Programmes By Date - Aigas Field Centre

We stayed at Aigas Field Centre for 5 days in August 2014 and thoroughly enjoyed all of the activities on offer: where else could you stay in a wooden chalet, eat wonderful food in a baronial hall and have professionally guided wildlife watching outings every day? The ethics of the organisation are admirable with support of education on wildlife and conservation. Having spent holidays in Scotland over 40 years, and now lucky enough to live here, we still appreciated being taken to the best sites for seeing wildlife in this beautiful part of the country. An real bonus was the opportunity to watch badgers, pine martens and beaver from the estate hides. Excellent weather enhanced the experience, especially watching young golden eagles against a blue sky!
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callandergirl2014

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callandergirl2014

We stayed at Aigas Field Centre for 5 days in August 2014 and thoroughly enjoyed all of the activities on offer: where else could you stay in a wooden chalet, eat wonderful food in a baronial hall and have professionally guided wildlife watching outings every day? The ethics of the organisation are admirable with support of education on wildlife and conservation. Having spent holidays in Scotland over 40 years, and now lucky enough to live here, we still appreciated being taken to the best sites for seeing wildlife in this beautiful part of the country. An real bonus was the opportunity to watch badgers, pine martens and beaver from the estate hides. Excellent weather enhanced the experience, especially watching young golden eagles against a blue sky!
Stayed for a week on the wildlife week - and practically everything met or exceeded expectations - great experience. The area is rich in wildlife and had some great sightings, red squirrels are abundant and the photography hides for them ensure great views - the beavers were on show and with some persistence morning and evening showed including 2 kits - badger showed on 3 nights and pine martin on 2. A young tawny owl posed for a picture briefly too. The days out were good too - leisurely in pace, sight seeing including to the amazing dolphins on the coast. Recommend bringing own telescope if possible as whilst the rangers carry one, it saves sharing and some sightings are distant such as golden eagle and otter - the house does hire out binoculars though for a reasonable price. Slavonian grebes great to see on a loch not far away too. On this trip, no walking really far from vehicles but that suits of course those a little less mobile. . The rangers / guides are great, full of enthusiasm and do everything to make everyone's day as good as it can be - and some sharp naturalists there too including with the placement students. The rangers/guides are well connected and knew of a local eagle nest and other wildlife in the area. The garden's are lovely to walk round too for when one wants to relax on site. The directors gave tours of both the garden and the house. Suggest really talk to the centre pre your stay to ensure you get what you need - they have dogs around the house and common room but immediately offered to put them elsewhere if anyone allergic etc. The accommodation lodges was pleasant, a little tired in places but the site is coping with the covid pandemic and with staff recruitment challenges - but doing a great job. Just ask if anything you need and they really try to make a stay perfect. We asked for an extra night in the Campbell hide and we got 3 in total which was great. All in all a great week and great people, particularly the rangers/guides. Recommended to wildlife fans and of course if Scottish highlands combined with another interest such as whisky, walking, trees etc as per the itinerary is your interest.
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KevinA488

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KevinA488

Stayed for a week on the wildlife week - and practically everything met or exceeded expectations - great experience. The area is rich in wildlife and had some great sightings, red squirrels are abundant and the photography hides for them ensure great views - the beavers were on show and with some persistence morning and evening showed including 2 kits - badger showed on 3 nights and pine martin on 2. A young tawny owl posed for a picture briefly too. The days out were good too - leisurely in pace, sight seeing including to the amazing dolphins on the coast. Recommend bringing own telescope if possible as whilst the rangers carry one, it saves sharing and some sightings are distant such as golden eagle and otter - the house does hire out binoculars though for a reasonable price. Slavonian grebes great to see on a loch not far away too. On this trip, no walking really far from vehicles but that suits of course those a little less mobile. . The rangers / guides are great, full of enthusiasm and do everything to make everyone's day as good as it can be - and some sharp naturalists there too including with the placement students. The rangers/guides are well connected and knew of a local eagle nest and other wildlife in the area. The garden's are lovely to walk round too for when one wants to relax on site. The directors gave tours of both the garden and the house. Suggest really talk to the centre pre your stay to ensure you get what you need - they have dogs around the house and common room but immediately offered to put them elsewhere if anyone allergic etc. The accommodation lodges was pleasant, a little tired in places but the site is coping with the covid pandemic and with staff recruitment challenges - but doing a great job. Just ask if anything you need and they really try to make a stay perfect. We asked for an extra night in the Campbell hide and we got 3 in total which was great. All in all a great week and great people, particularly the rangers/guides. Recommended to wildlife fans and of course if Scottish highlands combined with another interest such as whisky, walking, trees etc as per the itinerary is your interest.
The first thing that struck us was that the friendliness of the staff and hosts was still as good as it had been when we went there some three years ago. Lady Lucy's one wish seemed to be that she wanted our holiday week to be as good as possible and to that end could not do enough for us whether it was a change of menu or the need for an extra pillow. We were there for a garden and wild flower week going out in a small group with a big packed lunch we chose ourselves from a variety of items with a very knowledgeable ranger to help us with local history and names of flowers which they knew the whereabouts of. Sir John added to the mix with a dry sense of humour. It was not all wild flowers as we saw some spectacular scenery, visited private gardens and listened to interesting talks. It seemed that they were there to give you the holiday you want in the way that you want it.
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Malcolm L

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Malcolm L

The first thing that struck us was that the friendliness of the staff and hosts was still as good as it had been when we went there some three years ago. Lady Lucy's one wish seemed to be that she wanted our holiday week to be as good as possible and to that end could not do enough for us whether it was a change of menu or the need for an extra pillow. We were there for a garden and wild flower week going out in a small group with a big packed lunch we chose ourselves from a variety of items with a very knowledgeable ranger to help us with local history and names of flowers which they knew the whereabouts of. Sir John added to the mix with a dry sense of humour. It was not all wild flowers as we saw some spectacular scenery, visited private gardens and listened to interesting talks. It seemed that they were there to give you the holiday you want in the way that you want it.