The Dùthchas Award

The Cairngorms Dùthchas Award is an exciting outdoor learning award inspiring people to love, learn about, and look after the National Park.

Encouraging young people to learn about the National Park and do something practical to look after it, the award fosters long-term care for this special place. The free and flexible scheme is open to children as young as three, throughout school years and beyond.

The award is rooted in four key elements, and activities should be based around these. Once you have chosen your place (or places) - whether that is your local woods, a community garden, village or entire National Park - it's time to think a bit more about these elements, and the activities you might create to explore them.

• Connect to your chosen place, learning facts about the natural and cultural heritage of the area, what makes it special, and how it has been shaped over the years.
• Care for your chosen place by doing something practical to look after it, whether that is organising a litter pick or making a poster about the local wildlife.
• Share stories, finding out about folklore tales or myths from history, or even creating your own.
• Inspire other people by learning about and celebrating local heroes or famous people who have made a difference in your chosen place and taken action to look after their environment.

Participation in the award should mostly take place in the outdoors, in the Cairngorms National Park, and include engaging with the human stories, traditions, folklore and culture of the area. Some indoor time for planning, researching and creating stories will be needed, and that can take place anywhere. 

Achieving the award 

The Dùthchas Award is a time based commitment with four levels available. Progress through the levels is marked by a certificate of achievement. Time spent adds up, so the four days that you spend achieving the first level goes towards the eight days you need to achieve the second. 

As you progress through the levels, your activity might see you explore other places further away in the National Park, or even go on an expedition or overnight stay! 

To achieve the award, participants must:

• Complete all of the elements
• Meet the required time commitment for chosen award level
• Have engaged with enthusiasm and motivation

Registering for the Award

Complete the registration form to let us know who you are, what place in the National Park you have chosen, and how you hope to complete the four elements of the award.

This will be sent to our team, who will take a look and get back to you within a week with any advice, guidance or support, and then you can get going. If you'd like, we'll even send you a Dùthchas Award journal to record your journey!

Record your journey

From the moment you start working on the award, make sure you are recording what have learned, and adding up the time that you have spent. There's no right or wrong way to do this, and you can be creative and write stories, draw art, make posters or videos to share the time you have devoted to each of the themes. Save all of this work in a folder online or offline, it will come in handy if you want to share it with others, or if you choose to organise an event to celebrate your hard work.

Award completion

Once you have completed your journey and fulfilled the time commitment, send in an award completion form to receive your certificates and celebrate your success!