Programmes By Date - Aigas Field Centre

I concur with the praise from others for the standard week at Aigas. This is a special place. Every interaction with the staff at all levels was wonderful: * office staff -- Sheila and Marjorie * the rangers -- knowledgeable, cheerful, resourceful * the owners -- Sir John and Lady Lucy * even the kitchen staff (sorry I did not learn their names) We chose to extend our stay and do an extra day after the Highland House Party. They assigned ranger Jenny as our guide. She met with us a few times early in the week to understand what we were looking for. She came back with a proposal to go to the Cairngorms Mountain area. This was not on our itinerary for Highland House party, so we were pleased to see another part of Scotland. The 2 main attractions that she chose for us were: * Highland Folk Museum -- contains a 1700s village that was used for several scenes in Outlander -- really fascinating. This place also contains history and culture from other historic eras, but we did not take the time to see it all -- more for the next trip. * Cairngorms Mountain ski area -- this time of year covered with pink and purple heather in bloom. It is also a good spot for the Ring Ouzel -- a bird that we did not manage to see earlier in the trip. We found out that Jenny had spent the previous day scouting out the route -- checking timings, and toilet stops. That is emblematic for the level attention to detail to get when booking a trip at Aigas. Come and experience the joy.
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Shakespeare_Fan

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Shakespeare_Fan

I concur with the praise from others for the standard week at Aigas. This is a special place. Every interaction with the staff at all levels was wonderful: * office staff -- Sheila and Marjorie * the rangers -- knowledgeable, cheerful, resourceful * the owners -- Sir John and Lady Lucy * even the kitchen staff (sorry I did not learn their names) We chose to extend our stay and do an extra day after the Highland House Party. They assigned ranger Jenny as our guide. She met with us a few times early in the week to understand what we were looking for. She came back with a proposal to go to the Cairngorms Mountain area. This was not on our itinerary for Highland House party, so we were pleased to see another part of Scotland. The 2 main attractions that she chose for us were: * Highland Folk Museum -- contains a 1700s village that was used for several scenes in Outlander -- really fascinating. This place also contains history and culture from other historic eras, but we did not take the time to see it all -- more for the next trip. * Cairngorms Mountain ski area -- this time of year covered with pink and purple heather in bloom. It is also a good spot for the Ring Ouzel -- a bird that we did not manage to see earlier in the trip. We found out that Jenny had spent the previous day scouting out the route -- checking timings, and toilet stops. That is emblematic for the level attention to detail to get when booking a trip at Aigas. Come and experience the joy.
We have just returned from a fabulous week at Aigas, a unique base from which to see the wildlife of the Highlands. The Field Centre is the stately home of Sir John and Lady Lucy Lister-Kaye, who are so welcoming and are the perfect hosts. They made us feel more like family guests than customers, which was immediately proved by the number of guests on our programme that have stayed there many times before. In fact, we seemed to be virtually the only first-timers, although it definitely won't be our last! The accommodation and meals are excellent, all under the personal supervision of Lady Lucy; and the wildlife programmes were extremely well organised. The programs themselves are led by both permanent and seasonal rangers, who all have a superb knowledge of the wildlife, history and geology of Scotland. Even the newer staff had all been trained extremely well, to have managed to learn so much knowledge to impart to us. It was also obvious that they all have genuine enthusiasm and take real personal pride in the work that they do for the centre. Aigas is set in a beautiful country setting, which contains its own loch and wildlife hides, containing a wide variety of Highland wildlife. It must be one of the few places where you could be lucky enough to see amongst other things, pine martens, otters and beavers. As well as learning so much, it was an extremely relaxing way to leave the rat-race for a week and do something much more full-filling instead. This is a very special place and a testament to the Lister-Kaye's for creating such a wonderful environment and also to all of the staff who do such a first-class job. We will definitely return again in the future to experience some of their other wildlife programmes.
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Darren C

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Darren C

We have just returned from a fabulous week at Aigas, a unique base from which to see the wildlife of the Highlands. The Field Centre is the stately home of Sir John and Lady Lucy Lister-Kaye, who are so welcoming and are the perfect hosts. They made us feel more like family guests than customers, which was immediately proved by the number of guests on our programme that have stayed there many times before. In fact, we seemed to be virtually the only first-timers, although it definitely won't be our last! The accommodation and meals are excellent, all under the personal supervision of Lady Lucy; and the wildlife programmes were extremely well organised. The programs themselves are led by both permanent and seasonal rangers, who all have a superb knowledge of the wildlife, history and geology of Scotland. Even the newer staff had all been trained extremely well, to have managed to learn so much knowledge to impart to us. It was also obvious that they all have genuine enthusiasm and take real personal pride in the work that they do for the centre. Aigas is set in a beautiful country setting, which contains its own loch and wildlife hides, containing a wide variety of Highland wildlife. It must be one of the few places where you could be lucky enough to see amongst other things, pine martens, otters and beavers. As well as learning so much, it was an extremely relaxing way to leave the rat-race for a week and do something much more full-filling instead. This is a very special place and a testament to the Lister-Kaye's for creating such a wonderful environment and also to all of the staff who do such a first-class job. We will definitely return again in the future to experience some of their other wildlife programmes.
We had the most wonderful time at Aigas earlier this year. We couldn't have been made more welcome by the family and all the fantastic staff. Lady Lucy did us proud with a different vegetarian dish every evening and every one of them was fabulous. We went out every day and saw incredible wildlife, coast to coast. The loch and the hides were worth visiting several times a day and we saw beavers in the loch and pine martens and Jays and woodpeckers from the hides. We cannot praise Aigas highly enough and really hope to go again in the not too distant future.
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Lindis D

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Lindis D

We had the most wonderful time at Aigas earlier this year. We couldn't have been made more welcome by the family and all the fantastic staff. Lady Lucy did us proud with a different vegetarian dish every evening and every one of them was fabulous. We went out every day and saw incredible wildlife, coast to coast. The loch and the hides were worth visiting several times a day and we saw beavers in the loch and pine martens and Jays and woodpeckers from the hides. We cannot praise Aigas highly enough and really hope to go again in the not too distant future.