Life as a Ranger Student - 2025 Course Highlights

Now in its sixth year, the NQ Countryside Skills with Ranger Training course wrapped up at the beginning of June after a very busy 6 months for the 8 new students! We run this course conjunction with UHI North, West and Hebrides and support from our brilliant partners around Nevis and the wider area. Overall, the course was another great success with all 8 students qualified and ready to take on roles in the conservation world!

So, what did they get up to?

Januray was all about introductions; getting to know each other and a wide array of unfamiliar tools that we'd be using on a day to day basis over the coming months. The students undertook their 2 day outdoor first aid course too - ready for anything once we got stuck into practicals!

February was a busy month, kicking off with a day on hill safety and navigation. We went over what kind of kit you should be carrying out here in the Highland hills and how to keep yourself safe while working. We spent lots of time with Arkaig Community Forest and the Woodland Trust, getting to know their site and started building a boar gate! The students discovered their new favourite activity - rhoddy bashing at Glengarry Community Woodland and finished the month by helping Jahama restore a footbridge in Glen Nevis.

In March we finished off the boar gate with Liam from the Woodland Trust and then helped the National Trust for Scotland build a seed island on a wild and wet day on Buchaille Etive Beag in Glencoe. We did two days with Friends of Nevis, chekcing tree exclosures and learning to ID trees, and the students also completed Leave No Trace Awareness training. Of course, they were also very happy to be back in Glengarry for more rhoddy bashing! At the end of the month, we were lucky enough to get a trip on the speed boat across Loch Arkaig to visit a harvesting site, and spent some time with the Highland Cows at Glen Nevis Estate.

April went by quickly, broken up by the Easter holidays, but culminating in a week of path work with the John Muir Trust up at Steall. We also went to visit Abriachan Forest Trust near Inverness to say hello to the folks who will be running the course in term 1 of this year.

May was the month of LANTRA tickets; the students gained qualifications in chainsaw use, brushcutters, ATVs and fencing! They also completed their John Muir Award that they had been working on all through the course. This was an exciting day as our students had acted as the pilot group and were the first to complete the newly designed John Muir Award: Wild Places Guardian. They had spent the last few months working on scrapbooks, presentations, podcasts, photography, and a group Instagram account which you can check out here!

After two weeks of work experience taking us into the beginning of June, the students are now off in the big wild world, working as seasonal rangers, wardens, going onto further education, or getting their foot in the door with some exciting local organisations! We're very proud of what they've achieved over the course and are excited to see where they head in the future.

A huge thank you to our partners who provide opportunities for a variety of practical work on the course. Your input is vital to its success each year and we couldn't do it without you: Arkaig Community Forest, National Trust for Scotland, the John Muir Trust, Jahama Highland Estates, Woodland Trust Scotland, Glen Nevis Estate, Glengarry Community Woodland, and Friends of Nevis.

The classroom side of the ranger course is expertly delivered by UHI North, West and Hebrides, and covers essential countryside management topics such as recreation and access, interpretation, visitor management, and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.

Until next year!