Helping you discover some of the excellent green spaces & health initiatives underway in Badenoch & Strathspey.
We have created a Directory to help you decide what activity may suit you best. While every effort is made to ensure that the content of this directory is up to date, from time to time, information may have expired. Please contact us if you experience any problems.
The map below will help you to find activities close to you. Not all services will feature on the map, as many have locations that vary. We also encourage you to look at the accompanying list of activities by category on this page. To save or print a copy of the list please click the icon to the top right of the webpage.
Many of the activities are free of charge but some services may incur a charge. Many services are available to everyone while some require a referral from a health professional. If you wish to participate in a service requiring a referral, please discuss this with your GP or other health practitioner.
If you don’t feel ready to get out in to nature just yet, there are a number of transitional activities that could help you get there.
Have a group or initiative and would like to be included?
Directory Key
Each activity is labelled as easy, moderate, harder or mixed abilities. The information in the key below should help you to decide which activity will suit you best. This is only indicative, and we would encourage you to contact the activity provider direct, if you have concerns about it’s suitability for you. Activities that have a social element or are accessed by referral only are also indicated.
Easy – low level intensity of exercise such as walking for one hour of less in duration, light gardening or short bike ride. Sedentary activities and those that promote mindfulness and wellbeing.
Moderate – Low level intensity exercise that lasts for on extended period, beyond one hour in length; or shorter periods of moderate intensity exercise, digging, light lifting or strength work.
Harder – Higher intensity exercise that raises the heart rate for sustained periods of time. Activities that extend to a half or full day outdoors. Competitive sports, heavy lifting and strength work.
Mixed Abilities – These are activities that can cater for any age or ability, or where you can choose what level of intensity you would like to take part in.
Social – These activities have an optional social element, such as a cup of tea and cake as part of the organised event, or social gatherings outside of the activity times.
Referral – To access this service you must be referred by a relevant health or social care professional.
Gardening and Growing
Badenoch and Strathspey Therapy Garden
We provide social and therapeutic horticultural activities in day centres, care homes, Medical Centre garden and at our Growing Spaces within a local allotment for people in our communities within Badenoch and Strathspey.
Badenoch Gardening Club
Monthly meetings in Newtonmore, outings, Badenoch annual spring and summer shows.
Walking and Running Initiatives
Active Cairngorms Health Walks
Health Walks are friendly, short, safe, local volunteer-led walks open to all abilities. They last from 10 minutes up to an hour depending on the abilities of walkers and all are welcome for a cuppa and a chat following the walk. There are 16 Health Walks meeting in communities across the Cairngorms.
Badenoch & Strathspey Ramblers
Led walks, fortnightly on Saturday, ranging from fairly level 5-6 miles to full scale hill walks, mostly within the strath but sometimes further afield in summer. We always meet locally and car share if going any distance.
Am Monadh Ruadh Walking Club
Walks every two weeks all year of varying difficulty in Strathspey area and beyond
The Grantown Society
They have a number of waymarked trails within Grantown and their website lists organised walks you can get involved with.
Aviemore Park Run
A free, fun, and friendly weekly 5k community event. Walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate – it’s up to you!
Cycling Initiatives
Cairngorm Cycling Club
The Cairngorm Cycling Club is run by and for cycling enthusiasts in Strathspey and Badenoch of all ages and abilities. The Club holds rides and races all year and club members ride/race both on and off road and no distinction is made between road and MTB riders. All cyclists are welcome. Club rides vary from social events to hard training rides.
Badenoch and Strathspey Community ConnXions
Community transport and social inclusion services in Badenoch & Strathspey. Project includes the use on an E-trike enabling people with a disability to get to the outdoors and “get wind in their hair”.
Cycle Friendly Kingussie
Cycle Friendly Kingussie (CFK) runs regular ride outs, maintenance workshops for all abilities, social events and much more. We have a fleet of electric bikes to try and we organise the amazing annual Kingussie Bikeathon with our friends at Kingussie High School.
Outdoor Learning and Play
RSPB Abernethy
The Loch Garten Nature Centre at RSPB Abernethy reserve offers a great opportunity for you, your family and friends to have some accessible, good-value, nature-fun in a glorious setting. The accessible centre sits in the stunning and rare Caledonian pine forest, close to Loch Garten, and is home to the world-famous Osprey nest. Red Squirrels, Woodpeckers, Voles, Siskins and Crested Tits all visit our feeders regularly. Daily nature activities and talks, alongside fresh brewed coffee and cake. There’s a Changing Places facility at the Loch Garten car park, and forest trails through beautiful pine forest.
High Life Highland Countryside Ranger
Explore Green Health with High Life Highland’s Lochaber Countryside Rangers!
Discover a variety of events and activities designed to raise awareness and appreciation of the stunning scenery, diverse wildlife, and rich heritage of the Highlands. In Badenoch and Strathspey, options range from a short ‘Ranger Ramble’ along the river Spey to family rockpooling in the school holidays, to our Healthy Minds fortnightly group for folk with minor mental health issues. This involves making camp and a fire, cooking lunch and some nature based activities.
Find out more:
- Visit our website: Countryside Rangers – High Life Highland Rangers
- Follow us on Facebook: Facebook
- Read our blog: Nature Unveiled | High Life Highland Ranger | Substack
- Find your local Ranger: Find a Countryside Ranger – High Life Highland Rangers
- Email us: outdoor.activities@highlifehighland.com
Join us and experience the beauty of Badenoch and Strathspey while promoting your well-being!
Roots and Shoots Highland
We support nature connection and outdoor learning and play across B&S. This includes supported nature play family sessions for parents/carers and pre-school age children (with a big focus on H&WB), Outsider Decider sessions for children (CBT informed skills for positive mental health, delivered through outdoor activities). We deliver adventurous outdoor play holiday clubs, John Muir Award programmes etc. We also deliver ‘Branching Out’ therapeutic outdoor programmes for adults with poor mental health in the area.
IRL (In Real Life) education
IRL (In Real Life) education exists to bridge the gap between the school curriculum and the skills young people need to be successful in life after school. We deliver courses directly to secondary school pupils on a range of topics including:
– People Skills
– Innovation & Creativity
– Routines & Habits
– Learning to learn
– Emotional Intelligence
– Career Decisions
– Persuasion
– Meditation & Mindfulness.
Relaxation and Mindfulness
Total Yoga
Outdoor Yoga – small group or one to one. We simply wander to a quiet spot, no mat required. We breathe, mobilise our joints and appreciate our wild spaces. This can be a stronger practise but suits all levels. Essential to book as no set time for meetings.
totalyoga@outlook.com or 0770 717 4314
Qigong – small group or one to one. We usually meet in a park. These are short sequences for health and wellbeing We concentrate on good breath work and warm up the joints before moving into short specific health sequences. Slow deliberate movements for all levels.
totalyoga@outlook.com or 0770 717 4314
Highland QuietLife
Forest Bathing, or Shinrin-yoku is the practice of immersing yourself in nature; ‘bathing’ in the awesome goodness that trees release into the atmosphere; reaping the benefits from magic little things called phytoncides’ and receiving mental calmness from the fractal patterns, vibrant shades of green and calming blues around us – what better place to do this than the Cairngorms National Park.
Community Forest Bathing Group – we meet the first Sunday of the month, 10:30-11:30 at the Grantown Health Woods next to the Medical Centre. This is a free group, everyone is welcome to attend. Please get in touch if you would like to have a chat, or just come along and join us.
Volunteering Opportunities
Volunteer Cairngorms
Volunteer Cairngorms raises the profile of opportunities to get involved with environmental volunteering across the Cairngorms National Park delivered by a range of partner organisations: from planting trees, taking care of mountain paths, and looking after habitat to surveying trees, managing non-native species or monitoring wildlife, there’s something for everyone!
Cairngorms Connect
Cairngorms Connect is a partnership of neighbouring land managers, committed to a bold and ambitious 200-year vision to enhance habitats, species and ecological processes across a vast area within the Cairngorms National Park.
Tree Nursery Volunteering We are always looking for volunteers to help at our community tree nursery on RSPB Scotland’s Abernethy Reserve. Tasks will vary throughout the year and are likely to include collecting and sowing seed, weeding and watering, mowing, pricking out seedlings, digging over beds, and planting trees out on the reserve. All tools and gloves are provided. No previous experience is necessary – just a willingness to learn and a passion for trees and the wider environment.
Other Events We also run a diverse programme of events throughout the year – check out our website for current listings
WILD AND WELL (outdoor volunteering)
Seeking to support adults and young people with their mental health and wellbeing. Our sessions offer interaction with the natural world in a safe and supportive social space and participants can also volunteer in vital conservation tasks including biological recording, avian surveys, coppicing, tree planting, removing invasive non-native species and generating a sense of achievement and pride through improving local natural environments.
Most participants will work towards one of our accredited NCFE qualifications designed to improve employability, self-esteem and life skills. In addition, they are encouraged and supported to gain the Challenge Saltire Award for volunteering and/or a John Muir Award.
Community Roots
Each day will involve a community conservation task, in which everyone can participate within their capacity, such as big beach/woodland cleans and collaborative habitat restoration, Foraging and Bushcraft Skills.
Learning that wilderness and well-being are linked, participants will take part in conservation activities appropriate to the location and enjoy a fun-filled day out in nature with family and friends.
Sustrans Volunteers
Sustrans volunteers look after the National Cycle Network. They help local people to walk and cycle. They improve our green spaces for wildlife. And they inspire young people in schools to get active.
Our volunteers are helping to create a better environment for us all. Even if you’ve got just an hour to give every so often. Or you can give us your time on a more regular basis. Whatever time you can spare, we’d really like to hear from you.
Outdoor Sports
Abernethy Golf Club
Highland Golf at its best – a small, beautiful 9 hole course with friendly members. Immerse yourself in nature surrounded by wildlife and challenge yourself to better the score you had last time you played. We run free taster sessions every year – just email for details. There is normally a charge for playing but we keep it as low as possible.
Other Activities
Able 2 Adventure CIC
At Able 2 Adventure we offer outdoor and adventurous activities for disabled people of all ages and abilities. We use specialist equipment and our years of experience in disability adventure sports to ensure activities are accessible to all. The sessions can be delivered as a one-off tasters, or on a regular basis. They can be purely for mental and physical well being or can lead towards gaining a non-formal learning award. Activities range from climbing, canoeing, kayaking, paddleboarding, guided wheelchair rides to hill walking and bushcraft.
Alzheimer Scotland’s Outdoor Dementia Resource Centre
A UK first, the Outdoor Dementia Resource Centre enables people living with dementia and their family and carers to experience the mental and physical benefits of spending time outdoors. We provide a range of dementia friendly outdoor activities, including cycling, gardening, walking, arts and crafts, and nature education.
Equal Adventure
Inspiring and delivering sustainable change through inclusive adventure and active lifestyle interventions with professionals, individuals, families and communities.
Badaguish
Accessible accommodation provider based on a secluded site in the forest with multiple things to do and places to explore in the immediate vicinity. We are committed to doing everything we can to allow everyone to be able to enjoy the beautiful area around us.
Cairngorm Confidence Outdoors
Outdoor confidence coaching, supporting people to be active outdoors who may otherwise not have the confidence to participate in outdoor activity on their own, with the aim of improving mental wellbeing through being successful in different activities. We remove walls, remove barriers and remove limits and support a positive mindset.
Badenoch Angling Association
The Association control fishing on the River Spey from the mouth of the River Tromie to the Spey Dam at Laggan. There is also fishing on the A86 side of Loch Laggan and part of Loch Ericht. They issue Permits. andrun events.
Cairngorms RDA Group
At Cairngorms RDA, our horses and ponies provide therapy, achievement and enjoyment to people with disabilities throughout the Badenoch & Strathspey area. The simple pleasure of working with horses is the cornerstone of all RDA’s activities. From that starting point everything else flows – be that freedom of movement, gaining confidence, building relationships, receiving life-enhancing physiotherapy or achieving individual goals. Cairngorms RDA is an independent local charity registered in Scotland as a SCIO (No. SC043835).
Branching Out
Branching Out is an innovative development for adults who use mental health services in Scotland. For each client, the service consists of around three hours of activities per week in a woodland setting, over 12 weeks. you must be referred via your Community Mental Health team.
Arts in Nature
Arts in Nature supports people to engage with the outdoors and connect with nature in a creative way through the delivery of a variety of art and craft activities. All creative nature-based sessions have been designed to be relaxing, inspiring, flexible and fun! For more information please contact Charlotte, email: artsinnature@outlook.com
THE OUTDOORS
Breathe some fresh air into your life. The outdoors helps us cope with life’s ups and downs. Your local area can be the perfect place to enjoy tranquil spots, find peace and quiet and also have some fun, healthy, family time.
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Less than half of adults in Scotland visit the outdoors on a regular, weekly basis, and 14% don’t at all. Access to green space can help to protect the physical and mental health of both adults and children in Scotland.