The mountain spot where you can meet Scotland's only free roaming reindeer herd ahead of the festive season

dailyrecord.co.uk:

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. READ more: Scots photographer snaps image of 'woman's face' in Cairngorms stream Located in Glenmore village, just six miles east of Aviemore, the centre offers two ways to meet the herds with daily hill trips leaving at 11 am and taking people up to meet the reindeer in their natural grazing grounds on the hills, as well as getting to see the reindeer in their paddocks.