Places to go – Highland Wildlife Park

The Highland Wildlife Park, Kincraig (near Newtonmore) is run by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland which also runs Edinburgh Zoo.  For us the park can be en route to grandparents so we decided to buy a season ticket.  Luath has had three visits and loved each trip.  The great thing about having a season pass is that you can stay for 1-2 hours, see a lot and not feel that you have to stay longer and see it all.

The park has a wildlife loop that you drive around (or you can be driven round in a guided tour) and also areas to walk. 

Just after  the entrance you drive past bison, camels and wild horses.  Each time the animals have been beside the road (one bison likes to lie partly on the road).  This immediate animal spotting opportunity made it exciting for Luath.


The first time we visited it was only Luath and I so she had to stay in her seat for the wildlife loop.  The next time daddy came too so Luath could come out of her seat when we stopped to look at the animals.  Spying through her binoculars really felt like being on safari.

We all had a great giggle at the Bukhara deer.  Daddy on one side of the wall, mummy and baby on the other – just like at home.  The fawn kept standing up, so we did have a talk about how he was probably saying “I can’t sleep mummy”  and mummy would be saying “try and lie down and you might fall asleep” (a conversation Luath and I have been having often lately!). – Luath showed a lot of self awareness around this topic.

The beginning and end of the loop goes past the polar bear enclosure.  The 4 acre enclosure was built in 2009 to home Mercedes who had lived in Edinburgh Zoo since 1984, the only polar bear in a UK zoo at that time.  She was rescued from Canada, where she had wandered three times into a town and was scheduled to be shot. She died in 2011. The park has two male polar bears.  Walker moved to the park from the Netherlands in 2010 and Arktos from Hanover in 2012.  They have formed a very close bond.  You can also see the bears from the walking area.  Each visit we have always seen at least one bear.  On two of the occasions we have seen both males interacting with each other.

There are a few different areas to the walking loops.  We haven’t covered all the paths yet.      
One of the loops takes you through a typical Scottish Highland scene with Capercaillie, Ptarmigan. Squirrels and Wildcats.  Like in real life they are difficult to spot, although Luath and I did see the wild cats on our first visit.  The park is home to Amur Tigers (Siberia).  They have recently had cubs so were off show and then hiding quite far back when we have visited.  There is a fun trail spotting signs of Tigers.

We did see a few babies including  Snowy owlets

and Snow Monkey (baby is bottom right of picture) who was very entertaining.

We haven’t eaten at the park, apart from Luath and daddy shared some ice cream.  There is a cafe but also some picnic spots.  The play park mostly has equipment for primary aged children. There is a gift shop.  We are looking forward to a few more trips, especially at least one visit on a cold and snowy day.
TIPS

1. Most people start with the wildlife driving loop.  If you are there on a potentially busy day and arrive near opening time, I would recommend parking and viewing the walking exhibits first (especially the tigers).  We did this on our third visit  (on a lovely Saturday in the summer, so probably one of the the busiest days)and pretty much got to see the snow monkeys and tigers to ourselves.  We returned to see the tigers an hour later and it was getting very busy.
2. There is a lot of walking involved if you want to see most of the park.  Some of the areas are not pushchair friendly (check map), but if you had a light pushchair you could carry it and either have child walk or be carried.  We had to carry Luath a view times.
3. We had our dog one day, it was too hot for her to remain in the car alone.  After we had been on the wildlife loop I took her to the dog walk area.  This area is actually small and more just a stretch the dogs legs place.   As we had only planned Luath and daddy to have an extra half hour it was fine.

(Luath was 27-30 months) Shared with Family Days at mums do travel