Mar Lodge Estate National Nature Reserve NTS

Home
United Kingdom
Braemar
Mar Lodge Estate National Nature Reserve NTS

Mar Lodge Estate occupies nearly 7% of the Cairngorms National Park and covers some of the most remote and scenic wild land in Scotland.
(1)

Cared for by the National Trust for Scotland, Mar Lodge Estate features four of the five highest mountains in the UK, and fifteen of the Trust's 46 Munros can be found on the estate. Within its boundaries are fine examples of classic features of a Highland landscape: remnants of the ancient Caledonian pine forest, heather moorland, juniper scrub and a part of the high Cairngorm plateau. The estate

is recognised as one of the most important nature conservation landscapes in the British Isles: over 80% of the estate is covered by national and international nature conservation designations. Entry to the wider estate itself is free although there is a £3 parking charge at the Linn of Dee car park. If you are interested in our price range for our accommodation, events or as a venue then please contact the estate on [email protected] or visit our website.

05/06/2026

It's pine pollen time again, and with some gusty winds whipping through the trees there seems to be a lot of it on the air this year. Here's some light shaking of a scots pine branch to give a sense of how readily the pollen is released.

04/06/2026

Hadn't been out to Choire Dhuibh on the south side of Glen Luibeg recently but on a venture out there last week we were really encouraged to see the development of the dwarf birch trees which are quite abundant in the choire. The dwarf birch is now responding to the reduced grazing pressure (thanks to our stalking team) and starting to grow above the height of the heather as it should do . We look forward to seeing this spreading over time, and alongside the willows and Scots pine, beginning to form a montane woodland habitat which will be beneficial for biodiversity in addition to other benefits such as slowing water flow off the hills.

02/06/2026

Every year for the last 10 years or so we have been recording the first spring sighting of a selection of the bird species which leave Mar Lodge for winter. This list includes Common Sandpiper, Cuckoo, House Martin, Pied Wagtail, Redstart, Ring Ouzel, Swallow, Tree pipit, Wheater and Willow Warbler. Over these ten years the average arrival date across all species has been creeping forward earlier into April. However it was interesting to see that birds arrived on average a week later this year compared to 2025. Potentially due to the cold late winter this year compared to the good weather last spring. Nine out of the 10 species we recorded arrived later this year with swallow being the only species which arrived on the same day. One of the most popular migrants, the Cuckoo, arrived on the 31st April in 2024, the 18th April in 2025 and this year on the 22nd April.
Did other people generally find that the birds arrived earlier this year ?

Photo credit: Rob Hume

27/05/2026

Tonight was the sort of night where you don't want to come back inside it was so beautiful. A great night to choose to camp at Derry Lodge. The pines trees looked simply stunning and nice to see the low level light highlighting the natural regeneration marching up Sgor Dubh.

26/05/2026

Lovely to find some beautiful hairy caterpillars on the young Hawthorn within our native species hedge which we planted a couple of years ago now. The stunning black and orange caterpillar is commonly known as the 'woolly bear'. It is the caterpillar of the also stunning Garden Tiger moth which is common in most of Britain and found in gardens, meadows, woodland edges, sand dunes, fens, riverbanks, and open woodlands.
The striking yellow, white and black caterpillar is the caterpillar of the Dark Tussock moth which is usually found on moorland, heathland, coastal vegetated shingle and sand-dunes. The caterpillar feeds on Heather, Broom, Creeping Willow, other sallows and willows, Bramble, Silver Birch, Downy Birch and other plants including Hawthorn.
Hopefully we will see the moths sometime in the future.

24/05/2026

Not quite as nice a day as we had expected on Beinn a' Bhuird yesterday being pretty chilly in the wind for late May. Still some significant snow being held in the coires and the usual great views to Ben Avon. It was another day having a look for Dotterel and it was nice to turn up a few pairs along with Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Snow Buntings. Managed one shot of Dotterel although not a prize winner. Taken with an 800mm lens so no disturbance to the bird. Dotterel is one of our bird species that lives only at high altitude and is vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

21/05/2026

A familiar sight at Mar Lodge stables during the month of May - a line of rucksacks taking a rest in the courtyard, while their owners do the same indoors with a cuppa and a biscuit 🫖☕️🍪.

It was a pleasure to host more than 140 TGO Challengers this year, who funnel through Mar Lodge Estate as they make their way from the west coast to the east coast, as part of the annual TGO Challenge.

We are one of many locations who hold caches for the participants, and offer a warm and dry space for them to rest up with some refreshment, before the long tarmac trudge into Braemar 😉. With participants from overseas and across the UK, we always feel like we meet the world when the TGO passes through, and this year was no exception.

Most of the folk we met have probably just completed their challenges in the last day or two, or are about to do so. Well done, folks! And hopefully we'll see you again next year 👍🙂

19/05/2026

In the late 1990's the National Trust for Scotland removed the land rover track which had previously been bulldozed up Beinn a' Bhuird. Over the years we have been monitoring the recovery and re-vegetation of this track. It is interesting to observe in the lower reaches of the track area how the restored surface has proven to be a particularly good seed bed for Scots pines. This is due to the disturbance, the bare ground that was present, the mineral soil brought closer to the surface and the freer draining nature of the ground after it was re-worked.

15/05/2026

Last week I nearly stepped on this melanistic adder (Vípera berus) when walking along as it didn't immediately click that it was a snake due to it's more consistent dark colour rather than the usual two tone colour variation in adders. The zig-zag pattern is still evident but with little colour contrast. We occasionally see melanistic adders at Mar Lodge but they are not common.

Melanistic adders are generally considered to be at an advantage in colder climates because they have higher thermoregulatory efficiency due to their black colour. Another hypothesis states that black snakes should be more exposed than cryptic ones to visually oriented predation as they are more easily seen. For this reason it has been suggested that black adders should essentially inhabit forested zones where it is more easy for them to escape predators that are hunting by sight.
A study carried out to test this hypothesis did not find that melanistic adders were more concentrated in forested areas. In fact the study found that the frequency of occurrence of melanistic adders in open habitats was almost identical to that of the usual two-tone adders.

Address

Estate Office Mar Lodge
Braemar
AB355YJ

Telephone

+441339720163

Website

http://www.nts.org.uk/Property/Mar-Lodge-Estate

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Mar Lodge Estate National Nature Reserve NTS posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organisation

Send a message to Mar Lodge Estate National Nature Reserve NTS:

Shortcuts

Want your organisation to be the top-listed Government Service in Braemar?