Loch Garten, Abernethy

All of Scotland’s wild places and green spaces are vital for the survival of its unique, amazing wildlife. If you plan to head out to these areas please respect and protect Scotland’s great outdoors. We ask that all visitors follow the latest Scottish Government restrictions on travel and group sizes and advice on physical distancing and hygiene. See below for reserve details and our dedicated Covid-19 updates page for the latest safety information (link below). Thank you for your continued support and patience in these challenging times. Stay safe everyone.
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Address
Abernethy National Nature Reserve, Forest Lodge, Nethy Bridge, PH25 3EF
Grid ref
NH978183
What3Words
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The Centre, toilets, car parks and trails at Loch Garten are open. The track to Forest Lodge and car park at this location remain closed. Please help protect the forest and follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.

See our reserves Covid-19 updates page for which sites are open and other important details.

Abernethy is a nature reserve that is ancient, wild and immeasurably special – a place so extraordinary that it can feel like another country. Nestled in Abernethy, the Loch Garten Nature Centre is the perfect spot to experience this amazing forest. Our team are on hand to help with CCTV screens, binoculars and telescopes to help you to get great views. An exhibition, daily talks and family activities ensure there’s something for everyone. Our shop sells gifts, binoculars, books, sandwiches, snacks and hot drinks. So you can take your coffee onto the forest decking and watch the birds close up at the feeders!

For those who can't visit us look out for red squirrels on our feeder cam year-round, too... and between April and the end of August, check for ospreys at the world-famous osprey nest at Loch Garten.

Plan your visit

Opening times

Covid-19 update: The Loch Garten Nature Centre, toilets, trails and car parks are open.

The track to Forest Lodge and the car park at this location remain closed. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes. 

The wider reserve and woodland trails are open all year-round. Please access the reserve responsibly.

Entrance charges

Free entrance to RSPB members
Yes
Adults
£5
Children
£2.50
Free entrance for first child
Free entrance for under 5s
Student
£3.50
Free entrance for carers
Yes
Car park cost

Free

Other discounts

 

 

Facilities

  • Visitor centre
  • Car park
  • Toilets
  • Accessible toilets
  • Baby changing
  • Pushchair friendly
  • Refreshments facilities are closed
  • Picnic area
  • Guided walks is closed
  • Viewing point
  • Nature trails
  • Shop
  • Educational facilities

Accessibility

How to get here

By train

Nearest mainline railway station is Aviemore (10 miles/16 km). From Aviemore take the B9150/A95 and follow RSPB Scotland Loch Garten Nature Centre road signs. A steam railway runs from Aviemore to Boat of Garten (4 miles/6.4 km) and Broomhill for Nethybridge (5.5 miles/8.8 km) April-October.

By bus

Nearest bus stop is on the B970. The bus route is Service 34 from Aviemore to Grantown on Spey (ask for Raebreck junction). From here a dedicated footpath leads to the Nature Centre (1.6 miles/2.5 km).

By bike

This reserve is on Route 7 of the National Cycle Network.

By road

In Strathspey, from the outskirts of Aviemore and Grantown, follow RSPB Scotland Loch Garten Nature Centre road signs. Taxis include Aviemore Taxis, tel: 01479 810141; Gerry’s Aviemore Taxis, tel: 01479 812000.

Sat nav POI file: If you have a satellite navigation system that can accept POI files, please see our POI page for a download link and instructions.

Other ways to get there

The Speyside Way links Aviemore, Boat of Garten and Nethy Bridge close to the Nature Centre which connects via a dedicated path, or the bus will drop you at the Raebreck junction which is a 1.6 mile walk to the Centre.

A network of trails stemming from the Speyside Way footpath, links the Nature Centre with the villages of Boat of Garten and Nethybridge.

 

 

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Information for dog owners

Between April 1 and August 15 you must keep dogs on a lead to protect ground-nesting birds, including capercaillie. Please keep dogs away from the loch during spring and summer, as it contains breeding birds. Dogs are not permitted at the Nature Centre, except assistance dogs.

Group booking information

We welcome pre-booked group visits to the Nature Centre and will happily provide a video presentation and wildlife interpretation to suit your group.

Schools booking information

The Nature Centre is a great place for children and young people to learn about wildlife and pre-school, school and college visits are welcome. Our Community Education Officer can plan and deliver Curriculum for Excellence linked activities to suit your class’s requirements. All visits are risk assessed. Charges are £2 per child, accompanying adults are free.

Downloads

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Tear off trail map

PDF, 2.4 MB

How to get here

Contact Loch Garten, Abernethy

Save nature with a staycation in the UK

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Saving the nature that you love for future generations to enjoy. Make the most of your visit by staying in one of thousands of handpicked cottages across the UK. Simply book your stay here to support our partnership. Throughout 2021 holidaycottages.co.uk are supporting our conservation work – saving species and restoring habitats right across the UK at a time when the future of our planet has never been more important and protecting nature for future generations.

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What will you see?

Our star species

Your best chances of seeing capercaillie without disturbing them are to walk the forest tracks in the early morning, as they often come to the tracks to get grit for their crops. Please refrain from going off tracks and onto paths through the forest, as you could be disturbing breeding capercaillie.

Live cameras

Enjoy a non-stop live stream from Loch Garten, home of the Nature Centre. Check out our live feeder cam. with the small birds and squirrels having a feast on our feeders.

Take a peek!

Nature spectacles

Visit the Nature Centre during spring and summer for a wealth of Highland wildlife: breeding osprey, crested tits, red squirrels, bank voles, great spotted woodpeckers, siskins, common lizards and other close-up views of Caledonian forest wildlife.

The track up to the centre is one of the best places on the reserve to see tooth fungi, with different varieties appearing in late summer.

Creeping-ladies-tresses orchids and the tiny twinflower show their delicate flowers amongst the forest floor.

On warm summer days, look out for dragonflies and damselflies, including white faced-darter and four-spotted chaser. Wood-ant nests contain up to 250,000 ants and some of our nests are a metre tall!

The arrival of wild greylag and pink-footed geese to roost on Loch Garten at dusk, is an exhilarating display in autumn and winter. Stand off the road, on the shores of Loch Garten and the geese will fly-in low, skimming the tops of the pine trees and over your head.

At this time of year, you can also feed coal tits from your hand outside the Nature Centre (closed from October). You’ll be delighted at how feather-light they are and how their claws tickle.

Further afield, golden eagles, ptarmigan, black grouse, red deer and many more iconic Highland wildlife species await – all set against the magnificent backdrop of the Cairngorms.

Seasonal highlights

Visit the Nature Centre for red squirrels, siskins, ospreys, crossbills, crested tits, great spotted woodpeckers, bank voles and roe deer. Also look out for goldeneyes, common sandpipers and frogs.

The Nature Centre has red squirrels, siskins, ospreys, crossbills, crested tits, great spotted woodpeckers, bank voles, common lizards, dragonflies and red and roe deer. Also tree pipits, spotted flycatchers, redstarts, grey wagtails and woodland flowers around the reserve. As summer wanes, there are many trackside fungi.

The Nature Centre closes at the end of October, but the rest of the reserve is open. As dusk falls at Loch Garten, you may witness the exhilarating display of wild greylag and pink-footed geese flying low overhead, coming to roost. Also, look out for whooper swans, goldeneye, goosander, wigeon, teal, red squirrels and fungi and listen for rutting red deer.

The Nature Centre is closed but the rest of the reserve is open. Wild greylag and pink-footed geese roost on Loch Garten in late afternoon/evening, as well as whooper swans, goldeneyes, wigeon, mallard and teal. Also red and roe deer and red squirrels if the weather is mild.

About Loch Garten, Abernethy

Habitat

The wildlife-rich Caledonian pineforest is like no other forest in the UK. Huge, gnarled, lichen-encrusted Scots pine trees dot the landscape, interspersed with other species such as juniper, rowan, birch, blae’berry and heather. Pinewood specialities like twinflower and creeping ladies tresses are to be found, nestling in the lush vegetation. A myriad of fungi helps to break down the deadwood, a vital component of a healthy forest.

The heather between the trees continues through the forest edge, to form stretches of moorland. In August, the hillsides erupt in a riot of fragrant purple heather, attracting nectar-seeking invertebrates.

Rich, peaty-brown water flows in the rivers and fills the lochs. Brightly coloured sphagnum mosses act like sponges and store water, creating invertebrate-rich, boggy areas. Scots pine trees grow pale and stunted in bog woodland, a rare habitat with specialist species.

Formed by volcanic activity and shaped by glaciers, the sub-Arctic plateau of the Cairngorm Mountains is unique in the UK. Rare, fragile plant and lichen communities survive the sub-zero temperatures and hundred-mile-an-hour winds in the winter, alongside hardy ptarmigan. As well as Ben Macdui (1,309m), Abernethy holds several other peaks, including Cairngorm (1,245m), Bynack More (1,090m) and Meal a’ Bhuachaille (810m).

Conservation

Abernethy is home to around 5,000 species, many of which are rare or threatened. Because of this, the habitats and species here are defended by UK and international law, making it one of the most protected nature sites in Britain.

The reserve contains the largest remaining chunk of the ‘Great Wood of Caledon’, the Caledonian pineforest which used to cover much of the Highlands. Thousands of years of tree-felling and over-grazing have meant that just 1 per cent of this wildlife-rich forest remains.

We’re expanding the forest, to make it fit for the future, so it’s more robust and offers more protection for wildlife. In a partnership called Cairngorms Connect, some of our neighbours are doing the same. We are also working together to improve the bog, moorland, scrub, rivers and mountain habitats – more than 600 square kilometres! It’s going to take 200 years, but we’re working on it right now!

Deadwood is a vital part of a healthy forest - dead trees are just as wildlife-rich as living ones. Decades of tidy forest management have meant there’s not enough at Abernethy, so we create more, in all varieties – standing, lying, tall, short, big, small, with roots on and without.

Partners

Thanks to NatureScot Peatland Action Fund. Black grouse conservation work here is supported by The Famous Grouse.

Upgrades to the Nature Centre have been possible through the support of the Natural and Cultural Heritage Fund. The Natural and Cultural Heritage Fund is a Scottish programme of investment, led by NatureScot, and part-funded through the European Regional Development Fund.

Site information

Abernethy is the RSPB’s second largest nature reserve and is highly protected by designations.

It contains two Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs – UK designation protecting the best examples of our natural heritage); four Special Protection Areas (SPAs - European designation for rare, threatened, vulnerable or migratory bird species); two Special Areas of Conservation (SACs – European designation for threatened habitats and species) and one Ramsar site (international designation for important wetlands).

It is also a National Nature Reserve (UK accolade for the best wildlife sites) within the Cairngorms National Park – the largest National Park in the UK. Part of the Cairngorm Mountains National Scenic Area (NSAs represent Scotland’s finest landscapes).

Loch Garten is part of Abernethy and is the place that ospreys returned to in the 1950s after a period of extinction in the UK - they still return here every spring to breed. The Loch Garten Osprey Centre has views onto the nest, plus hi-definition CCTV. Red squirrels, bank voles, crested tits and lots of other woodland birds visit our feeders. Our friendly staff will help you have a memorable visit!

We have nature activities for families and a programme of events, including guided walks. Our shop sells gifts, binoculars, books, wildlife care, sandwiches, ice creams, snacks and hot drinks.

Help us protect this exceptional nature reserve and the wildlife which lives here by following the Scottish Outdoor Access Code and advice from the Cairngorms National Park Authority. 

If you notice anything of concern, please call 01479 821409.

Dogs - Between April 1 and August 15 you must keep dogs on a lead to protect ground-nesting birds, including capercaillie. Please keep dogs away from the loch during spring and summer, as it contains breeding birds. Dogs are not permitted at the Nature Centre, except assistance dogs.

Fires - Fires/BBQs are not permitted anywhere on the reserve.

Walking - To protect rare and sensitive breeding wildlife, we advise that you stick to tracks and paths.

Wild camping/campervanning - Camping and campervanning should be low-impact and for a maximum of one night only. Please do not camp / campervan in lay-bys – use the car parks. Please do not use the nature reserve as a bathroom. There are public toilets in Boat of Garten, Nethy Bridge and Carrbridge.

Swimming and canoeing - Please avoid sheltered bays and the far southern shore – these are important refuge areas for water-loving wildlife.

Photography - Do not cut plants or trees, either living or dead, to make sets – this is illegal! Dead woodit is a valuable habitat and food for many species. Use only bird friendly food – regular peanut butter contains salt and sugar which is harmful to wildlife and netted fat-balls can trap birds’ feet. If you set up a feeding station, remove all food and litter afterwards. The flying of drones is potentially disturbing to wildlife and people and is not permitted anywhere on RSPB Abernethy reserve without prior permission.

For more information, visit the Outdoor Access Scotland or Cairngorms National Park Authority websites.

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What people are saying about Loch Garten, Abernethy

Abernethy is a one of the best sites in Scotland and it always a pleasure to visit and talk to friendly staff, you always receive a warm welcome and a smile. The visitors centre and toilets are a credit to you, information is always plentiful and up-to-date and eagerly shared by enthusiastic staff.

John Hamilton

What a truly fantastic visit; not only did we see the chicks catch the first fish, but the staff on duty could not have been both kinder and more knowledgeable. We went with our teenage son who has learning disabilities and the time that was given to him so that he could see the birds really meant a great deal to us, and also to him as there has been a great deal of talk about the birds whenever anyone has asked him what he did on holiday. Thank you to all the team. We were convinced that joining the RSPB was a good idea, and we now agree.

Caroline Barclay

We've been going to the Nature Centre for the last four years and had been there a number of years previously. The centre is a credit to the RSPB - all the staff and especially to the stars, the birds. I came home and joined the RSPB on the strength of the work I have seen in the name of nature and saving all our wildlife.

Carl Paul

Activities and events

Activities for children and families

Children and families will find a wealth of nature-related activities to enjoy at the Nature Centre.

You can take your own Wildlife Challenge passport, hire an “Explorer Bag” for your visit from the entrance kiosk (bug pot, nature-discovery activities etc). See if you can spot any forest fairy folk at their magic tree. Try your hand at building an osprey nest (complete with massive osprey eggs for you to sit on!). Take a closer look at nature’s treasures with our Mag-Posts or walk like a pine-marten on our balance beam. Take a selfie at our osprey and chicks picture board.

At the centre you can enjoy playing in our natural outdoor kitchen (while mum and dad sit with a coffee at the picnic tables!), discover a world in detail with our digital microscope and get up-close to woodland birds and red squirrels at our feeders, try your hand at carrying fish like an osprey (are you strong enough?) and of course, watch out for the osprey family!

There are also activities such as moth-trapping, owl-pellet dissection and bug-hunting with sweep-nets happening throughout the season, as well as special events for all the family. Check out our events page or social media for more details.

Leisure activities

Abernethy has a lot to offer if you want to get out and about, from low-level trails to self-guided Munro bagging and everything in-between.

The half-mile, low-level, Big Pines trail leads from the Nature Centre car-park to the Loch Mallachie car-park (where the Two Lochs trail starts) and takes in some of the biggest Scots pine trees on the reserve. The path is hard-packed forest soils, has tree roots, undulations and potential muddy sections.

The low-level, circular, 1.7-mile, Two Lochs trail, accessed from the Loch Mallachie car-park, offers some of the finest views on the reserve, across Loch Garten and Loch Mallachie, and winds its way through the Caledonian pineforest. The path is hard-packed forest soils, has tree roots, undulations and potentially muddy sections.

Further afield, the reserve offers many long-distance walking and biking trails, including the Speyside Way, with opportunities to get out into the wilds of the Cairngorms. It is recommended that you do not attempt longer trials or high-level walks unless you are competent at navigation and are prepared for all-weather events, whatever the season. A map, compass, provisions and all-weather hill-walking gear are essential. Always leave details of your route with a friend.

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