Why we love Kintail

Transcript

Two speakers: Willie Fraser (Property Manager); Rule Anderson (Ranger)

Willie
I’m Willie Fraser. I’m the Property Manager for the National Trust for Scotland at Kintail, West Affric and the Falls of Glomach.

Kintail and West Affric and the Falls of Glomach are predominantly mountainous properties.  
You’ve got the iconic Five Sisters of Kintail, and the Falls of Glomach are actually the second-highest falls in Great Britain.
But it’s not just the falls themselves. We’ve got a whole glen that runs up, which has probably got one of the biggest peatland areas under the care of the National Trust for Scotland. 

Kintail is a crofting estate. We’ve got communities on the estate.
We’ve got 19 crofters. We’ve got a farm.
So, it’s not just about the mountains; it’s about the people who live and work on the estate. 

We’re the second-biggest property in the National Trust for Scotland, if you take it in landscape terms, but we’ve probably got one of the smallest teams.
We operate the estate with myself as property manager and two rangers. 
So, there’s just the three of us to manage the 30,000 acres. 
So, volunteering is really important to us. 
Whether it’s footpath maintenance, whether it’s fence maintenance, whether it’s tree planting, we couldn’t operate without volunteers on the property.

We have a deer population on the estate and we do have to manage deer because they do not have a natural predator. 
We are managing deer for the good of the environment, to reduce grazing pressure and allow some of the woodlands to regenerate.

The ranger service offers sea kayaking on the loch, which is Loch Duich at the foot of the Five Sisters, and that’s very much like a guided walk on the water.
You’ve got the amazing backdrop of the Five Sisters, but you’re looking at some of the marine life, some of the seabirds.
If we’re very lucky, we’ll see otters. We have porpoises.  
It’s a great way to see wildlife.
It’s a great way to see the landscape from a different perspective.  

We provide a range of guided walks, including the Five Sisters of Kintail, which is one of the longest ridge walks in Scotland.
Many people aspire to doing the Five Sisters, but maybe they don’t have the confidence to actually go on their own.
We can provide a ranger to guide them along the ridge.

Rule
I am Rule Anderson. I’m a ranger with the National Trust for Scotland at Kintail and West Affric.

Here at Kintail and West Affric, we have around about 50km or 30 miles of footpath to maintain.
So, that’s a massive part of my job, out often with volunteers, maintaining paths. 
We have probably hundreds, if not thousands, of drains that are built into the paths and that takes a lot of work to try and maintain that, for the landscape primarily but also because that benefits people when they’re visiting the area and it’s nice to walk on.

I love Kintail and West Affric because Scotland is renowned across the world for the beauty of its landscapes, and, for me, Kintail and West Affric is Scotland at its best. 
I came here originally as a hill walker and hill walking’s still something I love to do, but the longer I’ve been here, the more interested I’ve got in the wildlife that lives here and also the history.

I think Kintail and West Affric is special primarily because of the scenery here.
It’s absolutely stunning. You’ve got to be here to experience it really. 

Willie
I love this place because I love the west coast of Scotland and I was brought up here.
Kintail, to me, provides a sense of place. 
It’s the landscape, it’s the people, it’s the wildlife, it’s the seasons. 
Every week is different, every day is different.
So, it’s about a sense of place for me more than anything.
That’s why I love this area.