Speyside Wildlife

Best £20 spent during visit to the Cairngorms. Family of Badgers were present for the best part of 3 hours, capped off with a visit from a Pine Martin. The guide Eve was very friendly and informative, thus making the experience even more enjoyable.

We had two experiences with Speyside Wildlife Trust - a guided day tour and a visit to the evening hide. Both were absolutely fantastic and we would highly recommend them to any other wildlife-mad visitors to the Cairngorms!The day tour with our guide Ailie was the most wonderful introduction to the diverse bird and animal life in the area. We spent much of the day in the Strathdearn valley, where we saw, among other things, red deer, mountain hares, a golden eagle, and many other raptors. Outside of the valley, we saw red grouse, red squirrels, roe deer, and much else besides. Ailie was the perfect guide - knowledgeable, enthusiastic, friendly, and a great multitasker (driving, chatting and spotting wildlife all at once!)The evening hide was comfortable, spacious and offered a great view of a dedicated and well-lit feeding area. We were very fortunate to spend almost 90 minutes in the company of a whole family of badgers and a very endearing pine marten - watching them up close for so long was an absolute privilege. Our guide for the evening, Harris, could not have been more helpful, providing us with loads of information about the animals and then taking extra time, at the end of our experience, to help us stargaze with the use of his telescope and encyclopedic knowledge of the night sky!A huge thank you to Speyside Wildlife Trust for helping to make our first visit to the Cairngorms so memorable!

I have been on several Speyside holidays and can thoroughly recommend them. Organisation is completely reliable, hotels are comfortable and well chosen, the guides go beyond the call of duty to show you the wildlife and are with you at all times. This year I went on The Farnes holiday in June based on Bamburgh which is a delight in itself and a lovely hotel. We were lucky with the weather and had several good sea trips surrounded by birds, seals and dolphins as well as a variet yof coastal and inland habitats. We saw so much wildlife and evenings were rounded off with brilliant views of Bamburgh barn owls.

A superb experience booking the evening mammal hide with Speyside Wildlife! Eve was a warm and welcoming host and her knowledge and clear passion for the animals shone during our time in the hide. Her commentary was professional and informative and made the whole experience as we learned all about the often complex behaviours and social hierarchy of badgers.The setup they have is superb with a large two tier area for the Wildlife to find the bait placed in strategic locations prime for your viewing experience! The animals are very close range to the hide so if you have cameras you won't need a super telephoto lens, my zoom lens was almost always in the 100-200mm range. There is exterior lighting as Flash photography is obviously not allowed as it would disturb the animals. Binoculars are not needed. You can get good photos with your phone it's that easy. The hide was warm and spacious. In just over 2 hours we saw 7 out of a possible 8 badgers but sadly no visit from the Pine Marten. I must stress that didn't detract from the overall experience at all we both left very happy. When we left we saw the best night sky iv seen for a long time too! So many stars with no light pollution at all! Fantastic!Highly recommend Speyside Wildlife to anyone visiting the Cairngorms national park. We'll certainly be back again in the future to get that Pine Marten!

What an absolutely fantastic experience, I have only ever seen badgers very sadly on the road side but 6 no less turned up and to watch them hoover up all the peanuts and clean off the peanut butter was amazing. Then to top it all a Pine Marten arrived and sat eating no more than a metre away from us, what a honour that was!! All this for £20 per head and a good few hours too!

Ailie was very professional it was a great day, we saw a lot of birds, and the hide with cute badgers was really great too

My son and I absolutely loved the wildlife hide evening.Unfortunately, we never got to see the Pine Martins, but that's the chance you take. It didn't take away from the experience though, we still got to see 5 badgers, a few mice and a Roe Deer, so we were more than content. Oh and some Wood Pigeons. Haha.Our guide for the evening was very knowledgeable and easy to talk to.The hide is a short walk from where we parked. The hide is large and sealed with large clean glass window viewing. So, don't worry too much about wrapping up in loads of layers of clothes, unless it's the depths of winter.Please note: There are no toilets on site and you are there for 3 hours, so please plan ahead.I would definitely visit again if I'm ever back in Scotland. I would love to see the Pine Martins one day.

Fantastic visit to Hide in The Cairngorms, saw Pine Marten, Badgers, Doormouse. Host Harris was great. A must do for wildlife lovers.

Great highlights tour of the Cairngorms Park. We booked the extended day Cairngorms highlights experience. Family of four (10yo and 14yo) - everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day, the wildlife was abundant and the scenery amazing. Our guide Wayne was so knowledgeable and kind with his time with our children. Highly recommended and a great introduction to the area.

Saw my first Pine Marten up close (through glass) and plenty of badger activity. There was a very knowledgeable guide called Harris who led the evening watch.