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6. Working with this guidance 

Image:  colour photo of a group of walkers and a guide looking at a map


PAGE 35

‘The art of interpretation is not to play what is written’ 

Pablo Casals, cellist 

Image:  colour photo of a group of walkers and a guide looking at a map


PAGE 36

Working with this guidance

Each section in this guide has been inspired by one of the four 
key themes that define the Cairngorms National Park. If you 
plan your interpretation with the National Park and the themes 
that describe it in mind, you’ll give visitors a more satisfying 
experience and give them a starting point for finding their own 
sense of what makes the Park special. You’ll also be helping 
your organisation or business meet its aims. 


More and more people are coming here looking for the qualities that make the Park unique. The themes 
in this document make the idea of the Cairngorms National Park a reality, and all the places within the Park 
can find stories that illustrate them. You may only need to make small changes to the way you plan and 
deliver your interpretation to put your site, your story, the experience you offer, in the context of the Park. 

Do it your way

Image:  colour photo of visitors with a guide

This document is intended as guidance, not a rigid set of rules and regulations. It 
does not set out any single method for planning and delivering interpretation in 
the Park. The point of working with Park-wide themes is not to have a uniform 
approach across the Park: that would work against the very qualities of authenticity 
that so many visitors are looking for. This approach to collectively revealing the 
special qualities of the Park relies on you going through your own planning process, 
coming up with your own site themes and presenting them in your own style, with 
your enthusiasm. 

What it does ask of you is that you consider how being part of a National Park 
might affect your audience, how it can add value and significance to your story and 
how you can illuminate the bigger picture of the Park through the themes you use 
and the stories you tell. 


PAGE 37

Planning your interpretation 

Different people think about things in different ways. And different issues or aims require different approaches. There is no 
perfectly logical sequence of steps for planning your interpretation scheme, but there are a few common starting points. 

This flowchart – adapted from A Sense of Place, an Interpretive Planning Handbook (James Carter, ed., 2001) – illustrates some of 
the things you may want to consider when thinking about those starting points in the context of the Park. 

What do you want your 
interpretation to do? 

The words ‘National Park’ carry a 
lot of weight. If you want visitors 
to feel your place is special, to 
care for and respect it, then 
linking yourself to the Park’s 
international status can add 
credence and authority.


Who comes to your site, 
and why?

People are increasingly coming to 
‘the Cairngorms National Park’. 
They expect experiences and
information that will give them a 
sense of what the National Park is
all about.  You can meet those
expectations.


What have you got? 

Together, the features of the 
National Park are often nationally
important and hugely impressive. 
Seeing the features of your site or 
the story you have to tell as part 
of a greater whole can add real 
significance and meaning. 


What are your themes? 

Linking your site themes to Park wide ones roots the stories you tell in their 
setting – making memorable, distinctive experiences that visitors can’t get 
anywhere else, all contributing to a growing, authentic and powerful sense 
of place. 


What are you going to do? 

No flow chart or diagram can give you the ‘right’ answer, either to good interpretation or to interpretation that highlights 
the National Park. Good interpretation always needs creativity, based on the thinking you’ve done about the questions 
above. As you create your interpretation, ask yourself the following questions: 

• Will this help people appreciate what makes the National Park so special? 

• Will this help people see this site or story as part of an area with a distinct character and coherent identity? 

• Is this a story that couldn’t be told anywhere else? 

If you can answer ‘Yes’ to these three questions, you’ve got the makings of a great project! 



PAGE 38

Working with this guidance 

Linking to Park-wide themes

The four key themes in this document are the big ideas or concepts that describe the character of the 
whole of the Park. The key themes have been built up through, and are supported by, a number of subthemes: 
smaller, more discrete components of the Park’s character and identity. 

Many different people who work on interpretation in the Park helped to develop this guide. They 
described the common heritage of the area in lots of different ways, some relating to particular periods in 
history, others to particular habitats and species. Each of these can stand in their own right as sub-themes. 
They are still Park-wide themes because they describe shared characteristics of the whole Park, and you 
can use them in the same way as a key theme. Because they have a narrower focus it may sometimes be 
easier to think of how your site themes can illustrate or link to them. 

You can link your site theme to either a key theme or a sub-theme, whichever is most appropriate for your 
site, and your visitor. Not all of your site themes need to link to the Park, but you’ll probably find that most 
of them can. For instance, using the example of Ruthven Barracks on page 25, here are some ways the site 
themes could link to Park-wide ones: 

Key Theme 
The Park is a rich cultural landscape. 
Separated by the great bulk of the 
mountains, different areas have their 
own distinct identity and cultural 
traditions, but they share deep 
connections to the same environments. 
The Park is a place of mountain folk and 
forest folk. 

Site Theme 
Ruthven was built to control one of 
the passes through the Cairngorm 
mountains. Those passes had been 
used for centuries, and a nearby Iron 
Age fort probably had exactly the 
same purpose. 

Sub Theme 
Ancient routes, droving trails and 
military roads were once busy 
thoroughfares for a thriving economy, 
linking different communities. Political 
and economic power in the area 
depended on controlling these routes. 

Site Theme 
The government needed a strong 
garrison here after the Jacobite 
uprising in 1715. The Cairngorm 
mountains were strongholds of 
particularly powerful clans, with a 
strong sense of independence. 


Site Theme (site specific only)
Ruthven saw both heroic deeds and tragic 
despair during the Jacobite campaign. 



PAGE 39

Variations on a theme 

Here are some of the Park-wide concepts that emerged during the development of the guide, and that 
formed the building blocks of the four key themes. Of course these aren’t the end of the tale. You may 
well be able to come up with other sub-themes, other ideas that link the Park together, which you can 
use to support the four key themes and paint the bigger picture of the Park in people’s minds. 

• The high mountain tops are more like the Arctic than the rest of Scotland.They create the largest
such area in the UK, home to plants and animals at the limit of their range in Europe, and therefore 
vulnerable. 

• The geology and geomorphology of the National Park is world class.The combination of the broad 
rolling plateaux, largely untouched during the last Ice Age, and more recent glacial features is unique 
in Britain. Together they comprise an outstanding collection of landforms. 

• The great forests of the Cairngorms National Park areas essential to the Park’s character as the
mountains. They have ebbed and flowed around the mountains with changing political and economic 
tides; and now form the largest area of native woodland in Britain. 

• The mountains and forests create an environment (including both landscape and human elements) that
has as much in common with Scandinavia, Russia and Canada as with the rest of the UK. 

• Ancient routes, droving trails and military roads were once busy thoroughfares for a thriving economy,
linking different communities. Political and economic power in the area depended on controlling these 
routes. 

• There is a strong tradition of people enjoying the National Park. The variety of landscapes and breadth
of leisure choice they offer has long attracted visitors to the Cairngorms. Now the Park is an inspiring 
home to modern adventure sports like mountaineering, skiing and mountain biking. 

• Landowners, trying to modernise the economy of their estates, changed the way people lived and the
landscapes they lived in during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some built planned villages as 
experiments in ‘model’ settlements; others evicted their tenants with little care for their future. 

• The Victorians’ love of the Highlands and of field sports changed the face of the National Park.
They left a living legacy of distinctive buildings and vast areas of heather moorland. 


PAGE 40

Put it into practice

Here are a few examples of how the Park’s key themes might influence interpretation. 

Bringing the mountains home 

Image:  colour photo of boulders on a plateau

The theme ‘the Park’s mountains are unique, and have influenced 
everything around them’ (Key theme 1) could be the central focus of 
an evening talk by a Ranger to a coach party staying in a hotel. The 
Ranger might show dramatic images of the different landscape features 
in the Park, talk about how the mountains’ great bulk and height 
influences everything around them, and tell some personal stories 
about their own favourite mountain trips. 

Or… a restaurant owner could use the theme as a starting point for 
the way they decorate their dining room. They might put stunning 
photographs or paintings on the walls, and design a menu with graphic 
elements that reflect the mountain shapes. They might even name 
some dishes after well-known mountain tops. 

The story of the trees 

Image:  colour photo of tree-lined hillside with snow-covered mountains in the distance

Visitors to the Mar Lodge estate often remark on the beauty of the 
native pine woods, but they’re also interested in the story of how 
the National Trust for Scotland is encouraging more natural regrowth. 
Key theme 2, about how the Park’s habitats and wildlife are 
exceptional, is relevant here. There’s an opportunity to mention how 
the estate’s forests are just part of the largest area of native woodland 
in Britain. You could also suggest a visit to other places where they’ll 
get a sense of the Park’s woodland, like Nethy Bridge or Glen Tanar. 



PAGE 41

Image:  colour photo of a Sir Edwin Landseer painting depicting the Victorians hunting in the mountains

Follow that carriage 

Rothiemurchus Estate’s new interpretation strategy suggests a low key 
approach that complements visitors’ enjoyment of the place: people 
coming to Loch an Eilein aren’t expecting to learn anything, they just 
want a picnic or a walk in one of the Park’s most famous beauty spots. 
Just like the Duchess of Bedford in fact. In the nineteenth century, she 
built the path that today’s visitors follow round the loch, although she 
drove round in a carriage. And the loch was just as romantic then 
as it is now: the Duchess’s lover, the famous painter Sir Edwin 
Landseer, was often a guest on her picnics. This is a great story of 
this particular place that can add to visitors’ experience, and it’s a 
wonderful way to illustrate key themes 3 and 4: about the Park’s 
cultural history, and the passion for the place that’s been a common 
thread for centuries. 

Get inspired 

Image:  Cairngorms National Park brand outline

The best way to use the themes in this guide is as inspiration. Try this, and look at the example on the next 
two pages: 

• Look through sections 2 to 5 of this guide. 

• Write down each of the key themes on a separate piece of paper, in the centre of the page. 

• Go through each sheet, and jot down around each key theme the features of your work or site that 
can link to that theme. Some themes will be more relevant than others – that’s fine. 

• Think about how you could use these features in the stories you tell so that they illustrate the most 
relevant themes, and add value to visitors’ experience. What aspects of your place, or your stories, 
mean that they couldn’t be anywhere else but in the Cairngorms National Park? 

• If you’re having difficulty doing this at a desk, go for a walk round your site with the theme that appeals 
most to you in your mind. Notice which features remind you of the theme, or could be used to 
reinforce it in visitors’ minds. 

• Find your own way to express the themes: don’t just copy them word for word and reproduce them in 
your publications, exhibitions, or conversations. Each section in this guide takes a theme as a starting point, 
and uses facts, carefully chosen images, and other materials to bring it to life – you need to do the same. 



PAGE 42 

Working with this guidance 

Images:  handwritten notes and ideas

Shared characteristics -
same forest
mountain backdrop
planned town
forestry
social recreation

this place is more 
closely associated with
field sports than
anything else

Shops on high st
- clothes people wear
- landrovers & dogs
- fishing rods on cars
- muirburn all round
- local produce


The Park is a rich cultural landscape. Separated by the great bulk of the 
mountains, different areas have their own distinct identity and cultural 
traditions, but they share deep connections to the same environments. 
The Park is a place of ‘Mountain folk’ and ‘Forest folk’.


not sure about this? 
– skiing in winter 
– transhumance/
bothies? 
– ‘outdoor’ pursuits? 

this place is closely
connected to forest,
hills and river 

planned town
 - granite buildings 
‘strategic’ place
- mountain pass
- railway
- drove roads
- battle

reasons for 
development
= close links with 
land use 
– role of forestry? 


Walks/
trails 

river 
fishinghuts 
peoplefishing(seasonal) 

woodland: 
– iconic 
wildlife 
– plantation 
and 
‘natural’ 
– old logging
camp 

viewpoint: 
– location of village 
in forest, by river etc 
– extent of forest 
– muirburn 



 PAGE 43

INFORMATION 
BOARD 
map of CNP with village 
highlighted 
map showing drove roads, 
railways etc. 


EVENTS PROGRAMME 
– A day in the life of (with?)
a gamekeeper/ghillie 
– stalking/shooting opportunities? 
fishing 
– storytelling at old logging camp 
– celebration of village’s ‘birthday’ 
(costumed/themed event) 


TOWN TRAIL 
– blue plaques on significant buildings 
–1/2hr - 1hr for coach pary audience 
– audio tour + leaflet 
– tour led by village’s founder? 
– include viewpoint 


Sculpture bench (es)

Image:  outline sketch of a man sitting on a bench with his dog sitting at his feet

– at viewpoint
overlooking
muirburn
or in
village? 
– other benches: 
fisherman by river 


Image:  Yellow stickie note
NB + get people to touch granite 
+ at viewpoint “if you were 
a squirrel how far do you think 
you could get before touching 
the ground” 


‘Kitted out’ fishing hut 
(might not be able to leave 
open, maybe windows to
peer in? Bothy as well? 

Image:  outline drawing of two fish

metal fish in pavement 
leading to river heights board 



PAGE 44

Next steps

If you’re thinking about an interpretation project, there are lots of 
places to go for more ideas and for help to develop your thinking. 

Image:  colour version of Cairngorms National Park brand 

Cairngorms National Park Brand 

The Cairngorms National Park Brand represents the landscape, 
its people and the experiences it offers. It is designed to create 
a strong identity for the National Park, helping to foster a sense of 
common identity and present one of Scotland’s most special places 
consistently. It is not the logo of the Park Authority. It is an emblem 
for a place, not for an organisation. Therefore it is yours to use, because 
you are the Park. 

National Parks are an internationally recognised family of world class 
destinations, associated with outstanding landscapes and high quality, 
environmentally sustainable visitor experiences. The Cairngorms 
National Park is building itself such a reputation: using the brand is a 
simple and effective way of letting your customers and visitors know 
that you are part of it. 

The Park Authority encourages businesses, organisations and 
associations who meet the values associated with the brand to 
use it whenever it is practical and appropriate, subject to meeting 
eligibility criteria. You can find out more at: 
www.cairngorms.co.uk 

Cairngorms Connections 

An online training course designed for anyone working with visitors 
to the Park. It covers essential knowledge about the Park’s heritage, 
as well as information on tourism businesses and opportunities. The 
course is run by Tourist Board Training, and you can find more details 
through the VisitScotland website at: www.scotexchange.net 

The Cairngorms National Park Authority 

The CNPA will do everything it can to encourage interpretation that 
builds a sense of the Park as a whole. The Authority’s Interpretation 
Officer can help you develop your project; there’s also a small grants 
programme that may be able to give financial support. 
www.cairngorms.co.uk 


PAGE 45

Guidance on interpretation

These free, web-based sources have a lot of good material giving 
more detail about interpretation, and about specific skills like writing 
text for exhibitions. 

Scottish Natural Heritage: Introducing interpretation 
A series of well-planned web pages. 
www.snh.org.uk 

A Sense of Place 
A handbook on interpretive planning that explains the process clearly 
and simply. 
www.greentourism.org.uk/publications.html 

Museums Galleries Scotland 
MGS produce a series of factsheets about interpretation designed for 
small museums, but relevant to many other situations. 
www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk 

Interpret Scotland 
An informal grouping of Scottish organisations with an interest in 
interpretation. IS publishes an email-based journal, and back copies 
are available from its website. 
www.interpretscotland.org.uk 

The Association for Heritage Interpretation 
The United Kingdom’s membership and networking organisation for 
interpreters. AHI runs events, including an annual conference, and 
publishes a regular magazine. 
www.ahi.org.uk 

Feedback 

We’d love to hear your feedback on this approach to interpreting 
the Cairngorms National Park. Please send your thoughts, ideas and 
suggestions to: 

Cairngorms National Park Authority 
14 The Square, Grantown-on-Spey 
Morayshire, PH26 3HG 
T: 01479 873 535 
E: enquiries@cairngorms.co.uk 


PAGE 46

Acknowledgements & Credits

Further  reading

If you’d like more details about the National Park and the themes described in this guidance, 
these suggestions should get you started. 

At the heart of the Park 

Desmond Nethersole-Thompson and Adam Watson: The Cairngorms – Their Natural History and Scenery (1974) 

Adam Watson: The Cairngorms - Scottish Mountaineering Club District Guide (Scottish Mountaineering Trust 1992) 

Scottish Natural Heritage: Cairngorms, A Landscape Fashioned by Geology (Scottish Natural Heritage 2006) 

DVD/Video: Hamish MacInnes, director: Where Eagles Fly – The Roof of Scotland. 


Special places for wildlife 

Seton Gordon: The Cairngorm Hills of Scotland (Cassell 1925) 

Mark Hamblin and Peter Cairns: Wild Land: A Photographic Journey Through the Cairngorms (Birlinn 2008) 

Philip Shaw and D B A Thompson (eds): The Nature of the Cairngorms (The Stationery Office 2006) 


People of the Park 

David Duff (ed): Queen Victoria’s Highland Journals (Hamlyn 1997) 

William Forsyth: In the Shadow of Cairngorm: Chronicles of the United Parishes of Abernethy and Kincardine (1900) (Kessinger 
Publishing 2008) 

Ann Glen: The Cairngorm Gateway (Scottish Cultural Press 2000) 

Affleck Gray: Legends of the Cairngorms (Mainstream Publishing 1988) 

Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus: Memoirs of a Highland Lady (Canongate 1988) 

A R B Haldane: The Drove Roads of Scotland (1952) and New Ways through the Glens (1962) 

Historic Scotland: A Selection of the Cairngorms National Park’s Architectural Heritage (Historic Scotland 2007) 

Ian Murray: In the Shadow of Lochnagar (1992) 

T.C. Smout & R.A. Lambert: Rothiemurchus: Nature and People on a Highland Estate, 1500 – 2000 (Scottish Cultural Press 1999) 


A passion for the place 

Dave Brown and Ian R Mitchell: Mountain Days and Bothy Nights (Luath Press 2008) 

Jim Crumley: A High and Lonely Place – The Sanctuary and Plight of the Cairngorms (Whittles Publishing 2000) 

J I Hall: Fishing a Highland Stream – A Love Affair with a River (1987) 

M M Marshall: Glen Feshie The History and Archaeology of a Highland Glen (2005) 

Syd Scroggie: The Cairngorms Seen and Unseen (Scottish Mountaineering Trust 1989) 

Nan Shepherd: The Living Mountain (Aberdeen University Press 1977) 



PAGE 47

A large print versoin of this document is available on request.
Telephone: 01479 873 535

This document has been produced by the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) on behalf of, and with support from, 
the people that make up the Cairngorms National Park. 

Aberdeenshire Council 
Angus Council 
Aviemore and the Cairngorms Destination Management Organisation 
CairnGorm Mountain Ltd 
Cairngorms Chamber of Commerce 
The Crown Estate 
Forestry Commission Scotland 
Highlands and Islands Enterprise 
Glen Tanar Charitable Trust 
The Highland Council 
Historic Scotland 
The Moray Council 
National Trust for Scotland 
Rothiemurchus Estate 
Royal Deeside and the Cairngorms Destination Management Organisation 
Royal Society for the Protection Birds 
Scottish Natural Heritage 
Wild Scotland 
VisitScotland 


With particular thanks to the steering group for the project: 
Murray Ferguson, CNPA. Andy Ford, CNPA. Julie Forrest, Scottish Natural Heritage 
Fred Gordon, Aberdeenshire Council. Bob Jones, Forestry Commission Scotland. Bill Taylor 

Text: James Carter, interpretation consultant www.jamescarter.cc 

Content development: James Carter and Andy Ford, CNPA 

Design: StudioLR 

Thank you to all those who helped to develop this document through workshops and interviews, and especially to the people 
featured in the Personal Views: Peter Cairns, Bill Marshall, Cameron McNeish, Heather Morning, Alan Rankin and Eoin Smith. 

Photographs: Ballater Historic Forestry Project, Saranne Bish, CairnGorm Mountain, CNPA/Stewart Grant, Peter Cairns, James 
Carter, Glenlivet Estate, D. Habron, Mark Hickens, Highland Folk Museum, Jimmy Mitchell, David Newland, RSPB, Peter Scott, 
Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Viewpoint, Paul Tomkins, Rachel Wignall, Kenny Williamson, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, 
VisitScotland. 

Maps, pages 13 and 25: © Ashworth Maps and Interpretation Ltd 2008. Maps are based upon Ordnance Survey Material 
with the permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationary Office © Crown Copyright. 
Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Cairngorms National 
Park Authority license no. 100040965, 2008. © Scottish Government. 

ISBN: 978-1-906071-02-8 

Published by Cairngorms National Park Authority 2008 



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