Motorhome adventures in the snow-covered Cairngorms

In advance of my visit, I arranged to spend a night in a black grouse photography hide on the Glenlivet Estate, 

organised by wildlife photographer, David Newland.

David is very experienced with wildlife and always takes great care not to disturb his subjects.

For ‘normal’ people he leads Land Rover trips to see the black grouse, which set off early in the morning but, for the clinically mad, he will take you to the site the evening before and leave you in a hide overnight.

The benefit of this is that you can wake up (should you get any sleep) within a few feet of black grouse and there is absolutely no disturbance of the birds as you’re not allowed out until they’ve dispersed.

The Glenlivet Estate was to provide me with some wonderful wildlife experiences. Possibly the highlight of my trip was a walk into the Ladder Hills to see mountain hares.

Heading north from Tomintoul, I turned right at Knockandhu and parked at the end of the road beyond Chapeltown. From here I followed the path past Scalan, then the ruins of ‘Clash of Scalan’ and up onto the hill slope above.

At first I doubted I would get any photographs, but these hares are actually quite reluctant to expend energy in winter because finding food in the snow is so difficult. They like to rely on their camouflage and stay put if possible. However, to get close enough to take photos requires a lot of time and patience. So I gradually inched forward through the snow using various juniper bushes and snow drifts to conceal my own presence as best as I could.

The truth is that the hares know you are there but the slow movement allows you to gain their trust. After an hour crawling through the snow in the extremely cold wind, I was starting to lose the feeling in my fingers and toes but by this stage I was within a few yards of more than one mountain hare and the adrenalin kicked in; so did the cramp – kneeling in strange positions for long periods isn’t good for tired old muscles!

Delighted by my selection of photos of fantastic Cairngorm wildlife I headed back south to be greeted by chaos caused by ice on the roads in the midlands and everyone complaining about the cold weather in Cornwall... I was thinking to myself ‘you try sleeping in a hide on a mountain in the Cairngorms in minus seven degrees Celsius plus wind-chill, then you’ll know what cold is!’