All of the reindeer in our herd are great, of course. But the reindeer we usually shout about are the big breeding bulls, the sweet little calves, a trusty Christmas reindeer or a female who stands out from the rest. In today’s blog I’m going to chat about some of our old girls. They have bred some wonderful calves over the years and guided the herd around the vast Cairngorm Mountains teaching the younger females along the way. Now they are too old to breed so now they live their life on the free range for about 90% of the year as there is no reason for them to be in our mountain enclosure which we use for management purposes such as calving or the rutting season. The 10% they do come into our enclosure is for routine vaccines and check-ups.
These old girls are: Fern (aged 17), Sika (16), Sambar (16), Gazelle (16), Ibex (16), Pavlova (15), Oatcake (15), Ryvita (15) and Hobnob (15). Although they don’t look quite as spritely as they did a few years ago, equally, they don’t look like they’re going anywhere in the near future.
Fern – September 2024. Look at all that yummy lichen beneath her feet. She knows all the best grazing spots in the hills. Officially the oldest reindeer in the herd.Sika was in our enclosure for a short while in the autumn. Here she is licking her lips at the sight of a white bag! She’s very shy, but in more recent years has discovered what a white bag contains, although she remains one of the few reindeer who are uncatchable whilst out in the hills!Sika leading the free range herd in April 2024 – what a life!Catching up with Sambar whilst she free ranges in August 2024. She’s a sweet-natured lass and it’s always a joy to see her!Cameron on a retrieval mission – bringing home 16 year olds Gazelle and Ibex. They’re looking good for old girls and have moulted most of their old winter coats and are in their short summer coats.Gazelle in September 2024 – looking very smart and in good condition. She’s the mother of 3 of our wonderful ‘Christmas reindeer’ – Aztec, Athens, and Adzuki! Ibex also looking fab in September 2024! She is a granny of Nile and Camomile thanks to daughter Flax.Hobnob and daughter Mushy – January 2024. Hobnob is a mother and granny, so her good gentics are in the herd for hopefully many years to come.Sika and Hobnob in December 2024, free ranging together.Oatcake in January 2024. We’re hoping Oatcake may become a granny in the spring, thanks to her daughter Lolly! Fingers crossed.Pavlova in January 2024, look at her epic antlers!Pavlova in May 2012 being followed by her newborn calf who we later named Torch. Torch is a fantastic mum thanks to Torch’s son Morse, who we used as a breeding bull, Pavlova’s genetics will live on in our herd! Torch’s daughter Sunflower is now also a breeding female too.
The oldest reindeer we’ve ever had in the herd got to 19 years old and Fern is only 4 months from her 18th birthday so she’s doing amazingly. She’s such a sweet old lady and a firm favourite amongst us herders. Then there are 4 others hot on her heels at only 1 year younger. 2008 must have been a pretty special year with strong genetics to have this many getting to such a good age. Then we have 2009 when we named the reindeer after cakes biscuits and puddings and we still have four females from that year. Ryvita recently has been acting granny as a couple of months ago she landed herself with a small herd of young females who where on the free range with her but I’m sure she kept them all in check. She was certainly boss, and quite right too!
Ryvita being Ryvita in December 2024, breaking into our feed bag!Old girl Ryvita with a herd of younsters including Solero, Shannon, and Mochi.
Considering reindeer live on average 12-14 years these cows are doing just great! I always think if a reindeer gets to over 10 years old they are doing well as they live such a harsh life especially in the middle of winter. Winters in Scotland aren’t quite as harsh as those across the world where other reindeer herds live so I suspect as a result we have a higher average age in our herd.
So cheers to the old girls in our herd. What a wonderful bunch of reindeer you are and thanks for being the role models to the youngsters following in your hoof prints.
A special mention goes to the lovely Okapi, who sadly passed away recently. She got to 16 years old and spent the vast majority of her life free roaming in the hills. She was always delighted to see a feed bag and was one of our reliable girls we could always catch out and help us move the free ranging reindeer around. She’ll be missed!
Much to Ruth’s despair I am not the best herder when it come to taking pictures of our days on the hill and I most often forget! So, I’ve accumulated a blog of some pictures that I’ve snapped over the last year and will have to apologise in advance as the reindeer sometimes aren’t the main focus.
10th January 2024 – Sheena and Ruth on the winter free range looking towards the Northern Corries (waiting for reindeer) where we enjoyed the most beautiful winter sun.Borlotti on the same day (10th of January).Morven again on the same day, it was a good un!
As some of you guys will know through the winter our Hill Trips head out to see the reindeer whilst they’re out on the mountains “free ranging” and part of our job in the morning is to hike out to the herd and move them closer so our visitors don’t have to walk as far. Here’s a few pictures from a couple of those outings.
Over this week, the reindeer were frequenting the same spot so there were a few mornings we walked out to the same spot looking for the herd. Moments before the first image, Ruth and I were at a loss as we were sure that we should have been in the spot that the reindeer were meant to be and still couldn’t see them.
Retrieval mission of the free rangers for the Hill Trip. I was amazed here at how comfortable the reindeer were on such a steep icy slope in crazy winds – 8th of March 2024.Free range retrieval mission for the Hill Trip – Merida walking towards the camera – 13th March 2024.
There is quite a large jump now to the next picture which was taken in August. During the end of the summer, we keep an eye out for cows and calves that are coming down off the mountain after free ranging. The next picture was taken whilst we were moving a small group closer to our hill enclosure.
15th August 2024 – Cows and calves are returning from the summer free range like Flax and Camomile here.It’s not all about reindeer we try to get creative for birthday cards too! Ginger posing to be incorporated in Sheena’s birthday – 25th of August 2024.
At the end of the summer, we also try to catch up with the older cows too, who often are found in smaller groups. During this “free range” mission I was able to catch up with retirees Hobnob and Fern.
28th of August – Hobnob looking good with lots of lichen beneath her feet!28th of August – Fern, the current oldest reindeer in our herd at 16.5 years old!
Kernel was one of the first bulls to strip his velvet which was a gruesome sight. In the second picture you can see Kernel and Jimmy having a ‘play’ spar with freshly stripped antlers. You can also see how quickly the velvet falls off the antlers as the first picture was taken in the morning and the second on the afternoon Hill Trip of the same day.
31st of August – Kernel beginning to strip the velvet.Later the same day – Kernel and Jimmy sparring mid Hill Trip.1st of September – Enjoying some time with the dream team Alba and Winnie after one of our Hill Trips. Here’s Winnie looking lovely as ever.1st of September – and here’s Alba with a mucky nose!5th of September – Holy Moley in the process of stripping her velvet and has decided to accessorise.12th of September – Like mother, like son. Helsinki and Irish enjoying a snooze after one of our Hill Trips.14th of September – I headed out to see if any other cows and calves had joined up with a group of females that we were monitoring out on the free range, and found Florence and her son, Cuppa. They were the last pair to come back into our enclosure after free ranging.11th of October – The rut has started, and we have Kernel here with some of his girls. At the front is Glacée.
September is a beautiful time of year. The weather has been completely mixed this year – we’ve had the first snow on the plateau and then HOT summery temperatures! The reindeer also look fantastic with fully grown antlers and fresh winter coats growing through.
We’ve been doing lots of free range missions to bring in the cows and their calves which is always fun. The bulls and cows have been stripping the velvet and getting a wee bit more feisty and hormonal in preparation for the upcoming rut.
The calves have also been given a name but as always we don’t post any names online until our adopters have their newsletters. Maybe by next month’s photo blog!
I’m running away on holiday for the last week of September hence the photos stopping a wee bit early this month. I’ve selected a few more on other days to make up for it though! 😉
2nd of September: Cassie heading up to feed the free rangers, Dante looking back at the camera.3rd of September: Out on a free range mission! Came across 6 cows all looking super! It wasn’t going to be possible to move them by myself so I called for back-up from Reindeer House. Whilst I was waiting for Lisette to get to me, Juniper and I had a little rest!9th of September: Christie and her calf both looking great! Christie is a fairly phenomenal lass – she’s now had 4 big beautiful boys in a row and has enough extra energy to grow a super set of antlers.9th of September: Found these three gorgeous free rangers on the road so took them up to a nice spot away so as not to cause a traffic jam! From L to R we have Borlotti, Shannon and Turtle.11th of September: The first two faces I see on the hill – what a lovely way to start the day! Morse and Dr Seuss.11th of September: Morven looking good after a couple of years off motherhood. She’s grown her usual lovely set of antlers and will hopefully run with a bull this autumn.11th of September: Flax and her calf.12th of September: Isla and Cassie feeding the calves out of the bags. We do this to give the calves an extra bit of food before the greedy adults eat it all, and also to get them nice and tame the quickest way possible!12th of September: Flax starting to strip the velvet (see her pic from the day before!).12th of September: Our regular volunteer Emm leading Cowboy and Mivvi back into the hill enclosure. 13th of September: Sika is 16 years old, one of the oldest in the herd. She’s never had an adopter in her life until very recently!! She’s actually very shy but in recent years has cottoned on to the contents of our white feed bags. This is her licking her lips at the very thought of it!13th of September: Holy Moley decided to grace us with her presence. She was out free roaming but popped into the enclosure with a bunch of other cows looking for a free lunch!13th of September: It was a busy day for me. After the morning Hill Trip I went out on a reindeer retrieval mission! This is the gorgeous Fern. She’s 17 and the current oldest member of our herd.16th of September: Torch’s lovely calf chilling out in the sun!16th of September: Volunteer Emm and some of lovely ‘single ladies’! Mississippi, Scully (who may be Emm’s favourite in the herd but don’t tell the others that), Zambezi, and Nuii.17th of September: Athens looking very handsome!17th of September: Calves feeding out of the bag at the start of a Hill Trip.19th of September: A hot day when you’re in your winter coat! Adzuki cooling himself down by standing in a bog.22nd of September: Christie leading the herd out of the mist. To her right is Feta’s calf and Beanie.22nd of September: Feta’s calf is a chunky lad – he’s a lovely friendly lad.
April has flown by. The first half of the month busy with the Easter holidays. We’ve had some wonderful Hill Trips both out on the free range and also in our hill enclosure here on Cairngorm. Although not much spring weather it has to be said.
The second half of the month was busy with moving reindeer around getting them in the right places for the fast-approaching calving season. Most pregnant females have been brought into our hill enclosure now and the “single ladies” (the old girls, young girls, or ones having a year off motherhood) were put back out to free range. We’ve also brought the first males back into the enclosure after their winter free ranging at our second site. Lovely to see some of the boys back.
The office has also been busy as always – my jobs have included newsletter preparation, working on adoption packs, preparing the 2025 reindeer calendar (wahoo – it’s just gone to print), trying to up our social media game, sorting emails, drinking tea…
It’s been a fun month watching antlers casting and growing, and bellies widen on our pregnant females. Bring on the first calf of 2024!
2nd of April: Moving the herd with Lisette at the back doing a wonderful job as ‘sheep dog’!3rd of April: Danube with her tongue out!5th of April: Juniper and Sundae in a blizzard!6th of April: Fern and Okapi soon to be 17 and 16 years old respectively are the first over at the feed bag!8th of April: Sunshine!! A rare sight this month. Moving the herd into position for our Hill Trip.15th of April: Dr Seuss is back in the enclosure after a winter free ranging in the hills. He’s clearly feeling snoozy after the Hill Trip. He takes his role as chief hand-feeder incredibly seriously!17th of April: Sunny (our hand-reared calf from 2022) was back in the hill enclosure for a short while and followed me back to the gate just like he used to as a young calf!16th of April: These 11-month-old calves get to feed out of the bag for another month before they turn into “yearlings”. Orinoco is the cutie closest to camera. 18th of April: Mushy, Spy, Dante, Ladybird, Sambar and Sunny.22nd of April: Sherlock looking handsome with those big velvet antlers.23rd of April: A lovely morning with Tilly on the hill. 24th of April: I headed over to the farm to help Tilly with a farm tour. Lovely to see some of the boys I haven’t seen much of this winter, like Druid here!24th of April: The lovely Hemp!
March has been a good month on the whole. The reindeer have all been roaming freely over two sites. Here on Cairngorm, we’ve been running our daily Hill Trips at 11am each morning. At the beginning of a work day we divide the duties up and generally we all take it in turns to either head out to find the reindeer and move them to a suitable location for the Hill Trip or we take the Hill Trip itself. I complained at the start of this month that I wasn’t feeling as fit as I usually am at this time of year as the reindeer have been sticking relatively close by meaning the morning walk out has been easy. Maybe they heard me, as for a good few weeks this month the reindeer became deaf to our calls and made us walk right up to them which gave me the workout I was looking for, especially when they decided to hang out at a height of around 900m each night. They usually don’t start being that sluggish until we approach the end of April and the pregnant females start showing their wide bellies. That being said, when we finally get to them, it always impresses me how willing they are to do as we ask. I’ve had some super mornings out with the herd this month and hopefully this will you give you a taste of it!
1st of March: Sorbet having a lie-down after a Hill Trip. She’ll be two in the spring, and her cheeky character is really starting to shine.2nd of March: Holy Moley in the snow, posing like the TV star she is!3rd of March: Feta with antlers! Since this photo was taken she’s cast them and are sadly yet to be found.7th of March: One of the twins! This is Elbe, since he’s cast his wee antlers he looks remarkably like his twin sister Alba and I often have to do a double take.8th of March: The herd were very high up this morning, making me and Amy walk all the way up to them, pretending they couldn’t hear us calling them for breakfast. You can just see Amy gently pushing them from the back as I’m at the front doing my best to lure them downhill.12th of March: This time I’m ‘sheepdog’ at the back of the herd today whilst Cassie leads from the front as we get them into position for our 11am Hill Trip. 13th of March: 10-month-old calf Mekong with her lovely big ears and extra fuzzy face.14th of March: Building work update – the gabion baskets are now in place.17th of March: Pinto leading the herd, with her daughter Orinoco following just behind.19th of March: The herd in the distance moving (incredibly slowly) to our call. Cameron and I still had to walk out most of the way to them so we didn’t miss out out on our morning walk.19th of March: Nuii and her wonderful billowing beard! Nuii will be 2 years old in the spring but she’s so dinky she often gets mistaken for a calf.21st of March: Feeding the herd underneath a rainbow.22nd of March: Shannon and her mum Cheer. 10-month-old Shannon is a very greedy young lass and loves her food, however Cheer is one of the shiest members of our entire herd. Shannon therefore appears rather torn between her love of feed and her desire to copy her mum! As she gets older and her confidence will grow and I’m sure her franticness around a feedbag will calm down.25th of March (a): The free rangers were brought into the enclosure the day before so that this morning we could give everyone a routine health check and some of the herd a vaccination. This is Lolly and mum Oatcake leading the way down to breakfast after their temperature checks.25th of March (b): A trip to the farm in Glenlivet to help Tilly out give the reindeer there a routine health check. The reindeer looking at the camera is Cicero. It was great to see some of the boys again!26th of March: Lace already beginning to grow her antlers – go Lace! 26th of March: The herd were remarkable unfazed by their vaccinations so Andi and I let them out of the enclosure to go free roaming again – here’s Gloriana and old girl Fern leading the way. Fern looking amazing for almost 17!27th of March: Winter returns! Feeding the calves out of the bag to give them a wee bit of an extra boost.28th of March: Sundae pleading with me for more food – she makes it hard to resist.
Reindeer live about 12-14 years and anything over 10 years is doing well. The oldest reindeer in our herd is always changing, of course. The oldest reindeer we’ve ever had were two females called Trout and Tuna (guess the theme 😉) who got to 18, but they were beaten to the title by Lilac who reached 19 years old and then passed away the summer after. The oldest male we’ve ever had in our herd was Bagheera (17 years and 7 months), but Elvis – who we only lost last year – was extremely close to his record. These ages are exceptional though and we tend to find the average age for female reindeer is around 12-14 years old and males about 11-12 years old.
The oldest female we’ve ever had – Lilac in September 2017, then aged 18.The oldest male we’ve ever had – Elvis in September 2022, then aged 16.
At the moment in our herd we have two males both turning 15 in May, Caesar and Parfa. Our oldest female is lovely Fern who will be 17 in May. Caesar and Parfa both joined our herd in 2011 when we imported a number of male reindeer from Sweden to address our genetics. Fern, however, was born into our herd on the 5th May 2007. Her mum was also a lovely-natured reindeer called Sequin who, like her daughter, got to an old age so there must be some good genetics there!
Although we didn’t breed from Caesar and Parfa for one reason or another they have both been with our herd for many years as castrated males. They spend most of the year either on the winter free range at our Glenlivet site or during the summer months they join the other old boys on our hill farm where we supplement their feed. They are too old to do Christmas events now but have taken part in some over the years. They have timid natures and like to give us a good run around sometimes. They both look very individual with their big white patchy faces though Parfa is a bit bigger in the body than Caesar. Caesar has never been a very big reindeer, but what he lacks in size he certainly makes up for in character!
Emily training Caesar to eat from a bucket in Sweden before his move to the Cairngorms.Caesar in 2015 with a very fat bottom, clearly adjusted to life in Scotland well.Parfa still in Sweden in 2011, with Emily behind, whilst being tamed and trained for his move to Scotland.Parfa in September 2023 – looking good for an old boy!
Lovely, lovely Fern! What a cracking reindeer she is. She’s a daughter, mother, aunty, cousin… all of the above. She is Miss Reliable when out free ranging and if you need a nice friendly one to lead when moving the herd then she’s your gal! She is greedy but not pushy and she is beautiful. All in all, she’s a fab reindeer! But is she perfect?!?! Almost… over her younger years Fern took a liking to a part of the mountains which very much wasn’t our leased grazing land. Glenfeshie is pretty far away taking around 5-6 hours of walking over mountain ground or a 30 minute drive around the hill and walking for 1-2 hours from the other direction. Every autumn Fern would commandeer a small group of reindeer and this was where she decided to spend her autumns. We’d all role our eyes when we’d get a report of reindeer in Glenfeshie and could almost predict every time that Fern would be part of the group. She hasn’t done this as much over the past few years so maybe she’s learning slowly but surely. Currently she is part of our free range herd here on Cairngorm for the winter and a great talking point when we take our visitors out to see the reindeer as she looks amazing for her age. Now and again, she gets food stuck in her cheeks and she comes in looking like a hamster so maybe her teeth aren’t quite as good as they used to be. But we can’t fault her condition, she’s not skinny and has grown a beautiful set of antlers in 2023 which she still has in now in March.
Fern as a calf, next to her mum Sequin in 2007.Fern in April 2008 at 11 months old.Fern and her daughter Ladybird behind in January 2022.Fern in February 2024 – 3 months off turning 17.Fern’s bottom (closest to camera) being led away from one of her favourite hangouts and brought back home!!
So, there you have it. The three oldest reindeer in our herd at the moment – Fern, Caesar and Parfa.
A common question that we get asked on our Hill Trips is ‘how long do reindeer live for?’. The answer is usually anything between 11 – 15 years old with the females typically living a little longer than the males. The oldest reindeer we’ve ever had in our herd was a female called Lilac living to a grand old age of 19, while our oldest male Elvis is still currently living at 17 years old. The older generation in our herd have a pretty good life, the females spend almost the whole year free ranging on open mountain where they know all the best spots for grazing and where they can find the most peace. The older males do free-range on the hills for 3 – 4 months a year and then spend their days at our hill farm near Glenlivet, even with access to the hill they typically spend there time eating and sleeping but that’s totally fine by us. For me, some of the biggest characters in the herd are the older reindeer and even though I’ve only known them since 2017, I thought it would be nice to tell you a bit about some of my favourite females who are on the mature side of life.
Some of our golden oldies enjoying the free range – Diamond (aged 10), Sambar (15), Gazelle (15), Lulu (17), Silk (13) and Addax (15).
Fly – At 16 years old, Fly is the joint 4th oldest reindeer in our herd along with Fern. For years now she has come across as the natural leader and matriarch of the herd and will regularly be found leading the reindeer to a call or to the areas of best grazing. She’s always grown a cracking set of antlers too which have sometimes been the largest female set of the year and usually starts to grow her new set of antlers before any other female. Other herders have told me that Fly was quite an aloof reindeer when she was younger and even to this day she isn’t exactly tame, but she has maybe learned to trust us a bit more in recent years and will happily take handfeed from us now. Being such a big reindeer she’s unmistakable once you get to know them all as individuals and it’s always nice to see her doing so well at her age. These days she keeps herself on the outside of the bigger groups of reindeer not getting involved in the hustling and pushing of other aspiring females, but I feel like her presence is never missed. For her age Fly is in amazing condition and I hope that she can remain a key member of the herd for some time still.
Fly looking fierce! September 2022,Fly leading the herd – April 2023.
Fern – Fern was one of the first reindeer I ever got to know, and she’s got such a sweet and friendly character. Also 16 years old, she is once again looking amazing for her age and growing another great set of antlers. I sometimes think that reindeer can give a sense of calmness to people in the way they are so relaxed and docile, and no reindeer acts more like this than Fern. I do feel like I abuse her easy-going nature sometimes, whenever I’m in need of catching out a reindeer to help lead the herd or pair a reindeer up with one that needs to come off the hill, I can always rely on Fern to easily put a halter on and help out in such situations, she never seems to mind ands always does a wonderful job. A couple of years ago Fern also did something I’ve never seen another reindeer do and that was to take on another calf while also raising her own, Kiruna had lost his mother on the free-range, he was adopted by Fern along with her calf Dublin and for some time we didn’t even know which young reindeer was her calf because she treated them both equally. All in all, she’s just a wonderful reindeer.
Fern in February 2023. Both Fly and Fern together – April 2023. The food crumbs on Fly’s nose are a bit of a giveaway!Fern growing lovely antlers – May 2023.
Okapi – Okapi turned 15 in May but in my mind I’ve always thought of her as one of the oldies, I sound so mean to write this but she’s always had older looking face compared to any other reindeer her age. She couldn’t be a more friendly reindeer and has very gentle personality. Very unfortunately when Okapi was 5 years old she prolapsed on several occasions and as a result was no longer able to calve. This meant that since then, she has spent a long life of predominantly free-ranging on the open mountains. It’s always great to come across her on the free-range as she usually heads straight toward us once she realises we have food. She’s quite a greedy reindeer but she doesn’t push it like some of the others in our herd. I like to give her little extra handfuls of food most times I see her because she’s always just so nice and I know she’s a reindeer most herders admire too. It’s also worth mentioning that Okapi’s older brother is Elvis, there must be something in the genes for Okapi and Elvis to be living for as long as they have.
Beautiful Okapi!A more typical picture of Okapi – February 2023.
Ryvita – Everyone loves Ryvita! At 14 years old, she’s been a favourite among reindeer herders for many a year now and is the perfect balance of being friendly, cheeky and confident. She will always come over to say hello, or more likely see if there is any food, and will happily follow you around for as long as it takes until you give in and offer her a little hand feed. Over the years, Ryvita has been one of the most photographed reindeer in our herd. Like Fly she grows her antlers early and always knows how to strike a pose for the camera. She’s also quite distinctive for her having a very wide belly and I’ve regularly been asked if she’s pregnant, my usual reply is ‘no, that’s just Ryvita’. Ryvita is part of a large family group and all the reindeer from that line and very friendly and sweet.
Ryvita – August 2021.Ryvita – May 2023. Growing lovely antlers already.
It’s the last blog of the month, so here we have a selection of photos I’ve taken during February. The early part of the month was all about crossing jobs off the to-do list ready for us to re-open to the public on the 11th of February for the busy half-term holidays. The second part of the month has been all about locating the reindeer and moving the herd into a suitable position for our Hill Trips each morning, the Hill Trips themselves, and afternoon talks in the Paddocks. Plus all the usual shop and office work. As always, the holidays are over in a blur, but here are some photos of our beautiful reindeer, giving a small taster of February for you all.
6th of February -Mushy and her mum Hobnob looking alike. This pair are never too far apart.6th of February – Feta posing beautifully!7th of February – Andi doing a absolutely superb job of introducing our lovely reindeer to our followers on a Facebook live video. 8th of February – almost 16-year-old Fly leading the herd.8th of February – Lotti and the white bag being followed by three old girls – Okapi, Lace and Sika.11th of February – Open day!! These are our beautiful reindeer selected to be in the Paddocks for a short spell over February half-term. From left to right we have Pip, Camembert, Fern, and Florence. 12th of February – being “sheep dog” at the back of the herd whilst Hen leads them from the front. Moving the herd in place for the 11am Hill Trip. 12th of February – Beret posing beautifully, hard to believe she’ll be two in the spring!13th of February – what a lovely day for a Hill Trip! Walking along at the back of our excited visitors. 13th of February – Beanie, being Beanie!15th of February – acting sheep dog again. A windy and wet morning to retrieve the herd and deposit them in the right place for our visitors.20th of February – Gelato, Christie’s calf, being cute. 20th of February – leading the herd to the correct location just in time! We made it to the visit location at bang on 11am, giving us 10 mins to spare before the Hill Trip arrived. I had the trusty white bag over my shoulder for bribery at the front of the herd and Lisette is “sheep dog” at the back in the red jacket.20th of February – Paddock swap day! Pip, Camembert, Fern, and Florence went back in the hill, and were replaced with (from left to right) Kipling and her calf Tub, Feta and Hopscotch. They’ll spend the next 7 days in the Paddocks before heading back up the hill after the holidays are over.21st of February – my favourite part of a Hill Trip – watching our visitors peacefully mingling with the herd after the hectic hand feeding session if over!21st of February – a close up of Fly’s head. She cast her antlers earlier in the winter and has already developed velvety pads. Spring is coming!21st of February – Suidhe just checking in with her calf Solero.22nd of February – snow again! Rocket and his mum Gloriana.22nd of February – Morven on the left with her two daughters Pinto and calf Mochi!
A final point – if you are wondering where all the young bulls and Christmas reindeer are in the photos, they spend the winter free ranging in a different herd that Tilly and other colleagues at the farm mostly look after. I’ve not been to visit them myself this month hence why it’s just photos of our beautiful girls and some male calves that you’ll find in this month’s blog.
Now that calving has come to a close for 2022, we are getting ready to send all the cows and calves out to join the rest of the reindeer already free ranging here on the Cairngorms. Once this happens we will only see them intermittently through the summer months as we leave the mothers be, to teach their young ones where all the best spots in the mountains are!
Meanwhile our boys will be in the hillside enclosure for visitors to come and see, and for us to keep an eye on.
So with all that being said, I wanted to round off our regular free range excursions with a little photo summary of some of my favourite moments out in the hills with the reindeer.
Torch, with a fabulous view in the background.The free rangers make their way down to a morning Hill Trip.A beautiful evening panorama.Very blue looking snow on Cairngorms eastern ridges. Beanie… contemplating how much she loves food, probably! Camembert…. (or BERT as Harry likes to call her).FernMorning reindeer retrieval – in time for them to meet our visitors.Witch pauses to look back across a tiny lochan.Feta posing in front of the Northern Corries.Not everyday that you get to herd reindeer through a building site – the free ranging girls making their way under and past the funicular railway!The cows on Fiacill ridge with the Northern Corries behind. What a life!
Our blog this week comes from Freya, a long-time supporter of the herd for, well, as long as she can remember! Freya now lives in Canada so visiting us isn’t quite as easy as it once was unfortunately, but she and her family adopt several reindeer and keep in touch with the herd via social media. Isn’t technology useful these days?!
When I say I’ve been visiting the Cairngorm Reindeer herd since before I can remember I am quite sure people think I’m exaggerating. Truth is, I have been visiting since before I can remember. It became a well-established tradition for my family (and often my extended family) to visit Scotland at least once a year from when I was about 5 years old. I couldn’t tell you when our first visit to see the reindeer themselves was, but I do recall seeing photos of a tiny little me wrapped up so much that you could barely make out arms and legs!
Jigsaw with her mum Doughnut
The year I will always remember was 2005, the year of the ‘countries’ theme. We had come up to Aviemore for the first time in the Spring and were delighted to be able to see the calves like never before. As luck would have it we finished the climb of the Hill Trip just in time to see a very fresh calf popping into the world! I’ll always remember watching the little calf, later named India (I believe), making all the effort to stand up on those very wobbly legs!
One of the other newborn calves in 2005
It took a single visit for the reindeer to become an essential part of every trip to the Highlands and we would make the trek at least once, sometimes twice, every time we visited – rain, shine, hail or snow! By the age of 8 I was obsessed with the reindeer and we had fallen in love with a family line – specifically Bell (born in 2000), her mother Shell and grandmother Tortoiseshell (Editor’s note: Bell, Shell and Tortoiseshell were descended from a lovely reindeer named Edelweiss, who was a prolific breeding female in the ’90s and early ’00s. While this line of her descendants has now died out, another branch of her family tree stretches down to Scrabble and Strudel, still present in the herd today). To this day we all (parents and grandparents included) remember the Edelweiss line well!
Shell (right) with Bell in March 2002
Up until that point we had been admirers of the herd but never adopters. The special memories of 2005 changed that and my birthday present a year later in 2006 was to choose a reindeer to adopt. Sadly, by this point India wasn’t an option so instead I adopted Fiji, Bell’s cousin through Shell’s sister Coral. As nature has it, a couple of years later we received the heartbreaking letter that Fiji had passed (I am thankful that I met Fiji several times in the meantime). It was at this juncture that I discovered the Russia family line and Russia became my next adoptee from the ‘countries’ year. I adopted Russia for a few more years and visited lots more times over the coming year until moving away to Canada.
Fiji with her mum Coral in 2005
In 2006 since on a visit with my dad, feeding one of the calves born the previous year. It might have been Fiji but I’m not 100% sure now! (Editor’s note: the reindeer’s coat’s bleach in the light through the winter months, so by late spring, prior to moulting, they are a completely different colour from the previous summer).
A Hill Trip out onto the free-range rather than to the hill enclosure in 2007.
Life happens and I confess that we lost track of the reindeer herd a little in the chaos of emigrating. We liked the page of course, watched any clips we could get hold of, but visiting became much less of an option. The global pandemic brought us many things, most of them bad, but I think it also gave us the opportunity to stop and take the time to appreciate the little things we often forget in the chaos of daily life. In these hard times I made it a resolution to consciously spend less money on large organizations and more supporting smaller, family-oriented organizations. The first one that came to my mind (conveniently right around my birthday) was the Cairngorm reindeer herd and an adoption was the birthday treat of 2020. I got in touch with the lovely team who willingly helped me find a reindeer with a connection to one of my past favourites. I became the proud adopter of Scrabble who is a cousin of Shell and grandchild of Edelweiss.
A Hill Trip with herders Gill and Jack (potential for plenty of ‘Jack and Jill go up the hill’ based jokes!)
Young reindeer Caterpillar in 2012
Fern
During lockdown I completed my Master’s degree, leaving my housemates and I stuck at home with lots a plethora of spare time. My household loves a challenge so to keep ourselves busy we decided to try and work out the past themes and family links of the current reindeer. I can now officially say I’ve read every blog post available online! I may not be an official ‘groupie’ yet – but I think it’s safe to say I’m a groupie-in-training! Another sign – my family and I have adopted two more reindeer (Jonne and Svalbard) and are thinking about a fourth (Holy Moley being a strong contender!) Suffice to say that I am just as excited about supporting the herd now as I was when I was eight and I look forward to visiting again in the future!
Freya
As usual we’re always delighted to include your stories of meeting the reindeer in future blogs. Just get in touch with Hen via our main email address if you’d like to get involved 😀
