Out­door access sig­nage guide

Revised July 2025

This toolkit has been cre­ated to assist land man­agers in cre­at­ing signs and using con­sist­ent mes­saging across the Cairngorms Nation­al Park.

Signs are a simple and effect­ive meth­od of com­mu­nic­a­tion between the people who man­age land and those who access it. They can provide a wel­come, while also help­ing every­one to access land respons­ibly and land man­agers to carry out oper­a­tions safely.

Advis­ory signs

Advis­ory signs provide inform­a­tion about factors affect­ing access eg land man­age­ment oper­a­tions such as diver­sions for tree felling or stalk­ing, or guid­ance on respons­ible beha­viours eg keep­ing dogs under control.

• Signs should be used as and when neces­sary. It is import­ant to take signs down when any key time or oper­a­tion has fin­ished – they are more effect­ive when used this way.
• Care­fully con­sider the need for sig­nage – badly worded signs, old redund­ant signs and an over­abund­ance of signs can all do more harm than good.