Glenmuick Estate has been actively working to preserve, enhance and improve the varied habitats within it for decades, to ensure that all its wild inhabitants can thrive in their natural environment.
Glenmuick Estate has been actively working to preserve, enhance and improve the varied habitats within it for decades, to ensure that all its wild inhabitants can thrive in their natural environment.
Wildlife
Glenmuick Estate is a proud member of Wildlife Estates Scotland and consistently achieves the coveted level 2 accreditation. WFE (Wildlife Farms & Estates) accreditation is the prestigious international label of excellence in land management for championing the enhancement of wildlife and biodiversity through independent assessment. Accreditation is awarded to farms and estates that provide evidence of holistic and sustainable environmental, economic and social land management practices, recognising the multifunctional role of rural business and land use.
The estate works to ensure a balanced environment with the primary focus on best practice wildlife management and conservation, including regular and comprehensive breeding surveys. During a recent dedicated butterfly survey 30 species of butterfly were identified on the estate including the near threatened Scotch Argus.
River
Glen Muick has been the focus of landscape scale river catchment restoration for the last few years. A Successful partnership working between the Dee District Salmon Fishery Board, Balmoral Estate and Glenmuick Estate, as well as the River Dee Trust and Woodland Trust Scotland, has brought together restoration measures on a scale not done before: habitat for spawning and juvenile fish has been created by the installation of 70 large wood structures, each comprising several logs with root plates; a 350m section of blocked channel was reconnected by removing a 150 year old man-made embankment; wetlands have been created and enhanced by installing 78 leaky dams and 112 debris dams on minor burns, blocking drains, and creating 16 new wader scrapes; 7000 metres of banks have been protected by new fencing to exclude livestock and remove instream waterings to mitigate diffuse pollution; and, nearly 140,000 trees have been planted along the banks of the Muick to provide cooling shade and nutrients to the water.
This restoration project has been featured on various programmes across different TV channels and was shortlisted in 2 categories for the RSPB Nature of Scotland Awards 2022.
We are very proud that the project is even used as a case study in the Scottish Government’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2045 (Page 13).
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-biodiversity-strategy-2045
The Muick is an important tributary of the River Dee Special Area of Conservation designated for Atlantic salmon, freshwater pearl mussel and otter and its restoration will continue to be an important focus for us.
Glenmuick is now a key partner in helping to deliver the Dee District Salmon Fishery Board and Atlantic Salmon Trust’s Save the Spring initiative.
https://atlanticsalmontrust.org/save-the-spring
Wetland
Glenmuick Estate has worked closely with the British Dragonfly Society on its Northern Damsel Project. This project has significantly improved open water habitat for the Northen Damselfly, and the estate proudly holds a significant portion of the area’s population. The Northern Damselfly is classed as Endangered on the IUCN British List, is on the Scottish Biodiversity list and is found only in Scotland in the UK.
Moorland
Over the last few years Glenmuick has been undertaking large scale peatland restoration in partnership with Peatland Action and we have already restored and rewetted over 560 acres of peatland so far.
The Estate is an active member of the South Deeside and North Angus Deer Management Group. Wild deer numbers on the Estate are kept below the government threshold and will continue to be managed at this level. The deer management group has developed a strategic management plan to identify opportunities for nature recovery projects and will continue to manage itself proactively to maintain a healthy and sustainable wild population of Red Deer.
Woodland
Glenmuick Estate carefully manages its forestry with most new planting concentrating on mixed native broadleaves in riparian areas. We have been a key partner in planting over 140,000 native trees alongside the river Muick as part of River Dee’s million tree project. Any new plantations on the estate will only use Biodegradable tree guards. A programme of maintenance and thinning continues in rotation through our more mature conifer plantations whilst ensuring that there remains sufficient winter shelter for our deer.
Farming
The Estate’s deer farm is an example of a sustainable enterprise supporting the local economy and community: all produce is sold to the local butcher, less than a mile from the deer larder, with minimal carbon footprint and food miles.
The Estate looks to embrace Regenerative farming. Striving to integrate the traditional land uses of farming and sporting activities with habitat restoration and sustainable practices where possible. Practices and initiatives such as removing instream livestock waterings from burns, reconnecting historic back channels, using innovative biodegradable tree protection solutions and planting much-needed riparian woodland on upland watercourses have been embraced by the Estate over recent years, supporting biodiversity gain and carbon sequestration.
Complementing this has been the Estate’s development of renewable energy projects – partnering Balmoral Estate for the large scale River Muick hydro scheme, as well as installing our own hydro on a tributary, and converting the main house to biomass.
Community
Community involvement is key to restoration projects, and the Estate, in partnership with River Dee Trust and Fishery Board has hosted numerous events such as volunteer tree planting days, skill-share and knowledge exchange sessions with stakeholders and other estate managers as well as ‘Walk-and Talk’ tours to raise awareness of the catchment-scale restoration in progress
Glenmuick regularly undertakes deer farm visits to showcase the benefits of venison and eating locally and sustainably.
We understand the benefits of connecting people and the environment and have recently helped facilitate the creation of the 7 bridges core path.
Glenmuick is as proud member of the local community and we love working with many local activities whether it be the local angling club, The Highland Games, the annual duck race (2025 champions!) or even the tug o war team.
