The Caledonian Pine Forest is a habitat native to Britain that is in serious decline and has been for the past several hundred years.

It once covered the entirety of the Scottish Highlands but is now only 1% of its original area. This 1% is broken up into several islands of biodiversity, broken by towns, grouse moors, heathland, montane habitat, among others.

One wonderful piece of the Caledonian forest surrounds Loch Garten. Another piece is the Glenmore Forest along the mountain road from Aviemore.

Luckily the need to preserve this habitat and to rebuild it for ecological and conservation reasons has led to the creation of the Cairngorms Connect project.

This project is a 200 year long conservation project to rebuild the Caledonian Forest from the Abernethy Reserve at Loch Garten across the montane habitat to Glenmore Forest across the Cairngorms Mountains into Glenfeshie, covering an area of 600 square kilometres.

The reason that this project is so important is because many of the native species to Scotland survive only in this type of habitat, animals such as Crested tit and Capercaillie. They currently live in fractured habitats and as a consequence the genetic pool is getting polluted by inbreeding. The hope of the Cairngorms Connect project is to connect these habitats, enabling populations to mix.

Glenmore Forest is a beautiful gem for photography, allowing us to capture that Ancient Caledonian Forest as well as a little loch with green water. 

Let’s get down to it!

To get to the parking spot, if you are coming from Inverness leave the A9 at Aviemore.

Drive through the town until you come to a roundabout with an Italian restaurant called La Taverna, turn left at the roundabout heading up the mountain, it’s signposted Cairngorm and Glenmore.

Continue up this road through the Rothiemurchus Estate, eventually you will come to Loch Morlich on the right and you continue past this.

You will eventually go past the Glenmore visitor centre and some houses, and the parking spot is the first parking area on the left signposted: Alt Mor.

This is a paid parking area but the fees contribute to the maintenance of the car parks and paths throughout the Glenmore forest. That being said there is free parking on the other side of the road, just a bit further along the road, which will probably be full of cars.

Once all parked up, the adventure begins! 

Alt Mor River

The Glenmore Forest is an amazing forest full of paths for you to explore the ancient landscape.

If you parked in the right area your car will be parked next to a small river and the path will lead you along this river with several viewpoints on the banks, which can create some wonderful pictures of a river in the forest.

Or if you are lucky and are visiting in the winter you might be able to capture something like what I did after a heavy snowfall one night, the next morning made the whole landscape look like something from a fairytale. White glistening branches adorned in snow and ice. Simply magical!

This area is beautiful no matter the season though: in spring it has a range of greens from the deciduous trees providing pastel hues and the evergreens providing deep greens as well as wild flowers; in summer the forest is blanketed by flowering heather; in autumn those deciduous trees change colour to golden leaves dancing in the wind. 

Glenmore Forest

Continuing along the path you enter the heart of the forest with tall Scot’s pine surrounding you.

This is a great place to explore the use of Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) and long exposures in the forest to create some different and unique pictures.

I discussed these 2 techniques and their application in the forest in my article ‘Photography Challenge: Trees’ don’t forget to check it out!

As well as experimenting with movement, which will create some fun and abstract images, you should also take the time to examine individual trees.

There are a few trees along this path that are some of the oldest trees in this forest and as Scot’s pine develops and grows it becomes gnarled and crooked. This makes the trees fantastic for creating some abstract images focusing on form and individual features of trees. 

Lochan Uaine

Heading along the path again you will eventually come to Lochan Uaine, which is a beautiful little loch with bright emerald green water.

There are a few compositions you can make, especially if you arrived early in the morning before the small beach is full of people.

The image I managed to capture is also from winter, when the level of the water was quite high and had frozen.

But if you are here in the summer the beach is beautiful and a wonderful picnic location with a family, and the green of the water is truly amazing. 

Ryvoan Pass

If you want to keep exploring, the path becomes the Ryvoan pass that leads all the way to Abernethy forest and Loch Garten.

Soon after the little loch there is a Bothy, for those that don’t know about the bothy network, it is a small mountain hut in which you are welcome to spend the night if you are a hiker in the mountains.

Bothies tend to be free but should be respected and not vandalised.

From the bothy you get a majestic view out over the Cairngorm Mountain range. Also at the bothy you can choose to ascend the hill, Meall a’ Bhuchaille,  that overlooks the forest, it is quite a steep path but fun if you have the stamina!

You could also head to Bynack More, which is an isolated Munro that stands to the east of Cairngorm, the views from the summit is very impressive but it is a long and hard walk if you go for it. 

Conclusion 

Glenmore Forest is a great location to see the Ancient Caledonian Pine Forest that in the future will hopefully extend across the Cairngorm area.

If you have never done forest photography then you should really take the time to wander through the paths of Glenmore. Forests are a wonderful environment to take photos, no matter the season.

They are changing every season and every year and are a wonderful project to develop.

You can create traditional landscape images, as well as experiment with abstract ideas like ICM and long exposures.

The colour of the water of Lochan Uaine is in itself something to marvel at and definitely worth the walk through the forest to see. I cannot recommend this place enough!

You should definitely take the time to explore this forest and see the changes it goes through, especially in September when blaeberry bushes are full of sweet, tasty small blueberries. 

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Written by Daniel Long

Daniel Long created DRL Photography as a place to showcase his work as a photographer. Daniel has learnt a lot about photography and wishes to impart this knowledge with you, although the world is an ever changing place and he always says “you can never learn everything.” So as he makes his way, he continues to learn knew techniques, skills and information about photography. He focuses on Landscape and Wildlife photography and Daniel has a special focus on Scotland, his home away from home. As well as writing about photography and taking pictures out in the field, Daniel offers guided photography days so he can share his knowledge and locations in an effort to give his clients the best opportunities possible. Have a browse around this website to see his images, guided experiences and articles about photography. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in contact.