toi­lets in Grant­own, a ​‘path­ways to rur­al work’ pro­ject from Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scot­land, and a pro­ject to con­serve and adapt St Margaret’s Church in Brae­mar. For a full list of fund­ing recip­i­ents head to cairngorm​strust​.org​.uk 12 cairn winter 2023

Cairngorms 2030 0000 Redu­cing Car Rometres of ar trav Columbia On the hori­zon Over the past 18 months the Park Author­ity has col­lab­or­ated with over 4,000 mem­bers of the pub­lic to shape our plans for the future of the Cairngorms 2030 programme.

We have now pulled togeth­er all our find­ings into a final pro­pos­al to The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund. If our bid is suc­cess­ful, the next stage of the pro­gramme will kick off in Janu­ary 2024.

To see how you can get involved and to sign up for updates, check out the pro­gramme web­site: cairngorms2030. com​mon​place​.is The path ahead As part of our Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme, we have been explor­ing ways to make the Nation­al Park more walk­ing, cyc­ling and wheel­chair friendly.

Over the past 18 months more than 30 online and in-per­son events have taken place and 1,200 thoughts and ideas have been con­trib­uted by res­id­ents. Thank you to every­one who took part.

Based on your feed­back, over 100 act­ive travel con­struc­tion pro­jects have now been iden­ti­fied in com­munit­ies across the Nation­al Park. The plan is for all of these to be delivered by 2045, either by the Park Author­ity or its partners.

As part of the deliv­ery phase of Cairngorms 2030, we will take for­ward up to 10 of these pro­jects in dif­fer­ent com­munit­ies. This includes the cre­ation of two- way cycle lanes in Aviemore, improv­ing Brae­mar vil­lage centre for ped­es­tri­ans and mul­tiple smal­ler act­ive travel improvements.

In addi­tion to the pro­jects delivered through the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme, the Park Author­ity is work­ing with part­ners and com­munit­ies to devel­op – and seek fund­ing for – oth­er key pro­jects iden­ti­fied by communities.

The devel­op­ment phase of the Cairngorms 2030 act­ive travel pro­jects was sup­por­ted by the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund and Places for Every­one, an act­ive travel infra­struc­ture pro­gramme fun­ded by Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and admin­istered by Sus­trans. Would like to xe Hue to restrict park­ing winter 2023 cairn 13

Look­ing to the future Power rangers If you have been out and about this sum­mer you may have met one of our train­ee rangers — Jessie, Kate or Craig.

The train­ee ranger pro­gramme gives indi­vidu­als who’d like to become a ranger the oppor­tun­ity to gain vital skills over the busy sum­mer season.

Work­ing along­side the ranger team, our train­ees have had first-hand exper­i­ence wel­com­ing vis­it­ors, restor­ing hab­it­ats and doing spe­cies con­ser­va­tion work. With a con­tract designed to fit around the edu­ca­tion cal­en­dar, they can gain some great work exper­i­ence and con­tin­ue with their stud­ies. Sea­son­al rangers Jessie and Craig Rur­al futures Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scot­land held a ​‘Future of Rur­al’ day at Alvie and Dalraddy Estates in September.

Pupils from Kin­gussie High School and Grant­own Gram­mar School had the oppor­tun­ity to exper­i­ence rur­al careers in action, includ­ing forestry, farm­ing and the action-packed adven­ture tour­ism industry.

The event explained why we need more of these skills to help tackle the nature and cli­mate crisis, what qual­i­fic­a­tions are required and what path­ways to employ­ment exist. Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scot­land worked in part­ner­ship with the Park Author­ity to make the event a real­ity and will be hold­ing sim­il­ar events in the near future. PM/L ANA­LOGY 14 cairn winter 2023 YAK Cli­mate camps This August, 35 young people from across Europe trav­elled to Bad­aguish to attend the Cairngorms Youth Cli­mate Camp.

Par­ti­cipants from the UK, Sweden, Latvia, Romania, Italy and the Neth­er­lands went on field trips look­ing at dif­fer­ent aspects of the area’s nature and cli­mate. The camp also fea­tured a mini- par­lia­ment ses­sion and a wild adven­ture and nature con­nec­tion day on Loch Morlich.

A sep­ar­ate three-day camp at Bad­aguish saw over 40 juni­or rangers come togeth­er to take part in a range of fant­ast­ic activ­it­ies includ­ing ori­enteer­ing, art, try­ing out adapt­ive bikes and off-road wheel­chairs, and help­ing improve the new out­door demen­tia resource centre garden. Par­ti­cipants were also intro­duced to the Scot­tish Coun­tryside Ranger Association’s Juni­or Ranger Award, a qual­i­fic­a­tion young people can earn through the project.

Cairngorms voices In con­ver­sa­tion with the Gor­don fam­ily Lucy, Ala­nah and Camer­on Gordon’s fam­ily have been involved with the Lon­ach High­land and Friendly Soci­ety since it began and have been farm­ing at Lost Farm for 300 years. We caught up with them to mark the 200^th anniversary of the Lon­ach High­land and Friendly Society.

What part do you play in the Lon­ach Games?

We’re all involved in the games through the pipe band as well as from a com­munity per­spect­ive. Ala­nah (aged 18) has been play­ing the pipes for nine years, Lucy (18) has been a ten­or drum­mer for five years and Camer­on (15) has played the snare drum for eight years. We all take part in the march; it’s an import­ant part of the games and some­thing we’re all proud to do. Our dad, along with oth­er mem­bers of the com­mit­tee, met His Majesty The King when he vis­ited for the 200^th anniversary.

How import­ant a role do you think high­land games play?

The Lon­ach Games are import­ant to every­one in our com­munity, no mat­ter what their age. The event sees us all cel­eb­rate togeth­er and keep our tra­di­tions and stor­ies going. The Lon­ach High­land and Friendly Soci­ety cel­eb­rated its 200^th anniversary this year and our fam­ily have been farm­ing here for around 300 years, so there’s lots of his­tory there. Organ­ising the games takes a lot of work. For the two weeks lead­ing up to the event, our The Gor­don fam­ily (left to right): Ala­nah, George, Camer­on, Charles and Lucy

dad, granda, oth­ers on the com­mit­tee and many volun­teers are at the park grounds every night for the set up.

What do the games mean to you?

Everything! It is a huge high­light of the year. It is the one and only day when everything stops and fam­il­ies, neigh­bours and friends get togeth­er and cel­eb­rate. Ala­nah had the oppor­tun­ity to play at the Roy­al Edin­burgh Mil­it­ary Tat­too this year a huge hon­our – but she turned it down as it meant she couldn’t attend Lon­ach. We’ve atten­ded the games every year since birth and none of us will ever miss it.

Find out more about the Lon­ach Games at lon​ach​.org winter 2023 cairn 15