Rothiemurchus is very important for natural history and always has been. It is made even more special because of lochs and rivers, moorland and mountain which create great diversity within the estate. It is no wonder that in 1954 part of it was chosen as one of Scotland’s first National Nature Reserves. A special attraction to naturalists is that such different habitats are so close together, from the summits of the mountains down to the River Spey is only a distance of about five miles, but is also a drop of about 3,000ft in altitude. This gives a great variety of wildlife in a surprisingly small area. You can listen to the Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings singing in the morning and a few hours later see Snow Bunting breeding at the other end of the estate, it is special to have them so close together.

Thousands and thousands of cattle grazed in the hills and forests of Strathspey during the 18th century they were even taken up into the sheilings and high Corries in the summer. Later came great flocks of sheep which had a dramatic influence on the landscape and wildlife. In some ways the cattle were replicating the effects of the ancient cattle that were present when humans arrived. Generally speaking we say cattle are good for wildlife and sheep are bad. The low intensive farming that started centuries ago and was little changed until the mid 1960’s gave ideal habitats which were not associated with the original forest environment.

Rothiemurchus has some very special birds; Crested Tits, Scottish Crossbill and Capercaillie and at least 173 species of birds have been recorded here and of those 101 are regular breeders. There are very few places in Britain where you can find 100 species nesting on one estate. Another 19 species have either been sporadic feeders or are now extinct as breeding species: for example the Corncrake, which last nested at Tullochgrue in the early 1960’s but no longer does so. There are a further 53 species which are migrants or vagrants. In total 27 species of mammal occur on Rothiemurchus and another 9 are now extinct.

Rothiemurchus has always been renowned for its wildlife. It was a mecca for the Victorian naturalists on the quest for rare wildlife. It has the dramatic history of the decline of the breeding Ospreys at the famous castle at Loch an Eilein. The century is both exciting and sad; in April 1893 the Zoological Society of London awarded a silver medal (designed by Landseer) to John Peter Grant of Rothiemurchus (Laird) for his attempts to safeguard the birds. Sadly, they were lost by 1900 although nowadays Rothiemurchus is now once more important for Ospreys again. In fact the present Laird’s father received the RSPB medal in 1960 for his support of the reintroduction of Ospreys. The best place in the UK to see ospreys fishing is the Rothiemurchus Fishery. At the start of this millennium nine big mammals are likely to have been present, of those that became extinct 5 were herbivores; Wild Boar, Beaver, Elk, Wild cattle and Reindeer, the others species being Polecat, Brown Bear, Wolf and Lynx.

One of the most dramatic losses was the Capercaillie, they had become extinct before the 1770’s but were reintroduced to Scotland from Sweden from 1837 onwards. The first 4 reached Rothiemurchus in 1890 and there then followed a slow re-colonisation. The maximum population were probably reached in the 1950’s and 60’s and it is difficult for people now to believe that numbers were once so plentiful that the local crofters and farmers were fed up with Capercaillie, red grouse and black grouse because their stooks became so covered in their droppings it was a very dirty task to gather in the harvest! What a difference now for it is a bird we are all trying to protect, however in recent years there has been annual recording at Rothiemurchus of the most successful breeding in the UK.