Scottish Highlands
|
The price is per person and includes 7 nights' accommodation, all meals on the tour, transport on the tour and Inverness/Aigas, admissions, and leadership.
The price excludes travel to and from Inverness, travel insurance, drinks and other personal expenses. Please do not book your flights to and from Inverness until you have had confirmation from us that the trip is going ahead as planned, and that your proposed times are suitable. Principal Leader: Robin Noble |
Join us in the Highlands as the bracken and birch leaves turn gold and the red deer are rutting in the hills. We explore the Caledonian Pine Forest and firths full of wildfowl while based on a splendid Victorian estate. Expect roaring Red Deer stags in the estate and roaring log fires to come home to! |
||
|
The Scottish Highlands are at their most romantic in late September and October, with autumn colours permeating the trees, mist lingering in the glens and stags roaring in the hills. We stay fifteen miles southwest of Inverness, based at Aigas Field Centre, a fine Victorian mansion built as a shooting lodge. Aigas has been Scotland's premier residential Field Centre since 1977, and is the family home of Sir John and Lady Lucy Lister-Kaye. They always make us feel most welcome here, and John delights in interpreting the origins of the landscape, geology and ancient history that are unique to Aigas, and that form a backdrop to his much-acclaimed book 'Song of the Rolling Earth'.
Aigas has a well-deserved reputation for comfort and excellent food, and its small estate includes mixed woodland, pine plantation and a most attractive loch. Guests are accommodated in spacious wooden lodges. Aigas is the site for a trial introduction scheme for European Beavers, which has featured several times on BBC television programmes, including 'Autumnwatch' and 'Johnny Kingdom goes to Scotland'. Uniquely, we can now see beaver-felled trees and beaver lodges around a loch for the first time in Britain for over three hundred years! The Beavers themselves are more difficult to see, but have been seen on early-morning visits to the lochside hides. We'll also be visiting a hide to watch for Pine Martens and Badgers one evening. The lodge is the perfect base for exploring the Highlands. To the east are the deep inland firths where tens of thousands of wildfowl are arriving from the arctic, while huge flocks of migratory waders congregate on the headlands and in the bays of Easter Ross and the Black Isle. Red Kite can be seen over the woods here, and also sometimes feeding in groups on the stubble fields. Offshore a pod of Bottle-nosed Dolphins can often be encountered, along with Harbour Porpoise and both Common and Grey Seals on the rocky shores. This year we have added an additional boat trip out of Cromarty Bay in search of Bottle-nosed Dolphins. This is an open RIB, run by a small 'eco-friendly' boat company. Before boarding you will be provided with astronaut-like waterproof suits and set out into the Cromarty Firth, from where you will also be able to see a variety of seabirds. The boats do not actually chase the dolphins: once you are out into the firth, the engines will stop and you will wait for the dolphins to appear - which they usually do! To the north and west, the long glens run between the mountains and contain some of the most important and beautiful remnants of both Caledonian Pine Forest and ancient Atlantic Oakwoods, with their rare and specialised, but sometimes elusive wildlife. It is in the hills above these that we'll be looking for soaring Golden Eagles: with many young birds on the wing, autumn can be the best time to see good numbers of these. The hills are also the realm of the ever-growing Red Deer herds, each guarded by a jealous stag that will be keen to see off any interlopers - and the battles can be spectacular! Small lochs can still host Goldeneye and Goosander, while geese and Whooper Swans can be encountered almost anywhere. On one day we head south to Speyside, where the Caledonian Pine Forest hosts Crested Tits and both Common and Scottish Crossbills, and can also take in some of the heather moorland for Red Grouse and raptors. We will make one longer expedition to the west coast via Loch Maree, one of the most beautiful landscapes in Scotland. The deep fiord lochs of the west shelter wintering divers, sometimes in small flocks, and a few grebes including Slavonian Grebe. Both Black-throated Divers and Great Northern Divers can still be in spectacular summer plumage, although most will be in various stages of moult. White-tailed Eagle are regularly seen in certain spots, and we hope for luck with these dramatic raptors. This trip is special - not just for what we may see, but for the friendly and homely atmosphere of the place we stay, for good home cooking, the crackling pine log fires in the evenings, the lovely walks round the gardens and the loch, and for the taste of real Highland hospitality. Travel Clients may be met either at Inverness railway station, or at Inverness airport after 3 pm on Day 1, or may arrive at Aigas after 3pm. We gather for afternoon tea at 4.30pm on Day 1 and the holiday concludes after breakfast on Day 8, although earlier departures can be arranged. Accommodation At Aigas Field Centre, as described above in twin rooms with private bathrooms. A very limited number of single rooms are available. Numbers: Max. 14 clients What you say:"It was a good mixture, with lots of educational value. Aigas was certainly a unique experience I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you!" S.H, Cheshire"It was a great success... Robin is good at sharing his wide knowledge of the geology, wildlife and history of Scotland." H.C., Somerset |
|
UK Tel: 01305 267994, UK Fax: 01305 265506, International Tel: +44-1305-267994, International Fax: +44-1305-265506
email: info@naturalist.co.uk