Believe it or not but Santa's reindeer get ready for the festive season by holidaying in Scotland - or at least that's what you can tell the kids when you take them to see Scotland's only free-roaming herd of these wonderful beasts ahead of the festive season.
Reindeer have taken up residence in the Cairngorms National Park since the early 1950s, and at the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre, you can get up and close and personal with them. The ideal way to build up anticipation ahead of Christmas, there are over 150 individual reindeer now part of this impressive herd which grazes on the hills of this spectacular location.
Established by Mikel Utsi and his wife Dr. Ethel Lindgren who brought some of their Swedish herd over here, and now run by two former volunteers, Alan and Elizabeth 'Tillie' Smith, the animals have thrived in what is, arguably the only place in the UK able to sustain them, with the area being so high and cold.
