Glenlivet Estate is a member of the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS). It has been awarded a Gold Award. Details of the GTBS can be found at:

http://www.green-business.co.uk/scotland.html

The long term policy for the Glenlivet Estate aims to ensure that land uses within Glenlivet are managed in a fully integrated fashion, where environmental considerations are integral to the long term sustainability of  the area. The Crown Estate therefore aims to manage the estate in a way which provides opportunities for sustained employment in agricultural, forestry, sporting, tourism and other land based activities, while protecting and enhancing the countryside and pursuing the long term development of the community, the recreational, educational and other resources within the estate, while protecting and enhancing the environment.

In October 1996 the Crown Estate's Glenlivet Estate won a 'Nature's Prize' award for their activities in promoting enjoyment of the natural heritage within a large Highland estate. Glenlivet also gained worldwide recognition as one of two UK runners up in the British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Awards in 1999. The Estate was also awarded a gold award under the GTBS in 2005.

Andrew Wells, Countryside and Forestry Services Manager for The Crown Estate said: "We are extremely please to have achieved this standard and this award reflects the efforts that have gone into developing sustainable tourist facilities and services, to help visitors and local people explore and enjoy the countryside on the Glenlivet Estate. We hope this award will encourage more people to visit this beautiful but remote part of Moray and help to promote management practices which protect the environment.”

Martin Webb (Environmental Auditor) from the Green Tourism Scheme commented “This is a well deserved award and is a credit to The Crown Estate for the office management and land use practices that they have put in place at Glenlivet. Tourism facilities and services are being managed in a way that helps promote sustainable economic development and community involvement, while protecting the environment. More and more visitors who come to Scotland are aware of the need to protect the countryside they come to see and the Green Tourism Business Scheme provides a way for tourism enterprises to promote good practice, save money and generate new business”

Combined with effective marketing, these moves have helped put Glenlivet on the map as a holiday destination. As a direct result a significant number of new or diversified businesses have been developed by farm tenants or local people. These include an extension of the Cairngorm reindeer herd, a farm-based woodcutting enterprise and clay pigeon shoot, a country museum, birch woodland management schemes, a tourism marketing association, trout fishing ponds and a spring-water bottling plant. Several old agricultural buildings have been converted to holiday accommodation, and farmhouse Bed and Breakfast is now available.

Traditional land uses still underpin the economy of the area, but over the last decade the estate has aimed to broaden the economic base by encouraging new forms of business development, particularly those relating to tourism.

Farm tenants have been given support to diversify, and several new enterprises have been developed on land or within buildings made available for lease. A major part of the project has involved developing an extensive over 100 mile network of way-marked walking and cycling trails around the woods and farmland of the lower ground, connecting with the existing Tomintoul Spur of the Speyside Way long distance path and other long distance hill tracks and community paths. As a consequence the Estate has one of the most integrated waymarked trail networks in the whole of Scotland.

Some of the footpath improvement works have been aimed specifically at local communities and all abilities access. For example, a new footbridge was built across the River Livet to link the Glenlivet Primary School with a nearby castle and community surgery and a new woodland adventure playground has been constructed in Tomintoul.

The undertaking of visitor and community surveys helps with future management and development of services and facilities in Glenlivet. The surveys are designed to collect details about visitor profiles, motivations, behaviour, likes and dislikes and community aspirations. The surveys are used as part of other ongoing evaluation projects, including the development of sustainability indicators to assess the effects of development projects that the Crown Estate has invested in on the Estate.

Regeneration and management of the birch woodland on the estate and a long term programme of restructuring of the commercial woodlands has helped protect and enhance its wildlife value and generate significant employment opportunities for local people.

The estate has also developed an educational service, and provides an information centre and a ranger service. Between them these have encouraged more visitors, extended the tourist season by about five weeks a year, and increased turnover in tourist-related enterprises and other local businesses.

The estate encourages recreational events that can use the network of trails and bring in more people, particularly outwith the main tourist season. With the downhill ski centre at the Lecht nearby, the area can now offer year-round facilities.

The Crown Estate has demonstrated that a positive approach towards access, combined with promoting good environmental practice, has benefits for the environment, for local people, and for the local economy. They hope that this will help to halt the population decline and provide the basis for continued prosperity and development.

Sustainable Development on Glenlivet Estate
By Andrew Wells, 2004

This paper provides a summary of the Glenlivet Estate Development Project, an initiative taken by The Crown Estate to promote sustainable economic investment and development, progressive land management practices and community and environmental improvements, on thye Glenlivet Estate. A wide range of diverse, varied and innovative projects have formed part of this initiative which has provided significant benefits to the local community and the natural environment, while demonstrating the advantages to be gained from a holistic sustainable and integrated approach to land management, within a given land unit.

You can read the paper in its entirety by clicking HERE. It is in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format and just under 800kb in size.

Glenlivet welcomes you to explore its tracks and byways.