Home to over 90,000 species, Scotland has a rich and diverse natural history which attracts thousands of wildlife-enthusiasts each year.
And if you were to draw up a list of the top ten animals to see in the Highlands, well, east Perthshire’s Cateran Country is probably home to most of them.
We have some of the last remaining capercaillie and Scottish wildcats, and the recently re-introduced beavers. We have golden eagles, ospreys, pine martens, red deer, roe deer, red squirrels, mountain hares, and of course – picture perfect Highland cows!
A number of local businesses offer nature and wildlife tours in the area, including Perthshire Wildlife and Nature Nuts Tours and Photography. There is the Loch of the Lowes wildlife reserve, just outside Blairgowrie and run by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, where you can watch ospreys during the summer months, and the new Bamff Wildland rewilding project on the historic Bamff Estate just outside Alyth where you can stay in a range of accommodation – a wooden hideaway, a yurt or a cottage – and see for yourself how the restoration of land for wildlife can also create opportunities for people, and maybe even catch a glimpse of the famous Tay beavers while you are there.
Perthshire is also known as ‘Big Tree Country’ and is home to the Meikleour Beech Hedge, four miles south of Blairgowrie, the longest hedge in Britain and the highest of its kind in the world. Planted in 1745 it is one third of a mile long (530 m) and 100 ft (30 m) high. It is thought the men who planted it were called to fight in the Jacobite Rising and none of them returned alive. In tribute the trees were allowed to grow and the hedge acts as a living landmark to them.