UK National Parks Conference - programme

UK Nation­al Parks Con­fer­ence 16 – 18 Septem­ber 2026 Mac­don­ald Aviemore Resort

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Nation­al Parks

Sponsored by SSEN Trans­mis­sion and Tarmac

on-Spey

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Scot­tish & South­ern Elec­tri­city Net­works TRANSMISSION

Path­way to 2030

Scotland’s elec­tri­city trans­mis­sion net­work is at the heart of the energy trans­ition, con­nect­ing the nation’s world class renew­able energy resources to homes and busi­nesses across the country.

This land­mark invest­ment will sup­port a clean­er, more secure energy future for gen­er­a­tions, built on afford­able, home- grown elec­tri­city that reduces our reli­ance on volat­ile glob­al markets.

The pro­gramme will cre­ate thou­sands of skilled jobs across the UK, with a sig­ni­fic­ant con­cen­tra­tion in the north of Scot­land, bring­ing last­ing eco­nom­ic oppor­tun­ity to the com­munit­ies at the centre of this trans­form­a­tion. Along­side job cre­ation, the invest­ment will deliv­er mean­ing­ful com­munity and envir­on­ment­al bene­fits, includ­ing com­munity bene­fit funds, and new afford­able hous­ing in the north of Scotland.

An invest­ment in infra­struc­ture, in people, and a clean­er, more secure energy future for gen­er­a­tions to come.

West­ern Isles Orkney Doun­reay Ban­niskirk Carnaig Skye Greens Fan­el­lan Neth­er­ton Hub Kintore Bin­gally Fort Augus­tus Alyth Hur­lie Glen­lochy Cre­ag Dhubh Emmock Cam­bushin­nie Inver­aray Denny Craig Mur­rail West­field Crossaig

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Fàilte Wel­come

It’s a pleas­ure to wel­come you all to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park for the 2026 UK Nation­al Parks Con­fer­ence. Events like these are a won­der­ful oppor­tun­ity to bring togeth­er our fam­ily of nation­al parks to reflect, share learn­ings and build on the inspir­ing work being done right across the UK.

We have a packed pro­gramme for you, which hope­fully gives a glimpse of the huge range of work being done here in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. From canoe trips to explor­ing the ruins of his­tor­ic town­ships, there is much to see, do and dis­cov­er. And it would be rude of us not to put on a ceilidh and offer an (option­al) dram – we are in the Scot­tish High­lands, after all.

Of course, this event comes soon after a major wild­fire in Glen­more and Strath Nethy, just along the road from here. It’s been a chal­len­ging time for many – from those out on the front line bring­ing the blaze under con­trol, to the busi­nesses and com­munit­ies affected and of course the last­ing impact on hab­it­ats and wild­life in this pre­cious and treas­ured place.

We are not the only nation­al park to have been affected by wild­fires this year, a stark remind­er of the real­it­ies we’re facing as our cli­mate changes. The con­fer­ence field trips were planned long before this dev­ast­at­ing incid­ent and sadly you will be able to see first hand just how much dam­age has been done. Recent exper­i­ences – both here and in oth­er nation­al parks – will no doubt inform our work­shop around wild­fire man­age­ment on Friday.

This con­fer­ence is rooted in the spir­it of Dùthchas, a Gael­ic word for which there is no dir­ect trans­la­tion, that encom­passes ideas of kin­ship, her­it­age and deep-rooted con­nec­tions between nature, people and place. As we seek to adapt to a chan­ging cli­mate and bring people with us on that jour­ney, these con­nec­tions will be more import­ant than ever.

We extend a warm wel­come to you all.

Sandy Brem­ner Con­vener Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 3

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People and nature thriv­ing together

Every two years, the UK’s nation­al parks come togeth­er with our part­ners and stake­hold­ers to dis­cuss our role in soci­ety, con­sider key chal­lenges, share ideas and cel­eb­rate our successes.

This year’s con­fer­ence is being hos­ted by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity at the Mac­don­ald Aviemore Resort. Our theme is the Gael­ic word Dùthchas, which encom­passes ideas of kin­ship, her­it­age and con­nec­tions between nature, people and place.

It is a concept that has inspired our five-year Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme, sup­por­ted by The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund. The pro­gramme is put­ting the power to tackle the nature and cli­mate crisis in the hands of the people who live, vis­it and work in the UK’s largest nation­al park.

At this year’s event, we will be joined by some of the UK’s lead­ing con­ser­va­tion and com­munity experts to con­sid­er­ing the cru­cial role nation­al parks play in help­ing people and nature thrive togeth­er, explor­ing the sym­bi­ot­ic rela­tion­ship between our nat­ur­al world and the people who live, vis­it and work in these spec­tac­u­lar landscapes.

Front cov­er image of a ranger talk­ing to a vis­it­ing fam­ily Ed Smith. Oth­er images Peter Cairns, Laurie Camp­bell, Mark Ham­blin, Brenna Jessie, James Lee, Dav­id Lin­tern and Scot­land: The Big Picture..

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Taing dhan | Made pos­sible with A’ Mhaoin- Dual­chais Her­it­age Fund

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Pro­gramme

10:00 Regis­tra­tion open

12:00 Exhib­i­tion stands open

13:00 Lunch on arrival plus net­work­ing Meet part­ners, spon­sors and oth­er stake­hold­ers (Per­eg­rine Suite)

14:00 Open­ing and wel­come Sandy Brem­ner, Con­vener, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

14:10 Min­is­teri­al address Gil­lian Mar­tin MSP, Cab­in­et Sec­ret­ary for Cli­mate Action and Rur­al Affairs

14:30 First key­note address Prof Dav­id Reay, Just Trans­ition Com­mis­sion (2023−26)

14:55 Second key­note address Craig Ben­nett OBE, CEO, The Wild­life Trusts

15:20 Break

15:45 Pan­el dis­cus­sion and Q&A Dr Deborah Long (Scot­tish Envir­on­ment LINK), Fiona Milden (Oxy­gen Con­ser­va­tion), Jon­nie Hall (NFU Scot­land) and Sarah-Jane Laing (Scot­tish Land & Estates)

16:45 Spon­sor address Richard Bald­win, Head of Con­sents and Envir­on­ment SSEN Transmission

17:00 — 17:15 Clos­ing remarks Sandy Brem­ner, Con­vener, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

18:00 Exhib­i­tion stands close

18:20 Jour­ney on the Strath­spey Rail­way (as fea­tured on BBC’s The Traitors)

16 Septem­ber Wednesday

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17 Septem­ber Thursday

Pro­gramme

08:30 — 17:00 Field trips Staggered gath­er­ing times for field trips. Check your del­eg­ate badge for the start time of your trip. Gath­er in the Per­eg­rine Suite at your allot­ted start time

See page 8 for details

17:00 Arrive back in Aviemore Free time to relax and explore the town

18:00 Whisky tast­ing (option­al) Brought to you by The Cairn Distillery

18:30 Drinks recep­tion At Mac­don­ald Aviemore Resort (foy­er)

19:00 Form­al din­ner Per­eg­rine Suite

20:30 Ceilidh

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YOUR FUTURE HERE

18 Septem­ber Friday

Nation­al Parks

Pro­gramme

09:15 Wel­come Pho­tos and reflec­tions from the pre­vi­ous day’s field trips

09:30 Work­shops

1. Wild­fire management
2. Water man­age­ment
3. Nation­al Parks Partnership
4. Widen­ing participation

See page 11 for details

11:00 Break

11:15 Team Nature Nature recov­ery in our nation­al parks

12:00 Wrap up and feed­back Dis­cus­sion on the oppor­tun­it­ies and chal­lenges ahead

12:30 Close of con­fer­ence Han­dover from the Cairngorms to the Pem­broke­shire Coast, hosts of the 2028 event

12:45 Option­al buf­fet lunch In Mac­don­ald Aviemore Resort food court

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Field trips

Back from the brink 1 Vis­it to Rothiemurchus Estate and Glen­more Forest Park, focus­ing on some of Scotland’s rarest spe­cies. Explore Scots pine forests and see hab­it­at man­aged for caper­cail­lie, learn about rob­ocut areas and wood­land graz­ing by cattle, and dis­cuss wild­cat track­ing data and vole sign sur­veys. Includes a vis­it to the pine hov­er­fly breed­ing centre at the High­land Wild­life Park.

Liv­ing with the land: the Cairngorms as a cul­tur­al land­scape 2 Explore the ruins of some of the his­tor­ic town­ships of Glen Ban­chor, dis­cuss­ing changes in land man­age­ment and what that’s meant for the people and cul­ture of the glen. Fol­lowed by a vis­it to the High­land Folk Museum in New­ton­more, includ­ing a guided archive tour and inform­a­tion on cul­tur­al her­it­age pro­jects such as Badenoch: The Storylands.

Con­nec­tions in the Cairngorms 3 Explore Glen Fesh­ie, a land­scape which is regen­er­at­ing at scale to restore eco­lo­gic­al diversity and func­tion. Show­cas­ing WildLand’s vis­ion and the work of the wider Cairngorms Con­nect part­ner­ship. Top­ics will include deer man­age­ment, nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion, wood­land restruc­tur­ing and spe­cies recov­ery. Please note: this trip involves walk­ing approx­im­ately 10km on uneven, steep ground.

New­ton­more Dal­whin­nie Kin­gussie Blair Atholl Grant­own-on-Spey Cairny Dis­til­lery Nethy Bridge Aviemore Loch Mor­lich Cairngorm Ben Mac­dui Brae­mar Carn nan Gabhar

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Crown copy­right and data­base rights 2026 OS AC0000821810

EASY MOD­ER­ATE STRENUOUS

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Tomin­toul Bal­later Loch Muick

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Nature, well­being and encour­aging cyc­ling 4 Cycle ride (e‑bike or stand­ard bike) from Aviemore to Bad­aguish, learn­ing about how we are sup­port­ing act­ive travel across the Cairngorms. Vis­it our Out­door Demen­tia Resource Centre, learn about the nature pre­scrip­tions ser­vice and par­ti­cip­ate in a guided forest bathing ses­sion. Cycle rides will be at a gentle pace for a total of 10km.

Con­nect­ing with com­munit­ies: empower­ment and innov­a­tion 5 Scen­ic minibus trip over the SnowRoads to Roy­al Deeside. Walk along the River Dee (3km) and hear from the loc­al flood­ing issues group about their work, fol­lowed by a vis­it to nat­ur­al flood man­age­ment and res­tor­a­tion pro­jects in Glen Muick. Dis­cuss river res­tor­a­tion strategies, trade-offs and prac­tic­al­it­ies, with the option of help­ing install a leaky bar­ri­er on a small tributary.

Peat­lands: car­bon, cul­ture and care 6 See peat­land res­tor­a­tion in action on Dor­back Estate, fol­lowed by a whisky tour at The Cairn Dis­til­lery near Grant­own. Observe peat­land res­tor­a­tion work being car­ried out by con­tract­ors and dis­cuss what this means for car­bon stor­age, cli­mate action and loc­al com­munit­ies. Please note: this is an out­door field trip requir­ing a good level of fit­ness, includ­ing walk­ing over uneven, exposed ground.

Fields of the future 7 Join our Agri­cul­tur­al Advisor on his fam­ily farm. Includes a demon­stra­tion of vir­tu­al fen­cing col­lars and grass­land top­pers used in a new loan scheme, a talk on spe­cies-rich grass­land man­age­ment, aspen wood­land res­tor­a­tion and our work with rare inver­teb­rates. Lunch fea­tur­ing the farm’s own short­horn beef bur­gers, fol­lowed by a tour of The Cairn Distillery.

Cairngorm moun­tains 8 Explore the Cairngorm moun­tains from a range of view­points. Hear about vis­it­or man­age­ment at Loch Mor­lich, vis­it the com­munity-owned Glen­more Vis­it­or Centre and learn about land­scape change from a visu­al artist at Coire na Ciste, before tak­ing the funicu­lar up Cairngorm Moun­tain. Option­al guided walk to the sum­mit. Please note: this is a full day out­doors in an exposed setting.

River reviv­al 9 Canoe trip down the River Spey, from Loch Insh to Aviemore. Paddle through three beaver ter­rit­or­ies and some of Scotland’s finest ripari­an wood­land. Hear from our team about our work with spe­cies includ­ing fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sels and beavers, and from a loc­al landown­er who has rein­tro­duced beavers on their land. Lunch will be provided nearby, with tea, cof­fee and cake.

Changes for the future 10 Once man­aged as a tra­di­tion­al sport­ing estate, Dal­nac­ar­doch has recently been acquired by the Dur­rell Wild­life Con­ser­va­tion Trust. See how the estate is shift­ing towards restor­ing nat­ur­al eco­lo­gic­al pro­cesses, work­ing with loc­al com­munit­ies and neigh­bour­ing land man­agers. We’ll also con­sider the his­tor­ic­al use of Dal­nac­ar­doch and see how estates are diver­si­fy­ing their eco­nom­ic base.

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The Per­fect Partnership

Our Nature-based Solu­tions team com­bines expert­ise in con­ser­va­tion, land man­age­ment and green fin­ance. We work along­side Nation­al Parks and loc­al part­ners to devel­op pro­jects that are invest­ment-ready, while remain­ing aligned with loc­al pri­or­it­ies and Nation­al Park objectives.

With demand for high-integ­rity UK car­bon cred­its and biod­iversity enhance­ment con­tinu­ing to grow, now is the time to explore the poten­tial across our landscapes.

Nation­al Parks Partnerships

Sign up to Nation­al Parks Part­ner­ships news­let­ters: Con­nect­ing Col­leagues The Green Thread

Talk to our Nature-based Solu­tions team to dis­cov­er how nature, car­bon and biod­iversity net gain could help unlock invest­ment in your Nation­al Park.

Holly Story Head of Nature-based Solu­tions holly.​story@​nationalparks.​co.​uk

Grangers

ENHAN­CING AND PRO­LONG­ING YOUR TIME OUT­DOORS SINCE 1937.

GRANGERS​.CO​.UK

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Wild­fire man­age­ment 1 Wild­fires, like the one we saw this year in Glen­more, threaten man-made assets like houses, wind­farms, fences and oth­er built infra­struc­ture, as well as nat­ur­al assets like forests, peat­lands and less mobile spe­cies and hab­it­ats. This work­shop will dis­cuss redu­cing the risk of wild­fire, pre­par­ing for wild­fires that do start, mit­ig­at­ing impacts of wild­fires in the land­scape, and what role park author­it­ies can play in tack­ling these issues.

Water man­age­ment 2 The chan­ging cli­mate is lead­ing to more droughts and flood­ing. This work­shop will look at river res­tor­a­tion tech­niques, fin­an­cing this work, some of the key bar­ri­ers to over­come, and what role park author­it­ies can play in deliv­er­ing resi­li­ent catchments.

Nation­al Parks Part­ner­ships 3 Nation­al Parks Part­ner­ships will explore how nation­al parks are attract­ing private fin­ance for nature, shar­ing real-world case stud­ies that gen­er­ate income to sup­port land­scape-scale action. The ses­sion will also out­line an upcom­ing pub­lic and phil­an­throp­ic cam­paign which aims to strengthen our col­lect­ive brand, diver­si­fy income and pos­i­tion nation­al parks as lead­ers in nature, cli­mate and community.

Work­shops

Widen­ing par­ti­cip­a­tion 4 A key theme of the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme is widen­ing par­ti­cip­a­tion and build­ing long- term rela­tion­ships with under- rep­res­en­ted audi­ences. In this inter­act­ive work­shop, the Cairngorms 2030 engage­ment team will share prac­tic­al ways of widen­ing par­ti­cip­a­tion and deep­en­ing engage­ment with nation­al park com­munit­ies. This ses­sion builds on dis­cus­sions that took place at the last UK Nation­al Parks Con­fer­ence in Newcastle.

Click here for more information

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Speak­ers (A to Z)

Richard Bald­win SSEN Trans­mis­sion Richard is Head of Con­sents and Envir­on­ment at SSEN Trans­mis­sion and leads the teams respons­ible for secur­ing the plan­ning, envir­on­ment­al and mar­ine con­sents needed to deliv­er major elec­tri­city net­work infra­struc­ture across the north of Scot­land. With more than 20 years’ exper­i­ence, Richard works closely with com­munit­ies, gov­ern­ment agen­cies, reg­u­lat­ors and industry part­ners to bal­ance net­work devel­op­ment with envir­on­ment­al stewardship.

Craig Ben­nett OBE The Wild­life Trusts Craig is Chief Exec­ut­ive of The Wild­life Trusts, Hon­or­ary Pro­fess­or at Alli­ance Manchester Busi­ness School, Asso­ci­ate Fel­low of Homer­ton Col­lege (Cam­bridge) and Fel­low of the Cam­bridge Insti­tute for Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Lead­er­ship. He is a Com­mis­sion­er on the UK Government’s Clean Power 2030 Advis­ory Com­mis­sion. Formerly CEO of Friends of the Earth, he led cam­paigns on bees, frack­ing and against air­port expansion.

Jon­nie Hall NFU Scot­land Jon­nie is Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive and Dir­ect­or of Policy at NFU Scot­land. Pri­or to that, he spent nine years with what is now Scot­tish Land & Estates. His career in agri­cul­tur­al and rur­al devel­op­ment policy now extends to well over 40 years, hav­ing gradu­ated from New­castle and Oxford uni­ver­sit­ies with three degrees in agri­cul­tur­al eco­nom­ics in the 1980s.

Sarah-Jane Laing Scot­tish Land & Estates Sarah-Jane is Chief Exec­ut­ive of Scot­tish Land & Estates. The first woman to lead the organ­isa­tion, she over­sees SLE’s work to influ­ence policy, sup­port sus­tain­able land man­age­ment and cham­pi­on rur­al Scot­land. Before join­ing SLE in 2004, she spent a dec­ade work­ing in loc­al author­it­ies and hous­ing asso­ci­ations. She lives on her fam­ily farm in the Scot­tish Borders.

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Dr Deborah Long Scot­tish Envir­on­ment LINK Deborah is Chief Exec­ut­ive of Scot­tish Envir­on­ment LINK, an act­ive and grow­ing net­work of envir­on­ment­al NGOs in Scot­land. She is a board mem­ber of mul­tiple char­it­ies in Scot­land in con­ser­va­tion, envir­on­ment­al rights and com­munity devel­op­ment. In Feb­ru­ary 2023, Deborah became a Just Trans­ition Com­mis­sion­er, provid­ing advice on work­ing with com­munit­ies to achieve a just transition.

Gil­lian Mar­tin MSP Cab­in­et Sec­ret­ary for Cli­mate Action and Rur­al Affairs Gil­lian Mar­tin is Cab­in­et Sec­ret­ary for Cli­mate Action and Rur­al Affairs, and has rep­res­en­ted Aber­deen­shire East as a Mem­ber of the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment since 2016. Pri­or to her MSP role, she lec­tured in tele­vi­sion pro­duc­tion at North-East Scot­land Col­lege and ran her own video pro­duc­tion com­pany. She also designed safety courses for the energy industry and was the man­ager of an emer­gency media response team for com­pan­ies oper­at­ing in the North Sea for 10 years.

Fiona Milden Oxy­gen Con­ser­va­tion Fiona is Man­aging Dir­ect­or at Oxy­gen Con­ser­va­tion, a private organ­isa­tion acquir­ing and man­aging land for long-term, land­scape-scale res­tor­a­tion. Fiona has nearly two dec­ades of exper­i­ence work­ing with­in the nat­ur­al and built envir­on­ment. Before join­ing Oxy­gen, she served as Group Plan­ning and Envir­on­ment Dir­ect­or at Vistry Group, where she advised the plc board on reg­u­lat­ory change and led the organisation’s response to major plan­ning reforms.

Prof Dav­id Reay Uni­ver­sity of Edin­burgh Dave is Chair in Car­bon Man­age­ment and Edu­ca­tion at the Uni­ver­sity of Edin­burgh. He chaired the Cli­mate Emer­gency Skills Action Plan steer­ing group in Scot­land, the UK Cli­mate Change Committee’s work­force and skills expert advis­ory group, and was part of the Green Jobs Taskforce for the UK Gov­ern­ment. He was appoin­ted as co-chair of the Just Trans­ition Com­mis­sion (2023−26).

Megan McCub­bin Our host Megan is a zoolo­gist, wild­life TV presenter, author and cam­paign­er. Best known for co-host­ing BBC Spring­watch and Anim­al Park, Megan is pas­sion­ate about our nat­ur­al world and enhan­cing our rela­tion­ship with it. Trained as a sci­ent­ist, she has worked around the world as a bear beha­vi­our­al spe­cial­ist and shark research­er, before grow­ing her career in the media as a sci­ence communicator.

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The Cairngorms Nation­al Park in numbers

18,000 people live here and over two mil­lion vis­it each year

4 out of 5 of the UK’s highest moun­tains are found here

9,000+ hec­tares of peat­land is under act­ive restoration

75% of new hous­ing in the Nation­al Park will be afford­able homes by 2030

700 miles of core paths for res­id­ents and vis­it­ors to explore

25% of the UK’s rare and endangered spe­cies are found here

100+ rangers and volun­teer rangers help look after this spe­cial place

£12m has been awar­ded to 400+ com­munity pro­jects since 2007

The name Cairngorms derives from the Gael­ic Càrn Gorm, mean­ing ​‘blue hill’, while in Gael­ic, the Nation­al Park’s moun­tain range is known as Am Mon­adh Ruadh – ​‘the rus­set-red mountains’.

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TAR­MAC A CRH COMPANY

Guided by com­munity, driv­en by nature.

We build last­ing rela­tion­ships with our com­munit­ies and stake­hold­ers, help to con­nect people with nature to inspire pride in biod­iversity, and part­ner to sup­port research that pro­tects and enriches the envir­on­ment and cul­tur­al heritage.

Tar­mac. From our quar­ries to your com­munit­ies, we’re proud to deliv­er the mater­i­als and part­ner­ships that sup­port essen­tial con­struc­tion and infra­struc­ture across the UK.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Nation­al Parks

Dùthchas [noun, ​‘du:xəs/] A Gael­ic word which encom­passes ideas of kin­ship, her­it­age and con­nec­tions between nature, people and place.

Scot­tish & South­ern Elec­tri­city Net­works TRANSMISSION

TAR­MAC A CRH COMPANY

Grangers THE CAIRN DISTILLERY

Taing dhan | Made pos­sible with A’ Mhaoin- Dual­chais Her­it­age Fund