UK Nation­al Park Con­fer­ence 2026

Field trip information

Gen­er­al access­ib­il­ity information

Scot­land is fam­ous for hav­ing all four sea­sons in a day, so please bring warm lay­ers, water­proofs, sunglasses and sun­screen with you. Our field trips have been graded on the basis of walk­ing / activ­ity dif­fi­culty, but if you’ve any spe­cif­ic ques­tions please get in touch.

• ‘Easy’ — activ­it­ies will involve short walks mostly on paths, sturdy shoes are likely to be fine.
• ‘Mod­er­ate’ — activ­it­ies are likely to be longer walks with some rough­er, uneven, some­times hilly ter­rain, sturdy shoes or walk­ing boots are suggested.
• ‘Strenu­ous’ — activ­it­ies are likely to involve more chal­len­ging walks off-path and across uneven, pos­sibly wet, rough hill ground, walk­ing boots are suggested.

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Field trip one

Back from the brink

Mod­er­ate

Join us for a unique field trip to Rothiemurchus Estate and Glen­more forest park, focus­ing on some of Scotland’s rarest and most threatened spe­cies. Explor­ing nat­ive Scots pine forests, you’ll see first hand hab­it­at that is man­aged for caper­cail­lie – the world’s largest grouse. Learn more about rob­ocut areas and wood­land graz­ing by cattle, both vital for improv­ing con­di­tions for this icon­ic bird, while also dis­cuss­ing wild­cat track­ing data and vole sign sur­veys in an area where our wild­cat pop­u­la­tion is slowly recovering.

The day will include a vis­it to the pine hov­er­fly breed­ing centre at the High­land Wild­life Park, offer­ing a unique insight into this vital con­ser­va­tion effort. Par­ti­cipants will take part in hands-on volun­teer­ing activ­it­ies and explore the wild­cat con­ser­va­tion centre, where an in-depth pro­ject talk will bring the work to life.

Led by exper­i­enced con­ser­va­tion staff, the ses­sion will reflect on both the suc­cesses and ongo­ing chal­lenges of spe­cies recov­ery, with oppor­tun­it­ies to share exper­i­ences and learn­ing. There will also be time to explore the wider High­land Wild­life Park at your leisure.

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Field trip two

Liv­ing with the land: Cairngorms as a cul­tur­al landscape

Easy

Hid­den behind the Badenoch town of New­ton­more is the des­ol­ately beau­ti­ful val­ley of Glen Ban­chor. This rugged land­scape was once home to siz­able pas­tor­al com­munit­ies, their evid­ence still vis­ible on the ground and in the sur­round­ing place names.

Join Park Author­ity staff Duncan and Tania to explore the ruins of some of these town­ships while dis­cuss­ing the changes in land man­age­ment and what that has meant for the people of the glen and loc­al culture.

At noon, we will head to the High­land Folk Museum, in New­ton­more. There will be an oppor­tun­ity to enjoy your packed lunch, explore the site and visu­al­ise the life­style of the former inhab­it­ants of Glen Ban­chor and dis­cuss the Gael­ic concept of ​“Dùthchas”.

We’ll con­clude with a guided archive tour and gain an insight into how cul­tur­al her­it­age is being cel­eb­rated through loc­al pro­ject ini­ti­at­ives includ­ing [Badenoch Storylands].

There will be plenty of time to dis­cuss cul­tur­al and cre­at­ive engage­ment ini­ti­at­ives. Plus, you nev­er know, a golden eagle may also grace the skyline.

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Field trip three

Con­nec­tions in the Cairngorms

Strenu­ous

This field trip will explore Glen Fesh­ie, a land­scape man­aged by Wild­land Lim­ited, which is regen­er­at­ing at scale and pace to restore eco­lo­gic­al diversity and func­tion. Show­cas­ing Wildland’s vis­ion and what is being achieved through the Cairngorms Con­nect part­ner­ship, we will have sev­er­al stops to view regen­er­at­ing eco­sys­tems shaped by deer man­age­ment, nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion, and wood­land restruc­tur­ing, and hear about spe­cies recovery.

The vari­ous res­tor­a­tion actions link through to the deliv­ery of Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan object­ives, which we will dis­cuss dur­ing the day, includ­ing Nature Net­works, 50 x 45, and eco­lo­gic­al mon­it­or­ing. Par­ti­cipants will par­take in dis­cus­sion about the oppor­tun­it­ies and chal­lenges asso­ci­ated with land­scape scale eco­lo­gic­al res­tor­a­tion and how we could deliv­er more of it in the Cairngorms and oth­er Nation­al Parks in the UK.

This trip will involve being out­doors all day, walk­ing approx­im­ately 10km on uneven steep ground. There are no form­al toi­let stops except at the start the vis­it. There­fore, par­ti­cipants should be pre­pared with suit­able out­door cloth­ing and equip­ment for change­able conditions.

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Field trip four

Nature, well­being, and encour­aging cycling

Easy

We will enjoy cyc­ling togeth­er on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s fleet bikes (e‑bikes and stand­ard bikes both avail­able) from Aviemore to Bad­aguish, learn­ing along the way about how we are sup­port­ing act­ive travel across the Nation­al Park.

At the Bad­aguish Out­door Brain Health and Demen­tia Resource Centre we will share how people liv­ing with demen­tia and their fam­il­ies and carers are exper­i­en­cing the bene­fits of nature. We will also learn how con­nect­ing to nature is sup­port­ing res­id­ents’ health and well­being through a Nature Pre­scrip­tion ser­vice, and del­eg­ates are invited to con­nect to nature them­selves, through a guided forest bathing session.

Return­ing to the bikes, we will ride back togeth­er through the wood­land. The cycle rides will be at a gentle pace for around 30 — 45 minutes for a total of about 10km, primar­ily on shared use paths which take us through beau­ti­ful pine forests.

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Field trip five

Con­nect­ing with com­munit­ies: empower­ment and innovation

Mod­er­ate

Join us on a minibus trip over the SnowRoads, with incred­ible views over the icon­ic Cairngorms land­scape, to vis­it Roy­al Deeside. In the beau­ti­ful town of Bal­later we will meet the loc­al com­munity council’s flood­ing issues group and learn about their work redu­cing the risk of flood dam­age to the vil­lage while walk­ing along­side the banks of the River Dee. We will then get lunch at the charm­ing Rothesay Rooms, a café cel­eb­rat­ing the best of Scot­tish produce.

In the after­noon, we will vis­it nat­ur­al flood man­age­ment and res­tor­a­tion pro­jects that have been delivered by the River Dee Trust in Glen Muick. We will dis­cuss river res­tor­a­tion strategies, trade-offs and prac­tic­al­it­ies with the option to get stuck in installing a leaky bar­ri­er on a small trib­u­tary. We will then head back over the hill to Aviemore in time for dinner.

The morning’s walk will be 3km in total, with stops for dis­cus­sion, and mostly on a flat path. The after­noon sites will be access­ible by short (<30 minute) walks from the vehicle but over rough ground without paths. The drive over the hill will take about an hour and a half each way.

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Field trip six

Peat­lands: car­bon, cul­ture and care

Mod­er­ate

Join us for a day explor­ing peat­land res­tor­a­tion in action on Dor­back Estate, just out­side Grant­own-on-Spey, fol­lowed by lunch on site and a whisky tour at Cairn Distillery.

Del­eg­ates will observe live peat­land res­tor­a­tion work being car­ried out by con­tract­ors and dis­cuss what this means for car­bon stor­age, cli­mate action and loc­al com­munit­ies. The vis­it offers the oppor­tun­ity to meet and learn from those dir­ectly involved in the pro­ject, includ­ing the landown­er, agent and contractors.

The day will include shared dis­cus­sion and learn­ing between del­eg­ates along­side the landown­er Oxy­gen Con­ser­va­tion, fun­der and host the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, con­tract­or TAIGA Upland, and agent Cale­do­ni­an Cli­mate Partnership.

Del­eg­ates will vis­it the Cairn Dis­til­lery to enjoy the Explorer Exper­i­ence. This enga­ging tour explores how the distillery’s loc­a­tion, her­it­age, and envir­on­ment shape its approach to Scotch whisky. Guests will be guided through the pro­duc­tion pro­cess and the art of mat­ur­a­tion, before con­clud­ing with a tast­ing in the Dis­cov­ery Tast­ing Room over­look­ing the River Spey.

Please note this is an out­door field trip requir­ing a good level of fit­ness, with walk­ing over uneven ground in exposed upland conditions.

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Field trip seven

Fields of the future

Mod­er­ate

Join us for a hands-on field trip focussed on prac­tic­al con­ser­va­tion, innov­a­tion, and sus­tain­able food pro­duc­tion, and includ­ing a tour of the loc­al distillery.

The morn­ing will be led by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Agri­cul­tur­al Advisor on his family’s work­ing farm, explor­ing the wide-ran­ging con­ser­va­tion work under­way — from the upland moor­land to the spe­cies that depend on the enclosed hab­it­ats below. He will share insights into their wider envir­on­ment­al work on the farm:

• Vir­tu­al fen­cing col­lars – a live demon­stra­tion show­ing how they are improv­ing hab­it­at con­di­tion, boost­ing biod­iversity, and redu­cing wild­fire risk.
• Trans­ition back to nat­ive cattle breeds, and the essen­tial role of graz­ing herb­i­vores in healthy, func­tion­ing ecosystems.
• Spe­cies-rich grass­land man­age­ment – risks, best prac­tice, and res­tor­a­tion goals. A live demon­stra­tion of grass­land top­pers used in a new loan­ing scheme for farmers.
• Intro­duc­tion to rare inver­teb­rates includ­ing the small sca­bi­ous min­ing bee from the Rare Inver­teb­rates in the Cairngorms Pro­ject Officer.
• Aspen wood­land res­tor­a­tion and its role in land­scape resi­li­ence includ­ing a chance to prac­tic­ally help suck­er­ing aspen by remov­ing com­pet­ing birch saplings.

After a bar­be­cue lunch, fea­tur­ing the farm’s own 28-day aged short­horn beef bur­gers and rolls from a loc­al bakery, we will go to the oth­er side of the River Spey for a tour of Cairn Distillery.

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Field trip eight

Cairngorm moun­tains

Mod­er­ate

This field trip explores the Cairngorm moun­tains from a range of view­points, offer­ing insight into the land­scape at dif­fer­ent levels. Begin­ning at Loch Mor­lich, del­eg­ates will look towards the sur­round­ing moun­tains while con­sid­er­ing vis­it­or exper­i­ence and man­age­ment. At Coire na Ciste, views across Glen­more provide a set­ting to explore land­scape change over time, with input from a land­scape artist on how these changes can be visu­al­ised and communicated.

The jour­ney con­tin­ues via the Cairngorm Moun­tain funicu­lar to the upper slopes, with the option of a guided walk to the sum­mit (1,245m), or to remain at the Ptar­mig­an Res­taur­ant. Here, dis­cus­sions will focus on wild­ness, eco­logy, land use and vis­it­or pres­sures with­in this icon­ic moun­tain envir­on­ment. Through­out the day, con­tri­bu­tions from rangers, spe­cial­ists and cre­at­ives will enrich under­stand­ing of the area’s dis­tinct qual­it­ies and challenges.

The pro­gramme also includes a vis­it to Aviemore and Glen­more Com­munity Trust at the Vis­it­or Centre, show­cas­ing a suc­cess­ful com­munity enter­prise, along­side a cre­at­ive ses­sion explor­ing land­scape change through art and photography.

Please note: this is a full day out­doors in an exposed moun­tain envir­on­ment. Suit­able cloth­ing and foot­wear are essen­tial. The sum­mit walk is steep and optional.

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Field trip nine

River reviv­al

Strenu­ous

Join us for a fas­cin­at­ing canoe trip down the River Spey from Loch Insh to Aviemore. You will be pad­dling through three beaver ter­rit­or­ies and some of the highest qual­ity and most extens­ive ripari­an wood­land in all of Scotland.

On the way we will talk about the eco­lo­gic­al import­ance of the River Spey and some of the long-term res­id­ent and newly returned nat­ive spe­cies found there – fresh water pearl mus­sels and beavers; and maybe even see some evid­ence of them.

We will vis­it a loc­al landown­er, and hear about the motiv­a­tions for rein­tro­du­cing beavers on their land. Lunch will be taken nearby, with tea, cof­fee and cake provided along­side your packed lunch. There will be toi­let stops just before the trip begins and again at the end at the Old Bridge Inn in Aviemore; oth­er­wise, you may need to use the ​“loo with a view”. At the Old Bridge Inn, there will be time to relax and enjoy a drink by the river we have just paddled.

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Field trip 10

Changes for the future

Easy

Join us for a vis­it explor­ing how land man­age­ment is evolving in response to cli­mate change and oth­er key drivers. Once man­aged under a tra­di­tion­al sport­ing mod­el, the estate is now under­go­ing a sig­ni­fic­ant trans­ition fol­low­ing its recent acquis­i­tion by the Dur­rell Wild­life Con­ser­va­tion Trust. The focus is shift­ing towards restor­ing nat­ur­al eco­lo­gic­al pro­cesses, includ­ing extens­ive wood­land expan­sion, as well as peat­land and river restoration.

Dur­ing the vis­it, we will also look at how the estate is work­ing with loc­al com­munit­ies and neigh­bour­ing land man­agers. We’ll con­sider the his­tor­ic­al use of Dal­nac­ar­doch and explore how estates are diver­si­fy­ing their eco­nom­ic base, along­side devel­op­ing the skills and know­ledge needed for careers in mod­ern land management.

We will learn about these devel­op­ments through con­ver­sa­tion with the estate and Park Author­ity staff and see how the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme is facil­it­at­ing and sup­port­ing changes.

Lunch and refresh­ments will be provided. The day will include some travel on estate tracks in 4×4 vehicles, as well as short walks over rough ter­rain. As we will be out­doors for sev­er­al hours, please come pre­pared with suit­able foot­wear and water­proof clothing.

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UK Nation­al Park Con­fer­ence 2026

Work­shop information

Work­shop one: Wild­fire management

Wild­fires threaten man-made assets like houses, wind­farms, fences and oth­er built infra­struc­ture and they also threaten 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 Nation­al Park Author­it­ies have in tack­ling these issues.

Work­shop two: Water management

The chan­ging cli­mate is lead­ing to more droughts and flood­ing impact­ing on com­munit­ies, busi­nesses and nature in our catch­ments. This work­shop will look at river res­tor­a­tion tech­niques, the fin­an­cing of this work, what are some of the key bar­ri­ers to over­come and what role Nation­al Park Author­it­ies have in deliv­er­ing resi­li­ent catchments.

Work­shop three: Nation­al Parks Partnerships

Nation­al Parks Part­ner­ships (NPP) will explore how Nation­al Parks are attract­ing private fin­ance for nature, shar­ing real-world case stud­ies that gen­er­ate income from car­bon and nature mar­kets to sup­port land­scape-scale action. The ses­sion will also out­line an upcom­ing pub­lic and phil­an­throp­ic cam­paign aimed at strength­en­ing the Nation­al Parks brand, diver­si­fy­ing income, and pos­i­tion­ing parks as lead­ers in nature recov­ery, cli­mate resi­li­ence, and com­munity impact.

Work­shop four: Widen­ing participation

A key theme of the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme is widen­ing par­ti­cip­a­tion and build­ing long-term rela­tion­ships with under­rep­res­en­ted audi­ences. In this inter­act­ive work­shop, the Cairngorms 2030 pub­lic engage­ment team will share prac­tic­al ways of widen­ing par­ti­cip­a­tion and deep­en­ing engage­ment with Nation­al Park communities.