vanilla - The Cairngorm Reindeer Herd

3rd April 202616th February 2026

A Reindeer Christmas

A Christmas Eve tradition of my family is to go see the reindeer parade in Kingussie. When I was younger I often got to go on the sleigh, of course to my delight. Last year Fiona surprised me and I got the chance to pull the front of the sleigh with Akubra and Poirot. This year I had a feeling it would happen again and it did! However, Fiona did give me a warning in the lorry this time. She is known to surprise you…

Maisy with Poirot and Akubra at the 2024 Christmas Eve parade in Kingussie.

As a Christmas present to my family this year, I decided to take them up the hill to see the reindeer. The Centre is closed on Christmas Day but the reindeer in the enclosure still need to get their feed for the day. Fiona said if no one else said they’d do it; I could with my family. After a bit of persuading they agreed, and I took a couple from my family and a few friends up the hill. You can’t get a better Christmas than that! All photos here are taken by either myself, my dad or my brother.

When we got to the enclosure, we had all the reindeer on Cairngorm waiting for us. The girls who were on the free-range were asking for a wee bit of extra food too. We picked up the food for the reindeer in the enclosure and headed up the hill. It was a frosty morning and cold, but it was so beautiful. The sun even came out for a while which was lovely. We were all wrapped up but of course the reindeer were very well insulated with their winter coats. We usually feed the reindeer in the hill enclosure a couple of times a day depending on what time of the year but since we were only feeding them once we had a lot of food to take. Thankfully the team on Christmas Eve took it all up to the bins on the hill so we didn’t have to carry it all the way up.

My cousin Magnus leading the reindeer up the hill.

We wandered around the hill introducing the reindeer and answering questions all about how awesome they are. We also had our friends Lorriane and Massa too and they were just amazed. It’s so nice to show people that you know where you spend a lot of your time and where you just love to be. I’m sadly coming up to my exams so I will be cherishing my time with reindeer, Christmas definitely wrapped it up so nicely.

We then headed over to see the free ranging reindeer and I hadn’t seen any of those guys in such a long time, so it was so nice to see them. I was rusty at identifying them, so I had to get my trusty back up plan of a photo from the board in the office which keeps track of the whole herd.

The free ranging girls, left to right Nuii, Pumpkin, Brew, Alba, Camomile.

The girls on the free range haven’t had a chance of hand feeding for quite a while due to them being on the free range for the past year or so. Some exceptions for a couple of the breeding females. They can sometimes be quite wild and excited when they haven’t been around people for a wee while. I turned around to swap bags with my mum as I had an empty sack and she had a full bag of hand feed. As I turned, I saw my mum standing there whimpering. Ryvita, a 14-year-old female with no antlers, had her nose right up against her bag. I hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time. Sadly, no one was quick enough to get a photo or video of the moment of her being scared out of her mind.

Latte being a yearling is now getting to enjoy free ranging on the mountains.

For my Dad’s Christmas present, (which he didn’t know at the time as I’m a very last-minute person who left it too late,) was an adoption of Vanilla. You can find out what you get if you were to adopt a reindeer here. We’ve been in the hills together quite a few times and when we’ve come across a few reindeer, she’s usually always there. She’s such a beautiful girl and every time he always gets a good photo of her, so I thought they’d be a good match.

Vanilla posing on Christmas Day beautifully.

Sadly, not everyone was able to make it on the 25th so I promised to take them up another time. That just happened to be on the 3rd of January. I took my brother and his girlfriend up the hill on a very snowy day. It feels like magic when you’re with the reindeer in the snow, kicking the snow up to get the lichen and deer grass, or them walking in the snow easily while all the humans are falling in streams and falling down snowholes. Although in typical Maisy fashion, I faceplanted off the boardwalk in front of a whole group of visitors.

99 and Cowboy begging Maisy to give them more hand feed.

I sadly had not learnt my lesson and buried my hand feed bag underneath the snow because the reindeer kept pestering me when holding it. I’m not saying any names, but it wasn’t Dr Suess, Cowboy and Tub. I then had a hard time trying to get their big noses out of the bag within all the snow, if you know anything about trying to get a Christmas reindeer nose out of a white bag it’s hard considering their brain is controlled by their stomachs. Which is the same with me, I’ll be honest.

Holy Moley enjoying the winter which has finally arrived.

The reindeer look magnificent in the snow when it all just sits on their nose, and of course it doesn’t melt because they are so well insulated that they don’t let the heat out to melt the snow. However, all the humans do not look magnificent and are bumbling around in the snow trying not to fall in a snow-covered burn. Unfortunately, yes, three of us did fall in the same burn at the same time.

They couldn’t get rid of me that quickly. As the next day I came back up to Glenmore the to go up a Meall a’ Bhuachaille with Sanna and Echo the dogs. The best hill in Scotland and some of the best snow I have ever seen up there. So much fun although, so much more energy goes into walking in deep snow especially at some points I was sinking above my hips and the dogs kept vanishing under all the powder.

Sanna and Echo between her ears near the summit of Meall a’ Bhuachaille.

Maisy

20th February 202616th February 2026

Photo Blog: Reindeer in the snow

Breaking trail and the herd following in my footsteps. Holy Moley right behind me.

Breaking trail and the herd following in my footsteps.

Colder temperatures bringing them lower towards the tree line.

Counting reindeer as they walk towards me.

Feeding free rangers during the first snowfall.

Fuzzy noses keeping them warm while they snuffle into the snow for low growing vegetation and feed from us herders.

Winnie demonstrating how their thick coats allow the snow to settle, so well insulated it doesn’t melt.

Daisy

23rd January 202620th January 2026

A busman’s holiday – AKA the delight of bumping into reindeer on your day off

Now we’re in the middle of winter, it’s hard to imagine the hills in summer time. But I found these photos on my phone from a day off in August and thought I would share them in a blog.

I was off for a walk with a friend around Cairn Gorm. During our walk we saw three groups of free-rangers, in different places on the hill which was really wonderful. The first group consisted of Orinoco, Nuii, Vanilla and Solero. The second group was Helsinki, her calf River and Brew. The final group was Sundae, her calf Salsa and Mississippi. My friend Hannah was visiting for the weekend and she had come on a Hill Trip to see the reindeer the day before so it was a real treat for her to see some of the girls out free-ranging. We also had my friend’s dog with us, Foss, so we had to take it in turns going over to see the reindeer whilst one of us waited with Foss at a good distance. We all had a wonderful walk and seeing the groups of free-range reindeer certainly made my day.

Orinoco, Nuii, Vanilla and Solero hanging out in the ski area.

Helsinki with her calf behind her (River) and Brew to the right.

Our final group – Sundae and Mississippi.

Sundae and Mississippi with Sundae’s calf (Salsa) close behind.

Finally we stopped for a swim in Coire an Lochain on our way down.

Lotti

28th November 202527th November 2025

Photo Blog: November 2025

November has whizzed by. Even more so because I took a week off at the beginning of the month. Don’t worry though, this blog has just as many photos in as normal!

When I left at the end of October the rut was still underway for a couple of our breeding bulls. On my return the rut was well and truly over, and sleigh training had started! One reason I love this job is that every season is different with new things happening every few weeks.

Hopefully you’ll enjoy this snapshot of November. The snowy days were some of my favourites!

13th of November: Morven with her crazy curly antlers!

13th of November: I’ve only just noticed Beanie and Quickstep (Pinto’s calf) have matching coloured hooves!

13th of November: Sleigh training on a soggy afternoon in Glenmore. Kulfi and Jester at the back.

14th of November: Kulfi and Jester in the Paddocks. Kulfi drinking from the burn that flows through their night-time (off show) enclosure.

14th of November: Six-month-old Jig looking handsome! He’s Chickpea’s calf.

14th of November: Beautiful Beret on a cold morning.

14th of November: Salsa and her mum Sundae behind.

15th of November: My first Christmas event of the season in Buckie. The team were amazing.

17th of November: I helped out on a photoshoot trying to get the reindeer into position for two models. Kernel, Zoom and Dr Seuss were very obliging… if food was on the cards!

18th of November: Reindeer on the ski road! A regular sight at this time of year.

18th of November: Sanna and Tiree keeping me warm in the lorry.

18th of November: Sleigh training in the snow! Zoom pulling for the very first time alongside Mivvi.

20th of November: Snow has arrived!! Alba looking amazing.

20th of November: Florence leading the herd through the snow.

20th of November: More snowy reindeer – they’re all so stunning. This is Popsicle closest to camera and Cheer behind.

20th of November: Vanilla camouflaged for the first time since last winter!

21st of November: Haka suckling from his mum Christie.

21st of November: Another white reindeer in the snow! This time six-month-old Morris.

22nd of November: Patchy snow on the hill this morning after a warmer spell. This is Oro who potentially has the best tuft of all calves this year. He belongs to Emmental.

22nd of November: Sorbet and daughter Ballet sharing a pile of food.

27th of November: Cicero patiently waiting for breakfast.

27th of November: Some of this year’s gorgeous calves Bolero, Waltz, Lochi, and Foxtrot’s nose!

Ruth

2nd May 20252nd May 2025

Photo Blog: April 2025

April has been a glorious month! The first half of it was wall-to-wall sunshine for what felt like weeks on end. The reindeer were on the move quite a lot so it meant some big walks getting them each morning keeping us all fit. By the middle of the month we brought some of our (hopefully) pregnant reindeer into the enclosure so it’s been a busy time with reindeer everywhere: on the free range, in the enclosure, in the Paddocks, and of course over with Tilly at the farm. The Paddocks was very busy during the holidays with visitors and even though the Exhibition isn’t ready yet we’ve got a wee quiz for kids, lots of information boards to read, and of course four beautiful reindeer on display! Hopefully everybody who visited had an enjoyable time.

Very excitedly we’ve also had our first calf of the season!! A lovely wee boy who is doing incredibly well. Hopefully the May photo blog will be packed full of calves!

5th of April: Solero is looking fantastic at the moment. She’s in excellent condition and is just beginning to grow her antlers.

5th of April: Whilst customers are allowed to bring dogs into the shop in the new Centre, staff have to keep dogs next door at Reindeer House. This is Elsie and Ginger waiting patiently for us at 5pm telling us it’s time to go home!

6th of April: Winnie leading the free ranging herd.

7th of April: Feta and her son Earl Grey looking great on a beautiful spring day.

9th of April: Lotti and I had a wonderful morning retrieving the free roaming herd. They were quite high up, above the cloud.

9th of April: Almost three-year-old Lolly and her mum Oatcake hanging out together.

9th of April: Moving the herd down to the Hill Trip location. This photo makes me laugh! Unfortunately I didn’t notice the photo-bomber until afterwards and my ID isn’t good enough to work out who it is.

9th of April: Sherlock and his ridiculous antlers! He looks like he should be in June, not April, with the size of those antlers!

10th of April: Lapsang relaxing after a Hill Trip.

10th of April: Shannon cooling her feet down in a bog.

12th of April: Scully has spent the winter free ranging at our second site. She’s now back in the enclosure and is in excellent condition.

14th of April: Colorado is a going to be two on the 1st of May. He’s a very handsome boy!

15th of April: Amazon is such a beauty! She will turn two on the 3rd of May.

16th of April: Turtle coming in to say hello and see what’s in my white bag! She can be a little fiesty so I wasn’t entirely sure whether she was about to tell me off or not – on this occasion she didn’t thankfully!

18th of April: Hopscotch and Juniper eating from the same pile of food – mother and her almost 5 year old daughter!

23rd of April: Dante looking beautiful and just beginning to grow his antlers.

24th of April: Sheena and I caught up with some of the free rangers. This is Nuii leading the way.

24th of April: Sika looking great for almost 17, and Hobnob behind will be 16.

25th of April: Two brothers, Espresso and Colorado, hanging out together.

28th of April: The first calf of the year!! Already very bold and coming over to say hello to Lotti!

29th of April: Mississippi and her mum Holy Moley came into the enclosure by themselves to check in, after being out free ranging in the hills. Always a joy to see the free rangers wander in!

30th of April: Sorbet, Vanilla, and Hopscotch on another beautiful day!

Ruth

7th March 20254th February 2025

Amy’s winter photo blog

Turns out a lot of my picture taking when it comes to the herd is usually done in the winter. But who can blame me as the environment on Cairngorm chops and changes so much, you almost receive whiplash! On the run up to Christmas, we had a herd of females out free ranging which consisted of yearlings, two year olds and a hand full of our retired girls. This meant that we would occasionally head out to feed the free rangers and here is a picture of Alba from such a trip- she’s looking rather magestic if I do say so myself.

7^th of November 2024 – hand-reared Alba enjoying a winter free-ranging.

The weather takes a turn a couple of weeks later and here is a picture of Akubra ladened with snow in the morning and a picture of Borlotti on the feed line in the afternoon once the weather had settled. Any eagle-eyed readers will notice a little snow bunting in the picture which turned out to be super tame, trying to pick up the remains of the reindeer food and almost landed on my head!

21^st of November – Akubra in a blizzard.

21^st of November – Borlotti and a snow bunting.

On the 23^rd of November the weather was pretty severe. Myself, Lotti, and Sheena made and attempt to feed the herd in our hill enclosure where we couldn’t see (even with ski goggles on) and hardly could stand up. It was that wintery that snow had started to freeze onto Lotti’s hat! For anyone that knows Lotti, she has a pretty frosty exterior, which she is taking quite literally here.

23^rd of November – Lotti in a blizzard!

Cheer is very aloof in character and has recently realised that the hand feed that us herders carry around on the Hill Trips is rather tasty! This has been quite the success for us herders as Cheer will often come up to us looking for food.

24^th of November – Cheer licking her lips!

We’re jumping another couple of weeks here with a picture of lovely Mochi out on the free range. I am sure the girls had been sauntering over the ski road prior to this picture, so we decided to move them to higher ground so they weren’t causing chaos. You can also see Winnie and Juniper in the same trip.

Finally, we are finishing with pictures from a beautiful day we had during January. We had trudged through quite a depth of snow, falling into lots of drainage ditches on the way out to feed the free ranging reindeer, for them not to come over to meet us. It had been two days since they had last been fed by us herders, so we were expecting a little more enthusiasm from them. But just before we were going to turn back for our lunch, the reindeer started making their way down to us which meant we could kick back, enjoy the sunshine and views and wait for the herd to make their way over.

10^th of January 2025 – The herd coming to our call!

10th of January – Vanilla on feed line, highly camouflaged!

Amy

28th February 202528th February 2025

Photo Blog: February 2025

February has been a great month as we moved into our NEW Reindeer Centre. We opened the doors to the public on the 8th of February for the very first time – hoorah!

The Hill Trips have been running as normal every day (apart from one where we had to cancel due to wild weather!) and we’ve been taking visitors to the free ranging herd here on Cairngorm. We’ve also had reindeer on display in the Paddocks for the February half-term holidays. The entire herd is now back out free ranging in the hills, split between two locations. I love this time of year – getting out to see the reindeer in their mountain home every day is an absolute privilege.

Here’s a selection of photos just taken on my phone over the last month.

7th of February: Feeding the herd with Sheena and Hen, look at that lovely blue sky. We took four reindeer down off the hill and into our Paddocks where they stayed for a few days for the start of the February half-term.

8th of February: A big occasion – Tilly cutting the red ribbon opening our brand-new Reindeer Centre.

8th of February: Helsinki and her son Irish relaxing.

11th of February: Gorgeous Fern! The oldest reindeer in the entire herd. She’ll turn 18 in the spring and definitely deserves spoiling. You can see the evidence on her nose!

11th of February: A lovely pic of Fern and Andi.

12th of February: Moving the herd in to position ready for a Hill Trip. Emmental and Borlotti at the front.

13th of February: Trilby looking beautiful on a sunny day!

14th of February: Holy Moley posing for a photo whilst the others eat on the line. On Hill Trips, she often justs waits for the handfeed and doesn’t bother with the food on the ground!

14th of February: Vanilla coming in to see if there’s any more food on offer.

17th of February: Helsinki and her son Irish… again. They’re a very sweet pair!

18th of February: Emmental leading the herd to the Hill Trip location.

19th of February: Macchiato and a beautiful sky behind!

20th of February: Alba, one of our hand-reared calves from 2023, out free ranging and doing incredibly well! We’re very proud of her!

20th of February: Moving ther herd on a very windy and wild day!

23rd of February: The Hill trip was cancelleld as the weather was WILD! So here’s a pic from the Paddocks. Dr Seuss looking very relaxed.

25th of February: The lovely Winnie, like Alba, she was hand-reared in 2023.

26th of February: These two are aleays stuck together like glue, Florence and her wee boy Cuppa.

27th of February: Latte and her mum Brie.

28th of February: Emm at the back of the herd doing a super job getting them moving.

Ruth

29th November 202427th November 2024

Photo Blog: November 2024

November has been a very mixed month for me in terms of work! Here at home I’ve been on the hill working with the herd, taking lots of people up to meet the reindeer on Hill Trips, and spending most afternoons sleigh training or working though the gazillions of adoptions that are coming in ahead of Christmas. I’ve also been on road with Christmas teams doing parades in Dumfries and as far south as Wilmslow. The reindeer were super and made me incredibly proud. Biggest shout out to Akubra who pulled the sleigh like an old pro in his first public events!

31st of October: I had to cheat a little as turns out I was rubbish at taking photos during the first week of November so here’s Feta and her calf Earl Grey from the last day of October!

31st of October: Another one from October for good measure – here’s Helsinki and her son Irish!

7th of November: Juniper! The only ‘polled’ reindeer in our herd (meaning she doesn’t grow antlers).

7th of November: Vanilla looking beautiful. One of three pure white reindeer in the herd.

8th of November: If there’s a white bag on the hill, Beanie is never too far away!

9th of November: Mel and I took this handsome bunch to a primary school for the day. They did a super job. In the team was Dr Seuss, Clouseau, Akubra, Magnum, Espresso and Irish.

12th of November: Lisette feeding a lovely bunch of free rangers.

16th of November: Dr Seuss back on tour! Here he is gently resting his chin on the sleigh before a parade. Clearly trying to impress the crowds as he is usually known for causing mild havoc by wrecking our decorations!

17th of November: The boys resting in Dunfermline with Magnum at the front. They were back on the hill in the evening.

19th of November: Akubra back on the hill after a weekend away! He was a total star and pulled the sleigh in two parades.

19th of November: Feeding the calves out of the bags. Earl Grey on the left and Pukka on the right both with a foot in the air!

20th of November: Adzuki looking very smart in the snow!

21st of November: Turtle enjoying the snow!

21st of November: Christie alongside a snow bunting! I love these incredibly hardy birds! A flock of around 40 came and joined us on the Hill Trip.

25th of November: The snow had mostly gone after Storm Bert but Scully and Feta found a patch.

25th of November: Pip proving that reindeer can’t bite! Look at the small row of bottom teeth and the hard palate at the top of her mouth.

27th of November: Latte coming in for a close up. What a funny face!

Ruth

16th June 202411th March 2025

A Reindeer Herder and Artist

Sheena counting reindeer. Lace is the dark reindeer with her head up and antlers visible.

My involvement with the reindeer goes back 30 years when Tilly and Alan were my neighbours and Alex and Fiona where still very wee.

I came up to the Highlands to work at Badaguish Outdoor Centre for people with additional needs before I was due to start a nursing degree . I never left – I fell in love with the mountains, and then a reindeer herder!! And now the reindeer.

Sheena catching up with the free rangers out in the hills.

Sheena bringing back Ochil and her calf Vanilla to the enclosure after they spent the summer free roaming.

My wonderful friendly golden retriever Rosie used to end up at Reindeer House after following any walker passing by my house down at Badaguish. Tilly would phone me and I would often end up there socialising, helping out, then for dinner and end up walking home with Rosie after a wee whisky or two!

I eventually went to university but not to study nursing. I did a Honors Fine Art degree in 2004.

Over the years I have kept in touch with Tilly and the reindeer, volunteering, an extras pair of hands or legs walking out onto the mountains to help herd in the girls for calving or just going up to spy the herd in the summer months on the mountain.

Several years ago, I got a call to work with the team and use my artistic talents for ‘Christmas Fun’ (weekends in December when Santa visits the Paddocks). By this time Fiona was all grown up and coordinating all things Christmas and the herd on Cairngorm along with her mum and the team. Now I am just a regular part-timer in the team.

Sheena doing some harness training with the male reindeer.

Sheena and Choc-ice chilling out together.

So, when I am not a reindeer herder you might find me working in my studio at home as an artist, working on some colorful wild abstract paintings. These days I also work on some reindeer crafts, inspired from my trip to Jokkmokk, Sweden in 2020 with fellow reindeer herders Fiona, Joe, and Olly where we stayed with friend Sofia, Mikel Utsi’s great niece. Inspiration for art was everywhere. The snow, visiting herds of reindeer, northern lights, traditional cloths, and traditional food.

That part of Sweden is the capital of Sami culture in Sweden holding the Sami winter festival, which involve reindeer racing, reindeer parades, and all things Sami culture. And I had a wonderful time in the Sami Museum viewing the traditional arts on show. This was very much my inspiration for small reindeer art and crafts for the shop.

The Jokkmokk crew with borrowed dogs! Fiona, Sheena, Olly and Joe.

Some of Sheena’s wonderful things we sell in the shop!

Sheena

29th September 202310th March 2025

Photo Blog: September 2023

I love September! The reindeer look super, we’re busy with free ranging reindeer, we name the calves and we start learning their individual personalities, plus the rut kicks off. Having said that, I planned a two week holiday in one of my favourite months – must remember not to do that again! So there is a big gap in the photos for this month’s blog, but I’ve made up for it by just sharing more from the same day.

Just a reminder – we don’t reveal the names of the calves online until our adopters receive their newsletter next month.

2nd of September- Sambar (in the background) and Okapi. Both now 15 years old and looking great for their age. This was taken on one of my reindeer retrieval missions.

3rd of September – Brie and her wee daughter. Back in the enclosure and both looking good after a summer free ranging.

4th of September -Mangetout looking beautiful on a lovely autumnal afternoon. Her daughter and her new sister (belonging to mum Dante) are the calves behind her.

19th of September (a) – After a TWO week holiday, I’m back to work and the first job is to split the reindeer for the rut. Exciting times! Here is Fiona putting some cows out on Silver Mount, an area within the hill enclosure.

19th of September (b) – Step two is to add the bull! Fiona and I took Sherlock for a walk to the enclosure. Here he is off to find his girls – a man on a mission!

19th of September (c) – Our other breeding bull is three year old Jelly. He looks a bit less sure about the situation compared to Sherlock but he quickly got the idea.

20th of September – Holy Moley and her calf behind. Holy Moley is delighted to be back in the enclosure after the summer in the hills. Here she is on the hunt for more hand feed.

21st of September – Sherlock with some of his girls – Bordeaux, Pip and Jenga.

22nd of September – Trying to get a nice pic of Mushy and Jenga but Bordeaux wants in on the action. Or maybe it’s the white bag under my arm.

22nd of September – Christmas Reindeer, Frost and Adzuki, looking handsome in the late afternoon sunshine.

26th of September – Emmental is the first to the feed bag on today’s Hill Trip.

26th of September – Girls out free ranging! These are some of our single ladies, either too young to breed or retired from breeding. From L to R: Vanilla, Sorbet, Diamond, Sambar, Lolly, Solero and Suidhe (sticking her tongue out!)

26th of September – Catching up with this old lady on the free range! Diamond is now 11 years old and looking super. She is stripping the velvet off her antlers.

Ruth