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Ranger Report | Summer 2025
August 18th, 2025.
A Busy Summer For The Mountain Ranger Service
The past few weeks have been busy for the Cairngorm Mountain Ranger Service, with the summer school holidays bringing lots of visitors to the resort and wider Cairngorm Estate.
It has been a real team effort, with duties ranging from leading our Cairn Gorm Summit Walks, to giving educational talks, monitoring visitors, and carrying out a variety of path maintenance and conservation work.
Read on to find out more about what the Rangers have been up to and get some insight into life in these mountains.
So Who Are The Cairngorm Mountain Rangers?
Operating from the Ranger Base at the foot of the resort, the Ranger Service not only advises on the use and care of the estate, but is also responsible for supporting path maintenance, habitat restoration, and providing education to visitors.
We have a team of three full-time rangers based at the resort year-round, with a further two seasonal rangers who bolster the team outside of the snowsports season.
Collaboration With RSPB Rangers
On 23rd July 2025, members of the RSPB Abernethy montane ranger team and Cairngorm Estate senior ranger Ruari Macdonald spent the day exploring various examples of path repairs, techniques, and potential solutions to address and prevent erosion across the Cairngorm plateau.
Many of the areas observed featured works carried out on the Cairngorm Estate over the last two decades. The Cairngorm ranger team continues to improve and adapt its methods to minimise erosion, such as regular path maintenance and vegetation reinstatement using specialised grass seed and fertiliser mixes formulated for the thin soils of the high Cairngorms.
Shona’s July Diary
“As the summer holidays begin, the hills are getting busy. As part of the ranger team, we’re often helping people with route ideas, weather information, and general guidance – either down at the Ranger Base or out on the hill.
Paws on the Plateau is underway – a new scheme in partnership with RSPB Abernethy (our neighbouring landowners here on the plateau) to promote and encourage responsible dog behaviour. We now have badges and buffs to hand out to visitors with whom we’ve had positive engagements regarding their dogs. We’ll continue to work alongside the RSPB ranger team on the plateau with patrols and path work.
I gave a talk to University of Georgia students about the Cairngorm Estate, the landscape, and the pressures visitors place on this fragile upland environment. They had a great trip, and this apparently rounded off their UK tour nicely.
Alongside that, most of our recent time has been a big team effort focused on habitat restoration above the Ptarmigan station.”
Path Maintenance
The ongoing path maintenance programme continues within the Cairngorm Estate, with both external contractors and the Rangers carrying out a variety of works – from minor repairs to substantial developments.
Ellie has been working on clearing and repairing drainage along the alternative summit path route – a job that requires constant attention to prevent washouts during heavy rain.
In addition to work carried out by the Ranger Service, we’ve had the team from Cairngorm Wilderness Contracts delivering a major project on the Coire na Ciste ridge path. This involved airlifting tons of material by helicopter to improve a boggy section of the path above No.2 Gully – a popular winter snowsports run when conditions allow.
Senior Ranger, Ruari, visited the team in July to check on their progress.
Weather Observations
Daily weather observations are another key responsibility of the Ranger Service. Weather data has been collected at the Base Station for over 30 years – through sun, rain, wind, and snow. Observations are taken at approximately 10 am each day and include measurements of air temperature, wind speed and direction, rainfall, soil temperature, grass-level temperature, and visibility.
The weather this summer has been mixed, with periods of prolonged warmth and sunshine alternating with heavy rainfall and cooler-than-usual temperatures. Earlier in August, we were hit with gale-force winds as Storm Floris arrived – Matthew described it as by far the wildest weather he’d experienced since the January winter storms.
Visitor Monitoring
The Mountain Ranger Service is the face of our visitor engagement efforts, and a major part of their work involves monitoring visitor numbers. This is done through a combination of methods, from manually counting cars in various car parks to using subterranean people-counting technology.
Several people counters are placed in strategic locations around the estate. These must be regularly monitored to ensure we’re capturing accurate data for planning and decision-making. This includes extended periods of observation and note-taking to compare with recorded data. If a counter is found to be inaccurate, it will be dug up and recalibrated.
And that’s a wrap for this edition of “Ranger Reports.” There’s lots more activity planned in the coming months, which you can read about in our next report, due later in the autumn.
If you’re ever visiting the resort and fancy a chat about the work happening around the estate, feel free to pop into the Ranger Base (located at the top of the car park) and speak with a member of the team.
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