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:
Location: Cairngorms National Park and in surrounding areas including Ross-shire, Moray and Nairnshire.
What's involved: One habitat recording survey visit during March or April and three wader recording survey visits between mid-April and late-June.
What's Covered: Equipment and training are available
The RSPB are looking for volunteers to survey breeding waders on farmland sites across Badenoch and Strathspey, Glenlivet, Tomintoul and parts of Perthshire. 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the Cairngorms Wader Survey, which has been monitoring the breeding population of Curlew, Lapwing, Snipe, Oystercatcher and Redshank on farmland sites throughout the River Spey valley on a five-yearly basis.
Click here to find out more and apply.
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
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
