Scotland winter hiking vacations

Planet

Although the Highland scenery is stunning, it's one of the less affluent areas of Britain. Our operation is entirely Highland based, both as a company and whilst delivering the vacations. With all our walking vacations & mountaineering courses we employ qualified local guides who live and operate in the Scottish Highlands. They're an integral part of the local community and they know the intricacies of the local mountains, about the wildlife, the local environmental issues, etc. Through employing local guides we maximise both your vacation experience and the benefit to the local economy at a time of the year when visitor numbers are low. We source as much produce as we can locally and we support a number of local business', both directly and indirectly. By taking a winter vacation you're very much helping the year round sustainability of the local economy.

During the winter months we maximise the use a wood Burning Stove to supplement the heating at our lodge - the overall efficiency of these stoves is superb, particularly when you consider the energy used in production of other fuels. Wood is a renewable fuel and doesn't introduce any further carbon into the carbon cycle as fossil fuels do. As part of our continuing commitment to environmentally responsible vacations we are currently in the process

People

Our staff all live within the village which minimises the impact on the environment as we are all able to walk to work.

We buy locally from the butcher and farms in the Cairngorms National park as far as we can and always source our menus seasonally.

We support as many of the local events are we can and are currently investigating a local programme along the lines of the Friends of Abernethy for a traceable environmental contribution which our guests can support.

Our village is active in promoting the use of the village hall. There is a series of talks year round, delivered by local naturalists and travelers which we encourage the guests to attend along with the social events such as the Hogmanay Ceilidh or the Elgin Fiddlers. The talks are wide ranging in the winter and will cover all kinds of travel related topics but in the summer the talks are all supported by the RSPB and focussed on the local wildlife.

We have also recently started a programme to support local artisans by using our accommodation as a working showroom for their products; which in turn encourages our guests to consider purchasing local crafts to take away with them. The bedside tables and lamps in some rooms are supplied by our local cabinet maker and pottery.