reindeer herder – The Cairngorm Reindeer Herd

9th November 201826th July 2024

How I became a reindeer herder. 20 years in the making

I first visited the Cairngorms and the reindeer centre around Easter 1998 on a family holiday. There was a foot of snow on the ground in Glenmore and it was beautiful. This started a 20 year journey which resulted in me moving here to work full time last year.

The memory I have from my first ever hill trip was wading through deep snow to a reindeer sat on his own, his name was Kola. I ended up adopting him for the next decade and would return to visit him on hill trips and at the farm when Tilly would show us around on a few occasions.

Reindeer herder Liz took us on another Hill Trip when we returned to Aviemore

In 2008 I came for some work experience that really helped me take a step forward into becoming a future reindeer herder as I got to know the reindeer and staff a little better. It was the summer when Hippo and Grunter were hand reared so taking them up and down the hill every day was a great experience. I will always remember having to encourage and push them down the path at night to the van as they were tired and did not want to leave the hill enclosure from having so much fun it seemed. Bottle feeding them wasn’t much of a chore either!

The following few years through my late teenage years I did not visit Scotland or the reindeer much as we had moved down South and all my focus was on racing my bike in Belgium at any opportunity. Through my years during and after University in my early 20s I gradually started to return to Scotland and to see the reindeer once again. Whenever in the area I would always try and help out for a day or two mixing and carrying feed up and down the hill, as I wasn’t much use other than as a mule/poo picker.

The stunning autumn of 2016 confirmed that I would have to move and work here permanently at some point!

In the autumn of 2016 I came to Glenmore for a few days of camping and somehow ended up moving into reindeer house for almost a month and trying to make myself useful. Fiona and Mel were living at the Centre at the time and it gave me my first taste of the fantastic lifestyle we have as staff living in here at Reindeer House: have a great day of work on the hill with the reindeer, go running, swimming or cycling after work and then come home to a delicious meal cooked by one of your housemates. I had known for years that I would like to come and work here for a while but that month really confirmed this to me. Fiona also threw one of the greatest parties ever seen over at the farm that year with hill races, tough mudders and bike races during the day followed by some fantastic food and a big ol’ ceilidh in the evening!

Leading Caddis and Viking up to the enclosure, two reindeer who are very well known to me nowadays!

After work runs with Sookie helped tempt me back as much as the reindeer did

So to autumn 2017. I had spent the previous 2 ½ years travelling all over the UK, Europe and other parts of the world working for a professional cycling team which gave me some fantastic adventures, but I missed the mountains. I spent 6 weeks travelling around the west coast of Canada and the USA trying to spend a bit more time in the hills. I arrived back in Scotland as my parents were coming up for the adopters weekend so I tagged along to say hello to Fiona and the others before she then offered me a job. Fiona asked me to work for a month or so up to Christmas. Needless to say I had a brilliant time working here. When I realised Morna, Ruth and Olly were all looking to move on in the early part of 2019 I decided I would stay on for a year or so and settle down for a while in the mountains after a hectic few years of driving and flying all over the place to bike races. Whilst I miss the riders and staff plus some of the travelling of the cycling team I could not be happier here at Reindeer House and may well end up here a little longer than planned once again!

Special mentions to Joe and Rob for making the first 6 weeks of Christmas Fun very fun!

Chris

Six months of being a reindeer herder, it’s a pretty good job to have!

Joe <3 Baffin. Taking a break from running with Joe to herd some reindeer one evening!

With a snowy winter we were lucky to have big strong Rob keeping our paths clear of snow and ice!

17th August 201823rd July 2024

Ben’s back!

Four years. That’s how long it’s been since I had my first stint as a ‘Reindeer Herder’. It is a job title that has raised many curious eyebrows in subsequent job interviews. “No it’s not a typo, it really did happen” is a sentence I have found myself saying all too often.

Those four years have been spent living in big cities, first Sydney and now North London, where in September I will resume my final year of study as a Physiotherapist. Hen pointed out that I only seem to come up to work at the Reindeer Centre when there is a football World Cup taking place. And amongst the changes here since 2014, is the amount of herders who would watch the matches with me (and not all of them would be supporting “the team playing against England”). The majestic and dramatic mountain range appears to have remained the same, as has the gentle and charming nature of the Reindeer. ‘Strange’ is the word I would use to describe seeing the yellow tags (cheeses) as grown-ups, having known them only as calves in 2014. But no words can describe the depth of positive feelings which I get from being up in this part of the world, surrounded by friendly and fun human-beings, as well as the delightfully mischievous Reindeer. Even when I can’t scrub the smell of Reindeer food off of my hands, or I am bitten by my hundredth midgie of the day, I have a lot of gratitude to be up in such a beautiful part of the world.

One feeling that I had forgotten is the feeling of blissful exhaustion. After a day of herding, there are so many fun things to do in the evening such as sport, wild swimming and fell-running that it’s hard for the body to keep up. But with FOMO (fear of missing out) imbedded into my brain, the body is finding a way to adapt from sedentary study days to keeping up with shenanigans and I recently attended my first ever Ceilidh (a night of traditional Scottish dancing) where I had a whale of a time.

I hope to see you on a tour sometime and share the pleasure that one gets from being around these delightfully mischievous Reindeer. My tours can hopefully only get better nowadays, after a small incident last week, whereby on my first hill trip in four years I thought I’d try out my basic level French on a young boy. What transpired really shook my confidence in the French language; I asked the young boy a question and to my shock he swiftly sprinted over to his mum and grabbed her leg with both hands. What I had meant to ask “do you like feeding the Reindeer?” actually came out as “do you like eating the Reindeer?”. And fair play to the young lad, he wasn’t interested in eating any Reindeer. I might stick to English in the future.

Since I have not come across many Reindeer Physiotherapists, I may be set for a career with humans. But, as they say…”once a Reindeer herder, always a Reindeer herder”. And I am thankful to all of you lads and lassies reading this for your dedicated support which allows such a wonderfully run business to thrive.

27th July 201823rd July 2024

Reindeer Diaries: The Interview

Hi my name is Alison (Ali) and I’ve been asked to write a blog. To be honest I’m not really sure what a blog even is so I’ll do my best (or worst) first blog. So I might as well start from the very beginning.

I am a new reindeer herder at the Centre and I have never worked with animals before in my life. I gained my job apparently as I was good with people (the hard bit) and the reindeer bit I can easily learn. Reindeer are fascinating animals and I have certainly learnt a lot about them since my first close up encounter with them.

My interview involved trudging up a snowy mountain, thigh deep snow in places, looking for a herd of reindeer in the mist. What a magical moment finding the herd at the top of that hill.

Not a bad sight for your first reindeer encounter!

While herding them down we reached a large patch of snow, I was amazed to have 45+ reindeer charging past either side of me, it was as if it they were dancing in delight with legs moving in crazy directions. This happened each time we reached a large patch of snow. On one occasion one of the yearlings was so excited he started running in circles as the rest of the herd had confused expressions trying to decide if they should follow him or not. I remember thinking even if I don’t get the job this experience alone will be a fantastic memory that will stick with me forever. Luckily I got the job and have had many more tales to tell.

Ali (Reindeer Herder)

13th July 201823rd July 2024

Tales of a Reindeer Herder: Kate’s first day

For the previous few months we have been joined by a new reindeer herder called Kate who helped us out over the busy calving period. Kate was so brilliant to have around we asked her to stay a little longer until some of our regular summer staff returned through June and July. We expect to have her back at some point in the near future, but for now she has headed off to enjoy some summer wanderings. Before she left Kate wrote some lovely short stories about her time herewith some excellent drawings. Keep an eye out over summer for the next installments of her stories. Hopefully we can have Kate back here at Reindeer House in the autumn!

Kate taking Lulu and the twins out for some grazing accompanied by Glenshee

First day on the job – Lost in the fog

During the first hour as a reindeer herder I had managed to become a very soggy, panting mess who was lost in the fog somewhere on windy ridge with not the foggiest where the herd had gone. I remembered thinking to myself; this has gone terribly wrong- I’m not even going to make it through the first day!

It was mid-April and there were still patches of snow on the hills. My first sighting of the reindeer was brilliant, the whole free range of females were running towards us as we walked over a brow of a hill. It was an amazing sight, and one I won’t forget in a hurry, the reindeer looked beautiful and majestic in full winter white coats and impressive antlers. I was marvelling at what a lovely greeting we got, but Mel pointed out they probably came our way being spooked by something from the opposite direction. Then off we went, it was Mel leading the herd to the lower levels and me bringing u the rear, but unlike the agile reindeer that excitedly skip, gliding over the snow patches I ran behind panting and sank straight into a snow hole (Vicar of Dibley style). Up on my feet again I was wondering how on earth I was to keep up with these four legged creatures when 5 of them decided to go in the opposite direction. Standing in the middle of the groups, I thought I can’t lose reindeer on my first mission and went gallivanting after the strays. Of course being a herd animal , it really says it all , and the wanderers then did a full circle galloping off to join the rest, leaving myself lost in the fog. Luckily it wasn’t long until I found the herd again and the rest of the first day went more smoothly.

Kate

9th February 201823rd July 2024

Big boots to fill

We are all sad to see a beloved member of the Cairngorm Reindeer family moving on to their next step in life. With Morna leaving we have the opportunity to welcome a new member, Chris. He has some big boots to fill, but so far he seems capable!

Morna was always our most fabulous Herder.

When asked what are your favourite memories of being here? Morna replied with “not sure, ask me in a year. That is when you can look back and focus on the really nice memories” Morna recalled one occasion early on in her time here of a hill trip she assisted Imogen on (another previous reindeer herder); “it was a hill trip on the free range and this particular time, just as we were walking out we saw the Reindeer up on plantation hill, just about to go out of sight”. This is a hill between Cairn Lochan na Beinne and Sron a’cha-no that rises behind Lochan na Beinne (Kidney lochen) at 721m. Morna had to race ahead of the tour, up the hill trying to tempt the Reindeer back down to our visitors. Unfortunately, she could not manage to persuade the reindeer to follow as they were off doing their own thing. Though she came back Reindeer-less the group were “amazed at the speed she run up the hill in the snow” and “took much delight in watching” which made Morna very happy with this hill trip.

pic 3.jpg — Morna picking some nettles to make a scrumptious nettle soup for tea with Topi watching.

What Morna likes most about looking back at her time here, is that she had a “good memory of every place. Whether being in the shop, office, kitchen, paddocks, or up on the hill such as jumping in Black loch. Those memories are shared with friend, visitors, and reindeer”.

pic 4.JPG — Morna and her favourite reindeer, Hopper, gazing over the beautiful snowy landscape.

Our new recruit to the Centre is Chris, though I say new when in fact he has been an adopter of Kola, Grunter, and now Bumble, for 20 years. He has also been a friend of the reindeer family since 2008 when Chris volunteered here for some work experience.

pic 5.jpg — Chris with the cows and calves.

Chris came to the rescue at Christmas when it was all hands on deck for us, keeping base under control whilst others were away touring the country. Even after the hectic time at Christmas he wasn’t scared off! Chris has now taken on the duties which Morna once carried out. He is also the current proud owner of the pink badge (which I’m not sure has been mentioned yet in the Reindeer blogging world, but there is talk of it becoming a blog). The pink badge is passed on from one herder to another if they thing you have gone beyond expectations in doing something.

pic 6.jpg — Not sure how to explain this one? Chris with a pick axe.

Like Morna, Chris gets just as enraged with the computer as she did and as I am currently writing this he is make some strange musical noises to himself, I think he will do very well here.

Chris hoped one day he would work here and now he is, and so is very excited to be as he has loved the reindeer for a long time. We all think he is a real joy to have around and is a hard worker and he “loves it here” and has already won over the hearts of the dogs though really the dogs have won his!

pic 7.jpg — Morna preparing Chris for his new duties.

So we come to the end of the blog but the beginning of Chris’ time here and we welcome him with open arms. Sadly we say a big GOODBYE to Morna and wish her good health and happiness wherever she goes next. I hope wherever she does go, they realise how lucky they are to have her.

Thank you for reading,

Oliver W.