Wildlife

Increasingly tourists and travellers are seeking to refresh their spirits by engaging in interaction with the natural world from which we are too often cut off by the pressures of modern living. At Tomdoun there are ample opportunities for encountering and observing the rich wildlife of the Scottish Highlands. All the more so since around the hotel there is a variety of eco-systems and micro-climates, which create a great range in the animal and bird populations. Indeed, in the Glengarry area the wildlife outnumbers the people many times.The lower reaches of Glengarry and its side glens are richly wooded, and contain many lochs as well as rivers. Here, even in the hotel grounds, you can encounter roe deer in the morning and evening, as well as red squirrels and the pine marten, now making a comeback in the expanding conifer forests. The extremely lucky-and patient -might encounter the ultra elusive badger after dark.The lochs and rivers support a large population of wildfowl, with many species of ducks, geese and red and black throated divers, and the woodland is bustling with many smaller birds. Ospreys can also be seen fishing in the lochs, and dippers colonise the riverbanks. Otters also breed locally.The landscape hereabouts is such a bio-diversity hotspot that it is being considered as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The moorland reveals its inhabitants to the keen observer. Here amidst the grass and heather is the home of the curlew and the snipe and the red and black grouse, as well as those raptors feeding on them: buzzards, hen harriers and of course, golden eagles. The moorland also sustains populations of foxes and wildcats, as well as small herds of wild goatsThe high summits may seem at first devoid of life, but look carefully and you could see the ptarmigan camouflaged against the rocks, as well as pairs of ravens croaking at your approach. And even on the summit rocks, amongst the recesses can be found mice and other small mammals like the stoat. And when not hunting, the wide -ranging eagle can be seen soaring in the uplift wind of the mountain tops.