highland cattle - The Cairngorm Reindeer Herd

18th September 202617th September 2026

Volunteer Blog: Emm is Back! March 2026 – Part 2

When we left off with part 1 of Emm’s visit back in March, the days had been filled with reindeer and herder antics! Enjoy part 2 below…

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I had a great time catching up with all the dogs again. With Daisy and Alicia I went on a walk with Daisy’s dogs called Echo and Asta. This visit was the first time meeting the lovely Asta who is a 4-month-old collie. We went up the hill behind Reindeer House then down through the woods and onto a path going downhill. My herding friends call it ‘the wee loop’. We saw lovely views of the mountains and Loch Morlich. Daisy was showing us where to take the best photos of the lovely views. We all had a selfie too.

Asta, Daisy, Echo, Emm, and Alicia enjoying a walk as the sun set over Loch Morlich.

One time, I was locking up the car park at the Reindeer Centre when I noticed the dogs had got out of the front garden of Reindeer House. Echo, Asta and Sanna were running around and Tiree was standing in the front garden by the open top gate deciding whether to go and join the other dogs or stay in the front garden. I managed to get Atsa and pick her up and went to find Daisy to help and we rounded up Echo and Sanna, led them into the front garden and Daisy shut the gate. Another herding job completed!

After one of the hill trips, me, Lotti and Cameron went to find River, the 10-month-old calf. The reindeer had wandered over a bit of a distance after the hill trip. Whilst we were walking over there, Winnie, the hand-reared reindeer, had stayed with us and followed us over. We walked past a group of hill walkers. We must have looked a sight, three herders with one reindeer following. Winnie went over to the hill walkers to see if they had food for her which made them laugh and then continued following us.

We found River amongst the reindeer and she was limping being a bit sore from the vaccination. Cameron put her on a head collar and then distracted her with a bag of food whilst Lotti injected her with a painkiller. We noticed Dante’s antlers, which are quite big, had fallen off overnight. Lotti walked up to the top of the hill and across the top to the site where the reindeer had been to see if she could find them while Cameron and I headed down the hill back to the reindeer van. We picked up Lotti on the other side of the hill in the reindeer van but she hadn’t found any antlers.

More herding on the free range, looking over at the wonderful hills and loch below.

When on the free-range the reindeer can end up anywhere. One day Lotti dropped me off with Fiona at the carpark and we walked up a very steep hill to find the reindeer to bring them down to a visit spot. We found them at the top of the hill very high up all sitting down and dosing. Meanwhile Lotti had brought the reindeer van to the other side of the hill to another car park where we would finish our walk. Then she walked to the visit spot to drop the reindeer food off. Fiona led the reindeer and I herded from the back. When the reindeer were getting up and beginning to move, I noticed Morris who is a 10-month-old calf still asleep and dreaming because he was twitching and had his eyes closed. Morris is leucistic (a pure white coloured reindeer) who are sometimes born deaf and we think Morris is deaf so he sometimes doesn’t hear the herd move on. I gently woke Morris up and got him moving herding at the back, I looked for any antlers on the ground which might had fallen off as we went but I didn’t find any. Lotti joined me and helped me at the back. We walked down the hill to the visit spot. The 10-month-old calves fed out of the bag then we fed the others and counted them to make sure they were all there.

The greedy calves from last spring making sure they get their fill first.

I helped at the Open Day for the Businesses. It was in the afternoon and there were hot and cold drinks, biscuits, homemade cakes and homemade scones in Santa’s Bothy where people helped themselves. The log burner was on in Santa’s Bothy too. There was bunting up and four reindeer in the paddocks who had come over the day before ready for the open day and the Easter Holidays. They were Kernal, Cicero, Iskrem and Cornetto. They were a good group of reindeer because Kernal and Cicero still had their antlers and Iskrem and Cornetto had started to grow their antlers. We could show the visitors the different stages of antler growth. Herders were there to talk to the visitors and answer questions.

Santa’s Bothy looking inviting with drinks and snacks inside during open day.

The new outdoor reindeer information signs had been put up ready in the morning. The paddocks, new exhibition and shop was open. I enjoyed talking to people and answering their questions. The day went very well so I passed on the star herders’ badge to Tilly and the team because of all the hard work they had done for the Open Day as well as with all the planning and completion of the new Reindeer Centre. They had given the reindeer herd such a positive future granting Mikel Utsi’s wish of someone successfully taking the reindeer herd on.

Tilly now repping the star herders badge.

One March trip was memorable as I went on my wettest and windiest trip ever to find the reindeer and feed them. Daisy and Andi had gone to fetch the reindeer and walk them across the hills, very high up, and they phoned down to the Reindeer Centre to stay it was too dangerous to bring visitors to see the reindeer that day and to cancel the hill trip. Amy, Hen and I went up the hill to take over from Andi and Daisy to take the reindeer to a different area in the hill. As we climbed up a very steep hill, it rained very heavily, but luckily was not as windy as Daisy and Andi had had it. I had a bag with a bucket of reindeer feed on my back and it was a bit hard going. We met Andi, Daisy and the reindeer and took over. Amy led the reindeer and, with Hen, I herded from the back. We got them to a different area and fed and counted them to make sure they were all there. It was still so windy and wet and, while I was counting the reindeer, I stepped in a deep bog again and got soaked! We then left the reindeer to it and the wind started to pick up again. Amy had to hold my arm when I did up my shoelace on a rock.

Herding the reindeer on a windy and wet day. Come rain or shine, the herders take to the hills.

On my next hill trip with Daisy and Hen to the free-range there was snow on the ground but the sun was shining. When we found the reindeer we started with the adaption talk to the visitors but suddenly a very snowy blizzard came in so we had to put our ski googles on. It was so amazing how quickly the weather changes in the mountains but the reindeer were loving the snow. After Hen and Daisy put the food out the visitors hand-fed the reindeer. Normally the reindeer then hang around after the hand-feed and the visitors can get close to them and take photos, but they started to wander off to explore the snow, led by Turtle. We had to herd them back whilst Daisy called them and it worked so the visitors got more time with them.

A fresh layer of snow to burry the heather again.

Near the end of my visit at the end of one day, we had a fire alarm test so Andi set it off. Unfortunately, the fire alarm then set off the security alarm and Andi didn’t know how to turn it off. It was very noisy!! Eventually with Cameron and Hen’s help and a phone call to the security company she was able to turn it off which was a great relief to all.

It was great to catch up with some of the calves and on one occasion I saw a 10-month-old reindeer calf Haka suckle from their mum Christie. This was unusual because they normally stop suckling at four or five months old and it was very cute to see. On another one of the hill trips, some of the 10-month-old calves and younger reindeer were running around so fast in the snow and chasing each other. They were very excited and seemed to be having lots of fun.

Haka suckling from mum Christie, so lovely to see the strong bond between cows and their calves.

The visits were often in the snow this time. When Sheena was getting the reindeer to the visit spot one morning a snow blizzard blew through and her socks got very, very wet. When she got back to the Reindeer Centre, she realised that she didn’t have any spare socks so she improvised; she turned her gloves inside out and put them on her feet! Such a clever idea. I took a photo as she then walked around the Reindeer Centre in her gloves which worked.

Sheena’s problem solved mitten socks – coming soon to our shop…

Back at Reindeer House there was a new “Brenda”, the truck which we transport the reindeer in, and the electric van had been fixed. The electric van was in the garage being fixed on my last visit. As usual there were quite a few jobs to do. I met the new hoover, which was blue, and he is called Charles. He can hoover dry floors and wet floors so I swept, hoovered and mopped the floors and outside the Reindeer Centre. There were wellies to be washed and put them up to dry then put back in the welly rack. I dusted the shelves in the shop and restocked the shop and put the green bins out. My mum says I never do any of those jobs when I’m at home!

An important job is the feed mixing in the cement mixer where I put a few ingredients, sugar beet, cattle crunch, barley oats, dark grains, molichaff, calcium powder and a bit of cooking oil to make up the reindeer food. I helped Andi in the shop with a stock count, counting adoption gift packs, magnets, pin badges, pens, glasses cleaners and 5^th year adoption photos, folded up the tea towels and separated the stickers for the children’s quiz. Children get a sticker when they bring the quiz back after doing it in the exhibition and paddocks at the Reindeer Centre. There are 4 separate picture stickers; Nuii sitting in the snow, Roman as a breeding bull, Torch looking up at you and Camomile as a calf.

There are jobs to do with the reindeer in the paddocks as well with poo-picking in the morning. Letting the reindeer through to the daytime area and giving them their breakfast and later in the day, as they spend the night time in the woods, I led them through to their night time area and give them their tea.

Another beautiful snowy day in Glenmore.

It is always nice to meet new faces and, on this visit, I met Jess who was a part-time reindeer herder recently joined and her lovely dog called Maui. I also met Alicia’s lovely dog called Iona which was a new dog for me. I try to catch up also with past herders when possible and I went to see Lisette and the Highland Cows who she now works with in Fort William. She is based in Glen Nevis and it is spectacular. It was so exciting seeing Lisette and meeting her Highland Cows. Each Highland Cow had a name and we met the four youngest first who were the calves from last year. They were curious and I sat on a rock and they came over and started licking my coat and one of them even licked my face. They explore by licking things with their tongue. We then went to meet the bull and his friend but we stayed on the other side of the fence just in case!

Then we went to meet the main herd. Most of them were sitting down chilling and my mum and I got to groom one of them which was very exciting. Some of the Highland Cows were pregnant one of whom was due to give birth in the following few days. Lisette gave us lots of brilliant information about Highland Cows and told us all about each one of them. After we met them, we managed a cup of tea in her garden and met her dog called Munro. It was so lovely seeing Lisette and catching up with her and seeing the Highland Cows and Munro.

I am so excited about coming back to work with the reindeer and my special herding friends in September. I can’t wait. I am counting down the days.

Love from Emm xxxxxxxx

20th December 202420th December 2024

Differences and similarities between Highland cattle and reindeer: part 2

For anyone who didn’t read part 1 then check it out here!

Halter training:

October is halter training time for our reindeer, we will (temporarily) take the calves away from their mums and start doing some training. This is very helpful in case we need to catch them for any treatment in the future or walk them to a new area. Some of the well-trained, castrated reindeer end up doing some Christmas events in the festive season and sometimes the cattle will go to an event or show, needing to be halter trained.

Reindeer or cattle, the first time on a halter can be a bit difficult as it’s an unfamilar sensation having something on your face. We will try to give them lots of nice food and the best experience as possible. The second day will be much more relaxed for both handler and animal already, but is does take some work and patience to get them to walk nicely on a halter without them being stubborn or without any pulling.

Halter training with cattle can be a bit more dangerous as they are heavy in weight and pretty strong. Not only that, where reindeer physically can’t kick backwards with their rear legs, cattle can! At least, luckily both reindeer and cattle will not bite you, as they both don’t have upper teeth, but instead have a strong dental pad (gum without teeth).

One of the reasons why we halter train all our reindeer is so we can catch them out whilst free ranging incase we need to move them. This bunch of free rangers were easy to catch with that big bag of bribery next to Lisette!

Relaxing:

Reindeer or cattle, they all do love a bit of relaxing time!!

Dr Seuss relaxing, probably after eating lots of hand feed!

Green things(!):

Reindeer in the Cairngorms and Highland cattle in Glen Nevis, they all love the color green; bags, scoops, bins, or even green vans!

Reindeer calves eating out of the green bag – Tub, Magnum, Viennetta, and Mr Whippy!

Beret seeing if we’ve got any extra food for her in our green bins in the hill enclosure.

Enjoying a quick snack from a green scoop!

Selfies:

Reindeer and cattle don’t mind a selfie or close-up photo either!

Cow and calf:

Popularity:

Another thing they both have in common, they’re native to Scotland and tourists love seeing them!

Happy people on a Hill Trip visiting the reindeer.

People enjoying seeing the Highland cow herd in Glen Nevis.

Reindeer used to be native to Scotland but went extinct. Nobody knows exactly when, but we think the last reindeer (still roaming in Caithness and Cairngorm area, the coldest places in the UK) went extinct around the 1000 years ago due to different reasons, such as range restriction and people overhunting them. In other areas of Britain, reindeer disappeared much earlier, due to natural climate change after the last ice-age, the habitat changed and there was less suitable food for this Artic animal.

We think Highland cattle have descended from the Egyptian Long horn cattle. These cattle were well established and domesticated in the Nile village around 6000 years ago. Neolithic farmers brought these cattle into Britain. The group of cattle settled in the Highlands had to adapt to the colder and windy weather, growing lots more hair!

Another story is, that the Celtic immigrant people brought their Short Horns, another old breed (all cattle likely come from the Aurochs, originating either in North India or Central Asia and spreading into North Africa and into Europe) to the Scottish Island, where again, they had to adapt to the harsh weather. These cattle, black in color, were first called Kyloe (from the way they swam or were ferried across the kyles) and are now known as Highland cattle, mixing with the cattle on the mainland and domesticated into different colors, mostly red haired due to Queen Victoria’s preference. The Highland cattle herd book was established in 1885.

After the reindeer got re-introduced in Scotland to the Cairngorms (still the coldest place in the UK) in 1952, people fell in love with them and the Reindeer Centre has been taking people to see the reindeer on Hill Trips or in our Paddocks.

On the Glen Nevis Estate I’ve started taking people up to see the cattle since last year, March-October, either on a guided walk in the Glen or on the Hairy Cow Experience (find out more here: https://www.glen-nevis.co.uk/activities).

Lisette

13th December 202412th December 2024

Differences and similarities between Highland cattle and reindeer: part 1

I have been a reindeer herder for the last three and a half years, working two days per week. For the rest of the time I live in Fort William where amongst many other things I look after a herd of Highland cattle. I thought it would make a fun blog to talk about some similarities and differences I find working with these two very hairy animals.

Names:

Of course, Highland cattle and reindeer do not look like each other at all, but we do call the female cattle and reindeer cows, and we call the male cattle and reindeer bulls, and their young calves.

Some lovely calves from the Cairngorm reindeer herd.

Roman, a very impressive reindeer bull, in September 2021.

Horns or Antlers:

Highland cattle have got horns on their head, made from keratin, with the life core in the middle. They will grow slowly and keep growing their whole lifetime.

Reindeer, like most other deer species, have got antlers on their head. They grow quickly, fall off, and grow back every single year. These are not made from keratin, but bone. While they grow, a special tissue called velvet is on the outside, beneath that is the blood supply feeding the growing bone.

Normally Highland cattle will not lose their horns; however, we do have one exception in Glen Nevis, our famous girl Mairi. She broke her horn 4 years ago, I’ve no idea what happened, it will remain a mystery forever.

And normally reindeer will grow a nice set of antlers, but after a little accident and surgery when she was only a little calf, reindeer Holy Moley will only grow one antler every year too!

The lovely Holy Moley with her one antler!

Coats:

Both animals grow a thick winter coat, and they will lose this coat for the summer months.

Instead of melting, the snow will stay on their body as they don’t give away any of their body heat, keeping the cold out and warmth in.

Juniper and Sundae in the middle of a snowy herd.

Sheila looking smart in her summer coat.

Beret in her beautiful thick and light-colored winter coat.

Beret in their much thinner and darker looking summer coat.

In June, all reindeer look very scruffy, hairs flying everywhere. This is Cowboy losing his winter coat in June 2022.

Highland cattle sometimes need (and like) a hand getting rid of their winter coat, by giving them a brush in springtime. However, they also don’t mind a nice brush other times of the year.

Giving the cows a helping hand during the moult.

Where reindeer don’t like being touched, most of the cattle I work with absolutely love it. Reindeer are not tactile animals; they don’t groom each other. If a reindeer touches another reindeer, they do this to tell the other reindeer that he or she is in their private space and need to move out of their way. If people touch them, they likely just walk away, thinking we are telling them off.

There are of course a few reindeer who don’t mind getting touched, mostly because they’re hoping for some extra food.

A quick reindeer interaction with Beret, nothing to do with the food bag under Lisette’s arm! 😉

Cattle love licking each other. Like every person and animal, they all have their own character, but most of the Glen Nevis herd will do anything for a brush. We will try not to do this over winter, as we don’t want to pull out their hair which protects them in the colder weather.

Iona and Rain enjoying each others touch, early summer 2024.

Stay tuned for part 2 next week…!

Lisette

10th November 20177th June 2024

Adopter’s 65th Anniversary Weekend: Part 2

Open Day 2017 AP40 — Adopters and reindeer relaxing in the garden (Photo by Andi Probert)

Here’s a wee round up of day two of our 65^th Anniversary weekend…

After a good night’s kip we were all up bright and early (well, early at least, not sure about the bright!) for another day of fun, this time over at our Glenlivet hill farm. We have a second base there, about an hour’s drive from the Reindeer Centre, where some of our male reindeer spend the summer months, and which also gives us access to the Cromdale mountains for brilliant winter grazing.

Barbara Butters2 — Hamish looking at the view (Photo by Barbara Butters)

Andrew Smith2 — It’s a tough life! (Photo by Andrew Smith)

Hen and myself headed straight over to help Tilly set up at the farm, collecting some fallen branches covered with lichen for visitors to feed to our reindeer on the way. We arrived to find everything already looking quite organised, but the first big job was to move some of the reindeer from their normal daytime area – a sloping field with access to a large airy barn – down to the garden ready to meet their adopters. Hen was primed with a list of which reindeer had someone coming to see them, and we both made our way through the reindeer, who were munching away at their breakfast, popping head collars on the first 10, who we distributed between the various helpers we had, before we led them down the yard and let them loose in the fenced garden. The reindeer thought this was thoroughly exciting, and Blue in particular went leaping and bucking off down the hill! We went back for a second run, and a partial third run, before leaving the shier and older reindeer to relax in the peaceful barn for the day.

Yvonne Bannister2 — Reindeer socialising in the garden (Photo by Yvonne Bannister)

Open Day 2017 AP33 — Aye Coffee providing caffeine and sugar to keep everyone warm! (Photo by Andi Probert)

Open Day 2017 AP36 — Happy iron age pigs delighted to have fresh ground to root around in

By now, much to my delight, Aye Coffee had arrived to provide me with my vital caffeine intake for the day and were setting up their van, Derek was prepping the meat for the BBQ (low food miles indeed!) and Alan had moved a group of the Iron Age pigs down to a pen near the garden for the day, which they were cheerfully rooting up. Alan then quickly made himself scarce, not to be seen for the rest of the day (probably busy running up a hill somewhere!). The first adopters were arriving and the drizzle was just starting to dry up. There was a roaring fire going in the BBQ hut, which was the perfect antidote to any chilly fingers.

Open Day 2017 AP52 — Lovely toasty BBQ hut(/sauna!)

Open Day 2017 AP34 — Derek (background) serving up burgers and sausages from the farm.

As adopters arrived, we tracked down reindeer for them and made introductions. October is peak rutting season, so all of our young bulls were in a separate pen, and we mostly headed in ourselves and brought adopted reindeer down to meet their adopters at the gate, to save anyone accidentally getting caught between teenage bulls who were full of hormones!

Open Day 2017 AP56 — Young bulls tussling.

Open Day 2017 AP48 — Feeding lichen lollipops to greedy reindeer! (Photo by Andi Probert)

Open Day 2017 AP42 — “I’ll have that!” says Scrabble

Open Day 2017 AP43 — Oryx meeting his adopters

Spider delighted to meet adopters! (Photo by Linda Hoejland)

In the garden, everyone was handing out lichen lollipops, and the reindeer were very relaxed – by the afternoon most of them were lying down fast asleep between groups of visitors. Tilly had arranged tractor and trailer tours, but had underestimated their popularity, so the first tour was one tractor and trailer, but by the last tour there was a progression of tractor and trailer, landrover, and quad bike and trailer! Despite our slight lack of organisation with them, everyone seemed to have a blast and most people who wanted to go on it did (possibly with the exception of myself!).

Carola de Raaf2 — One of the tractor and trailer tours setting off (Photo by Carola de Raaf)

Colin Brazier3 — Inquisitive red deer hinds and calves (Photo by Colin Brazier)

Beautiful setting for our red deer herd (Photo by Andrew Smith)

Open Day 2017 AP53 — There was even cake!

Open Day 2017 AP54 — Busy making badges to show who their adopted reindeer is.

Yvonne Bannister3# — Highland cattle wondering what on earth is going on! (Photo by Yvonne Bannister)

By 4pm, the BBQ was finished, the coffee van packing away, and the last adopters were heading home. There wasn’t too much to do except pack away the information boards, run the reindeer from the garden back up to the hill, lead the herd up onto the open hill for the night, and feed the bulls. And then, most importantly, head out for a celebratory meal ourselves! (Thanks Tilly!)

Open Day 2017 AP67 — Puddock bonding with herders Fiona and Morna (Fiona just may have been plaiting his beard…)

Reindeer licking lichen off the walls! (Photo by Joanne Jewers)

Open Day 2017 AP60 — It’s all too much for Moose! He was mid-dream at this point!

One of this year’s hand-reared red deer calves (Photo by Kirstin Kerr)

Belinda Beattie5 — Big pig! (Photo by Yvonne Bannister)

We certainly had a lovely weekend, and great to meet so many people (old friends and new). We hope you all enjoyed yourselves too. We’ll do it all again for our 70^th (once we’ve forgotten how much organisation it all took…)

Andi