There are a range of ways to volunteer with Cairngorms Connect and opportunities vary from long term volunteer placements to regular work parties and family friendly drop in sessions. We will post all upcoming opportunities on this webpage but you can also sign up to receive a newsletter from Cairngorms Volunteers here. This is hosted by the Cairngorms National Park Authority and will keep you up to date with all the volunteering opportunities across the National Park.
Each opportunity will have details on how to sign up to get involved:
The Pine Hoverfly is a very rare and endangered insect found only in the Cairngorms within the UK. We need your help to monitor how the original and released Pine Hoverfly populations of the Cairngorms are faring in the wild.
The RSPB are looking for volunteers with the following skills and experience:
Available from 01/10/2025 to 31/07/2026
The RSPB are looking for an enthusiastic committed residential volunteer. They will work closely with RSPB reserve and science staff, carrying out important reserve monitoring field work and learning to collect and accurately record data.
Tasks will include:
Click here for more details or email Ewan.Craig@rspb.org.uk
The Cairngorms Connect Predator Project uses camera traps set up across the Cairngorms Connect landscape to research the ways predator and prey species interact and behave. These camera traps are a nice, non-invasive way to monitor these species and are left out for months at a time. This generates thousands of images which would take our small team a long time to identify – and that's where you come in!
We're looking for people like you to get involved and directly contribute to this research. Anyone can do it, and you can identify as many or as few images as you'd like. All you need to do is create a profile on MammalWeb and click through the images, submitting records of what you see. The images are amazing and offer a window into a world we can't usually access.
How to get involved:
1. Create your MammalWeb Account. Once you have registered, you will receive an email with a link to activate your account.
2. Once you have activated your account, click here to access the Cairngorms Connect Predator Project page titled "Ecology of Predator Communities". Click "Classify This Project" to begin.
3. You will be shown a sequence of three or more images and all you need to do is select the species (or nothing / don't know) from the column on the right and fill in any additional information. Once done, you can click 'Next Sequence' and it's as simple as that!
The team at RSPB Scotland Insh Marshes are looking for local Butterfly Transect walkers to help supply vital data to the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. Butterfly transects, or routes, are the backbone of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) which aims to monitor changes in butterfly populations throughout the UK. A transect was set up at RSPB Scotland Insh Marshes in 1977, one of the first, and there is a valuable long run of butterfly data at the site.
This volunteer position involves walking the same route once a week between April and August, recording the butterflies you see along the way. The hope is that this wourk would be split between three or four volunteers so you could take it in turns to monitor the route. The route starts and ends in Insh Village, and passes through beautiful old Birch woodland and across floodplain marshes to the River Spey.
Potential walkers need to be:
• Confident at butterfly identification.
• Able to walk 1.5 hours across potentially rough boggy ground
• Live relatively close to the site to take advantage of sunny periods of limited duration.
Find out more about the work of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme here.
If you are interested in volunteering or have specific questions please contact Pete Moore by email: tonuptwitcher@gmail.com
The Dark Bordered Beauty is a rare and endangered moth found only in the Cairngorms. We need to know more about this special species to understand how we can help it.
The Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms Project need your help to survey for the Dark Bordered Beauty this summer, as part of essential monitoring work being carried out by the Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms project. Through this project we’ve been embarking on a captive breeding program with the Royal Zoological Society for Scotland, you could be part of this new and exciting program by helping us to monitor for this species at the release sites.
We are looking for two or three people to help with monitoring by running overnight moth traps in woodland release sites in the Cairngorms. Data you collect will help us to determine the success of our release project.
This volunteer role will take place from late June through to late August. Ideally, volunteers will be able to go out roughly once per week during this period to deploy the moth trap. Moth traps will need to be run during good weather. The role can be carried out independently of project staff, but it will be essential to communicate with staff through the survey period. This role is best suited to people living in or around the Cairngorms.
More information and to apply, click here.
We are looking for regular 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.
Find more information and sign up on the Cairngorms National Park website by clicking here.
If you have any questions, please contact the Tree Nursery manager, David, at: david.blair@cairngormsconnect.org.uk
