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The Cairngorms National Park Junior Ranger Project

Kingussie High School Junior Rangers with a leech
The Cairngorms National Park Junior Ranger Project is an exciting, fun and adventurous outdoor learning programme for young people aged 11–18 years, with monthly sessions running in both Badenoch & Strathspey and Deeside. It’s a collaborative project run by the family of ranger services across the area, meaning Junior Rangers get a chance to explore a wide variety of wild places across the Cairngorms, meeting lots of great people along the way.

We run a five day Junior Ranger week annually with local high schools and teachers, with the aim of better connecting young people to nature through practical conservation work, canoeing, cycling and meeting a huge range of rural workers such as rangers, deer stalkers and foresters. Junior Ranger participants work towards their John Muir Discovery award and deliver a short talk or video on their week to parents, partners and peers.

We also run a monthly programme that is not linked to the high schools – anyone aged 11-18 can come along to the monthly sessions, and we regularly check in with the Junior Rangers for insights and ideas on how we shape the programme going forward.

Take a look at what the Junior Rangers get up to in the photos below.

Discovering nature

Kingussie High School Junior Rangers with a leech!

River adventures

Canoeing down the Spey. An active day for the Kingussie Junior Rangers!

Testing the equipment

Trying out the binoculars funded by the Cairngorms Youth LAG Fund.

Getting artistic

Taking time to appreciate nature through art. It helps a lot if it’s not raining!

Making plans

Speyside Junior Rangers helping to plan the upcoming summer camp. Here they successfully applied to the NatureScot Future Routes Fund.

Working together

Speyside Junior Rangers help the Cairngorm Mountain Rangers with path maintenance.

Green Health Day

Speyside High Junior Rangers out foraging on a Green Health Day in their Junior Ranger Week.

Ant appreciation!

Deeside & Speyside Junior Rangers getting together in Abernethy Forest.

Seeking shelter

Deeside Junior Rangers take shelter under a bothy bag!

Studying the smaller things

Deeside Junior Rangers looking at water invertebrates. The natural world is fascinating!

Setting traps

Setting up camera traps is great fun.

Meeting new friends

Junior Rangers get to go behind the scenes at the farm on Rothiemurchus.

Working together

Ranger Services across the National Park are a key part of the delivery of the project.

If you know someone 11-18 who lives locally and might like to join in with the Cairngorms National Park Junior Ranger project, all the joining information can be found by heading to our Junior Ranger page or find our page on social media for updates:

Junior Rangers Facebook

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