March has been a great month for us here at the Centre. We’ve become so used to working in the new Centre it’s hard to imagine life working from Reindeer House! March is always a relatively quiet month for visitors so it’s meant an excellent ratio of reindeer to people on our daily Hill Trips. Things will start getting busier in April with the school holidays, and reindeer will be back in our Paddocks from Saturday 29th of March. The Paddocks will be a work in progress for some time as we continue to landscape, but at least the reindeer will be back on display for folks to see! Have a read here for up to date info about what’s on offer in the Paddocks: https://www.cairngormreindeer.co.uk/paddocks/.
Here’s lots of lovely photos of some of our gorgeous reindeer taken throughout the month!
3rd of March: Chai is such a cutie, and she knows it!3rd of March: Two girls with big antlers! Mangetout (born 2020) has the biggest set of antlers compared to the females in her year group and Pukka (born 2024) has the biggest out of hers, including the boys!4th of March: Fiona, Lotti and I walked three cows and their calves up the hill to join the free ranging herd we have here on Cairngorm. Previously they’d been free ranging at our second winter site. Feta and Earl Grey, Beanie and Coffee, and Christie and Espresso. 5th of March: We’re so proud of these two! Alba at the front and Winnie behind. Both hand-reared in 2023 and now proper free-roaming reindeer! Go girls.12th of February: Snow! And Cuppa’s awesome eyebrows.12th of March: The top of Ryvita’s head. She’s usually the first cow to start growing her antlers. 13th of March: Winter has returned. Sundae looking particularly beautiful!13th of March: Zambezi and the herd on their way in for breakfast. 13th of March: Winnie and Cameron. 14th of March: Torch making sure Cappuccino is looking good for our visitors. 17th of March: Shannon on St. Patrick’s Day. Shannon was named by herder Amy after the river in Ireland. 17th of March: Ryvita up to her usual tricks! She’s an old girl so I may have allowed this for longer than I would have if it was somebody younger! 18th of March: Trilby leading the herd on a beautiful day. 19th of March: Another old girl enjoying our backpacks – this is Oatcake. 21st of March: Amy and I went over to our second site to help Tilly which was very fun! We got to see all the male reindeer including this greedy chap – Aztec!21st of March: Spartan looking very handsome and enjoying free ranging. He’s just beginning to grow a new set of antlers. 22nd of March: Peanut is a beautiful reindeer. She’ll turn 5 in the spring and is relatively shy in nature but very sweet!22nd of March: Zambezi wondering if I’ve got any food!23rd of March: Sunflower and Fika being very sweet!25th of March: Christie cast her anlters a couple of weeks ago but still looks gorgeous. Her new antlers will begin to grow before too long.27th of March: 10 month old Coffee leading the herd this morning. He’s a very confident chap!
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.
Who takes a holiday at the beginning of May? Yep, three full-time reindeer herders! Myself, Fiona, and Lotti got back on the 8th of May to 13 calves already romping around on the hill. What a treat to see them all and catch up properly on all the news from home.
We got straight in to the thick of it and the calves kept on coming. Hill Trips were fully booked during the bank holidays and Whitsun Week. We had some shorts and t-shirt weather and some FULL waterproofs and warm hat kinda weather. We’ve also been busy in the office running our Crowdfunder campaign which is going incredibly well (please check it out here if you haven’t seen it yet: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/a-reindeer-experience-for-all). Adoptions are still flying out the office and the June newsletter is being written. Oh, and the brand-new Reindeer Centre went up before our eyes in around 3 days in the middle of the month! An action-packed month!
Just a reminder – we won’t reveal the names of the new mothers until after we’ve let our adopters know in the June newsletter so I’ve tried to be deliberately vague. Enjoy… !
8th of May: On my first day back to work I have the pleasure of being the first person to lay eyes on this tiny lass. Ignore her blue toes – we always spray their navel with an antiseptic spray and I accidently got her foot!10th of May: As I fed the cows and calves this little dude comes to say hello.11th of May: The father to around half of this year’s calves!! Sherlock looking very proud of himself.15th of May: Little and Large. Big bull Spartan walks past a mum and her new calf!16th of May: Zambezi is no longer a calf! She’s now classed as a yearling, but is still just a beautiful! 17th of May: Calf peek-a-boo! This wee one is still not brave enough to come say hello.17th of May: Calves come in a variety of colours from pale to dark.17th of May: Merida and her seven year old son Dr Seuss sharing a moment together!20th of May: Another cutie with distinctive dark eyebrows.22nd of May: Aztec on a very ‘atmospheric’ Hill Trip! His favourite time of the day is the hand feeding session, this is him recovering.26th of May: Four-day-old calf, he’s small but doing very well!27th of May: This is where we found Ochil this morning! She’d managed to break-in to the lichen store and was having the time of her life.29th of May: A gaggle of chilled out calves on our Hill Trip.30th of May: Dr Seuss again, this time with his younger bro Ärta.
I first visited the Cairngorm reindeer herd in August 2000 and since then have visited on many occasions with my husband and our three daughters.
Over the years we have made badges and paper antlers, hunted for elves, taken countless photos of our daughters sitting on the sleigh outside the shop, handfed the reindeer, and have never tired of the beautiful walk up to the hill enclosure.
Our last family trip was on Valentine’s Day in 2022 when we headed out in the pouring rain on the 11am Hill Trip to visit the free ranging herd high up on the mountain. It was following that trip that I heard about the chance to apply to become a volunteer and spend a week helping out at Reindeer House and decided to apply.
Jayne’s husband and daughter smiling despite the rain thanks to Gloriana. Hard to believe this soggy experience made Jayne wish to volunteer with us!
In October 2023 I packed my tent and drove up from Lancashire to spend the week at Glenmore. I was rather apprehensive turning up at 8am on Monday morning with a rucksack full of waterproofs and sandwiches but I needn’t have worried. I was immediately greeted by a room full of very friendly reindeer herders, several dogs and a handful of puppies!
My volunteer week was action packed. In the morning I helped with handling the reindeer down at the Visitor Centre, feeding them, cleaning up and getting everything ready for visitors to come in at 10am.
During October there is just one Hill Trip a day. I would go up onto the hill, carrying a bag of food and talking to visitors about what I was doing. Each day I would heat up some milk and carry it up the hill in a flask to feed two calves named Winnie and Alba who had been successfully hand reared and were now on the hill with the rest of the herd. Whilst I keep insisting that I don’t have a favourite reindeer I do have a soft spot for Alba!
Winnie and Alba, hard not to develop soft spots for these two girls!
October is the rutting season which was quite eventful! The hill enclosure was being used to manage the annual breeding as well as for daily Hill Trips so there was plenty to do. Two male reindeer had been selected for breeding. Sherlock was out on Silver Mount with some of the females whilst Jelly Bean was in another part of the enclosure with some of the other females. Daily checks were made of all the reindeer and extra food provided. It was quite an experience to see these normally very docile males displaying anything but docile behaviour and to see their interactions with the females as they came into season. I was certainly happy to stay behind the fence!
Sherlock out on Silver Mount with Bordeaux, one of his selected cows.
Volunteering in October also meant that I got the opportunity to be involved in the first week of the Christmas sleigh training. I’ll never forget being pulled up the hill from Glenmore Visitor Centre in a Sleigh!
Jayne at the front of the sleigh in hi-vis, on crowd control duty.
I learnt so much that week and thoroughly enjoyed it so it was no surprise to my family when I asked if they would mind if I abandoned them once again this year to spend another week volunteering.
My return to Glenmore was sooner than I imagined and I was back again at the start of May 2024 – approximately 220 days since my last visit – which quite coincidentally happened to be about the same period of time as the average gestation period for a reindeer!
How lucky was I – having experienced the madness of the rutting season I was now in the thick of the calving season.
One of our gorgeous calves.
Three calves had already been born when I arrived on a wet bank holiday weekend and over the course of the week that I was there another 12 were born on the hill.
During my second stint as a volunteer there was no Paddocks and Exhibition to attend to as it has been knocked down over the winter and is in the process of being rebuilt. There was plenty to do though with two Hill Trips a day, plus an early morning walk to find reindeer, check on them, locate newly born reindeer and help with a whole host of other daily jobs to be done.
New mum Vienna and calf Mocha.
Watching how quickly the calves developed and became so sure footed in such a short space of time was amazing and as the new mums relaxed into motherhood it was a joy to just sit and watch them interact. It’s hard to imagine that in just a few weeks the mums and calves will be out free ranging across the Cairngorm mountains.
During the time I have spent with everyone who works with the Cairngorm Reindeer I have learned so much about these beautiful animals. I have thoroughly enjoyed helping to take visitors up onto the hill, telling them about the reindeer and talking to them about all sorts of things!
Sherlock looking a bit different from Jayne’s last visit.Zambezi and Shannon now yearlings in May 2024, in the previous October these were some of the calves that were being trained to walk behind the sleigh.
I feel so privileged to have had this opportunity and am rather hoping that I will be allowed back again next year ….
August has been a fun month. The first half of the month was super busy with holiday makers but as Scottish schools went back the second half of the month got slightly quieter with visitors and we’ve been having lots of free range action which I love. Generally we start to see the free ranging females more as they come down in altitude as the weather gets cooler. Towards the end of the month we also start bringing in the mums and their calves back into the enclosure. They spend June through to August/early September out roaming the hills learning how to be little wild reindeer and enjoying all the best grazing, but when the autumn rolls around it’s time for them to learn what a feed bag is and in time, how to walk on a halter etc. The following photos are a small snapshot of what’s been occurring…
8th of August – Fab and her mum Juniper out on the free range. Juniper is currently the only reindeer in the herd who doesn’t grow antlers. 9th of August – Okapi out free ranging. I had her on a halter as she was my chosen ‘Judas reindeer’, helping me move a small herd of cows from one hillside to another.11th of August – The herd in the enclosure relaxing in between Hill Trips.12th of August – Sorbet, a yearling female, grazing between the big boys! Behind her is Dr Seuss and Morse, and she’s sandwiched between Spartan and Poirot. 14th of August – Joe feeding the herd in the enclosure their breakfast. Vanilla is the white reindeer at the back.17th of August – The herd on the move in the beautiful late afternoon sunshine.18th of August – After finding a few too many holes, Amy B and Cameron decide to replace the tonne bag that sits underneath the cement mixer where we mix the reindeer food. But which one to go for? Big dilemma to discuss in the office.20th of August – Andi and a sea of velvet antlers. Dr Seuss and his distinctive white face at the front.21st of August – After finding a bunch of cows and calves up on the Cas car park on her day off, I roped Fran in to helping me bring them in to the enclosure. Was a very fun and successful afternoon.22nd of August – Another busy morning, bringing yet more cows and calves into the enclosure. Here’s Hopscotch and calf Zambezi.26th of August – Lupin looking incredibly handsome even on a soggy day.27th of August – Lovely to have males, females and the calves all in the enclosure. The cow lying down is the lovely Marple and Sherlock is in the big bull in the background.28th of August – Turtle back in the enclosure after a summer out. Both her and her calf are looking good.29th of August – Another free range mission to go and retrieve this little cutie, Orinoco, and her mum Pinto. They are both looking super and are now back in our hill enclosure for the autumn,29th of August – Sherlock stripping his velvet. The next day we brought him down to the Paddocks.
