Estate

Two Scottish landholdings gain prestigious wildlife conservation accreditation

Two Scottish landholdings have retained their prestigious international accreditation to recognise their ongoing work in wildlife management and conservation.

Wildlife Estates Scotland (WES) accreditation has been awarded to Glenmuick Estate and to Rottal Estate, both of which are nestled in the Cairngorms National Park.

WES is a national version of the European Landowners Organisation’s Wildlife Estates (WE) accreditation scheme and is driving forward best practice in land management throughout Scotland’s farms, estates and other rural landholdings.

Glenmuick is a traditional mixed highland estate near Ballater offering sporting, tourism, housing and agricultural opportunities. The estate works to ensure a balanced environment with the primary focus on best practice wildlife management and conservation, including regular and comprehensive breeding surveys.

During a dedicated butterfy survey in 2020, 30 species of butterfy were identifed on the estate including the near threatened Scotch Argus. Glenmuick are also involved in a collaborative project to restore nutrients on the River Muick in the hope it will rejuvenate algae, insects and aquatic life including juvenile salmon over the coming years.

Rottal, meanwhile, is an upland estate with approximately 2600ha of moorland made up of both dry and wet heathland, 200ha of woodland, riparian woodland and scrub and natural regeneration and 400ha of improved and unimproved grass land. The estate farms sheep, has

Rottal owner Dee Ward and head keeper Mark Palmer on estate using raptor monitoring app

a grouse moor, red deer, holiday lets and events and also produces electricity via a hydro-electric scheme.

The estate is involved with a catchment wide contour tree planting initiative designed to improve natural food management, control diffuse pollution, improve landscape and habitats and increase biomass and timber production. Rottal has planted 120,000 trees running almost the entire length of the estate and created a number of hedges and riparian plantings along burns. It has also been involved in extensive peatland restoration programmes, creating wet areas, ponds and scrapes. This spring, the estate hosted four curlew nests on an area of restoration.

Caroline Pringle, Project Offcer at Wildlife Estates Scotland, said: “Landholdings across Scotland are embarking on vital conservation work that greatly benefts society but often comes at signifcant cost to the business. Land managers see themselves as custodians of their local habitat and this is especially true at Glenmuick and Rottal. Both estates should be very proud of retaining their WES accreditation following a rigorous process which sets a high benchmark for best practice.”

Andrew Walker-Okeover, owner of Glenmuick, said: “The aim of Glenmuick is to do our very best for our shared natural environment and to manage the business of the estate in an ecologically responsible way. The Wildlife Estates Scotland scheme is a great initiative to encourage the sharing of knowledge and best practice management and we are very