Highland Explorer — Kids' Nature Treasure Hunt

Medium

Red Kite

Birds

One of Scotland's most spectacular birds of prey, with a deep rusty-red tail and a 1.5-metre wingspan. Red kites were reintroduced to Scotland in the 1980s after being hunted to extinction and are now thriving across the Black Isle and beyond.

Black Isle, Tollie Red Kites viewpoint near Dingwall

15 points

🦅

Rare

White-tailed Eagle

Birds

Britain's largest bird of prey with a wingspan that can reach 2.5 metres — wider than most people are tall. Called the "flying barn door" by birdwatchers. Rare and magnificent.

Torridon, Applecross, Isle of Mull — coastlines and large lochs

30 points

🦜

Rare

Osprey

Birds

A spectacular fishing eagle that plunges feet-first into water to catch fish. Ospreys migrate to Scotland each spring from West Africa and leave again in August. Their dive can reach speeds of 80mph.

Loch Garten, Loch Morlich, Loch an Eilein (Cairngorms) — also Loch Arkaig

25 points

🐦

Easy

Common Buzzard

Birds

The most common large bird of prey in Scotland, often mistaken for an eagle. Buzzards have broad rounded wings and a short fan-shaped tail. They're often seen perched on fence posts or soaring in lazy circles.

Widespread across all of the Highlands — very common

10 points

🐧

Medium

Puffin

Birds

One of Scotland's most beloved seabirds, with a rainbow-coloured beak and tuxedo plumage. Puffins nest in burrows on cliff tops and spend the rest of their lives far out at sea. They're surprisingly small — about the size of a pigeon.

Handa Island (Scourie), Duncansby Head (John O'Groats), various Orkney islands

20 points

🐄

Easy

Highland Cow

Animals

Scotland's most famous farm animal, with a shaggy double coat (perfect for Highland winters), long curved horns, and a very long fringe over their eyes. Known locally as "Heilan coos", they are incredibly hardy and can survive on rough hill grazing.

Roadside fields throughout the Highlands — very common along the NC500

10 points

🦌

Medium

Red Deer

Animals

Scotland's largest land mammal and one of its most iconic. Red deer stags can weigh over 200kg and carry spectacular antlers. The annual autumn rut (when stags bellow and fight for hinds) is one of the great wildlife spectacles of the Highlands.

Open hillsides throughout the Highlands — Glen Torridon, Cairngorms, Glencoe

15 points

🐿️

Medium

Red Squirrel

Animals

Scotland is a stronghold for red squirrels, which have been largely replaced by grey squirrels across most of England. Red squirrels are smaller and more delicate than greys, with distinctive ear tufts and a bushy ginger tail.

Loch Fleet near Golspie, Abriachan Forest near Inverness, Beinn Eighe NNR

20 points

🐬

Medium

Bottlenose Dolphin

Marine

The Moray Firth is home to the UK's only resident population of bottlenose dolphins — around 200 individuals that live here year-round. They are the largest bottlenose dolphins in the world, thought to be larger due to the cold water.

Chanonry Point (Black Isle), Cromarty Firth, Moray Firth coast

20 points

🦭

Easy

Common Seal

Marine

Common seals (also called harbour seals) are found all around the Highland coast, hauling out on rocks and sandbanks to rest. They have rounded heads and big puppy-dog eyes. Don't confuse with grey seals, which have longer "Roman nose" faces.

Applecross Bay, Plockton, Loch Carron, Kyle of Lochalsh area

10 points

🦊

Rare

Pine Marten

Animals

One of the rarest and most secretive mammals in Britain, the pine marten is about the size of a domestic cat with a rich chocolate-brown coat, a creamy-yellow "bib" on its throat, and a bushy tail. They are largely nocturnal and very shy.

Glen Affric, Beinn Eighe NNR, Cairngorms — you need to be very lucky!

35 points

🦦

Rare

Otter

Animals

Scotland has one of the highest densities of otters in Europe. Highland otters are mainly coastal, unlike their river-dwelling cousins in England. They hunt in sea lochs and on rocky shores, feeding on fish, crabs, and eels.

Applecross, Shieldaig, Lochcarron, Kyle of Lochalsh coast — early morning best

30 points

💜

Easy

Heather in Bloom

Plants

Heather is the plant most closely associated with the Scottish Highlands. In late summer (August-September) the hillsides turn a breathtaking purple as the heather flowers. There are three types — ling heather, bell heather, and cross-leaved heath.

Everywhere on moorland and hillsides across the Highlands — best in August

5 points

🌾

Easy

Bog Cotton

Plants

Bog cotton (or cotton grass) is one of the most distinctive Highland plants — its white fluffy seed heads look like balls of cotton wool blowing in the wind across boggy moorland. Despite the name it's actually a sedge, not a grass.

Boggy moorland throughout the Highlands — widespread and common

5 points

🌿

Medium

Sundew

Plants

A genuinely carnivorous plant! Sundews trap and digest insects using sticky red tentacles on their leaves that glisten like dewdrops in the sun. They grow in boggy areas where the soil is so poor in nutrients they've evolved to eat insects instead.

Boggy moorland and peat bogs throughout the Highlands — requires careful looking

20 points

🔵

Easy

Scots Bluebell

Plants

The harebell, known in Scotland as the Scots bluebell, is the delicate nodding blue flower of Highland hillsides — not to be confused with the English bluebell of woodland floors. The thin wiry stems make the flowers dance in the slightest breeze.

Dry hillsides and clifftops throughout the Highlands — widespread

10 points

🍊

Rare

Cloudberry

Plants

A rare arctic-alpine plant that grows only on a handful of the highest Scottish mountains. The amber berries look like large raspberries and were a traditional food source for Highland communities. They grow very slowly and are protected.

Ben Wyvis, Cairngorm plateau — only at high altitude

30 points

🌲

Easy

Ancient Scots Pine

Trees

The Scots pine is Scotland's native tree and one of only three native conifers in Britain. Ancient specimens can be over 500 years old and look completely different from plantation pines — with gnarled, spreading crowns and beautiful orange-red bark on the upper trunk.

Glen Affric, Beinn Eighe NNR, Rothiemurchus near Aviemore, Loch Maree islands

10 points

🌳

Easy

Rowan Tree with Berries

Trees

The rowan (or mountain ash) is one of the most beloved trees in Scotland, traditionally believed to ward off evil spirits. In autumn its clusters of bright red-orange berries are one of the most beautiful sights in the Highland landscape.

Everywhere in the Highlands — roadsides, hillsides, woodland edges

5 points

🌿

Easy

Downy Birch

Trees

The downy birch (or silver birch) is one of Scotland's most common native trees and one of the first trees to have colonised Scotland after the last Ice Age. In autumn it turns a brilliant gold. Its thin papery bark is often white or silvery in young trees.

Widespread in woodland throughout the Highlands

5 points

⛰️

Rare

Munro Summit

⛰️ Landscapes

A Munro is any Scottish mountain over 3,000 feet (914 metres). There are 282 in total and climbing all of them — "Munro bagging" — is a lifetime challenge for many hillwalkers. Standing on your first summit is an unforgettable feeling.

Throughout the Highlands — Ben Nevis is the highest and most famous

50 points

🗿

Medium

Sea Stack

⛰️ Landscapes

Sea stacks are columns of rock left standing in the sea after the surrounding cliff has been eroded away by waves. Scotland has some of the most spectacular sea stacks in the world.

Duncansby Head (Stacks of Duncansby), Handa Island Great Stack, Old Man of Hoy (Orkney)

20 points

🌈

Easy

Rainbow over the Mountains

⛰️ Landscapes

The Highlands' famously changeable weather means rainbows are common — and the dramatic mountain backdrops make them breathtaking. A rainbow over Torridon or reflected in a still loch is genuinely one of the most beautiful sights in Scotland.

Anywhere in the Highlands — the more it rains, the more chances you get!

10 points

🦋

Medium

Emperor Moth

Insects

The emperor moth is one of Scotland's most spectacular insects — the male has vivid orange hindwings with false "eye" markings to frighten predators. They fly in bright sunshine across heather moorland in spring and early summer.

Heather moorland throughout the Highlands — spring and early summer

20 points

😤

Easy

Highland Midge

Insects

The Highland midge is a tiny biting fly that is both the terror and the pride of the Scottish Highlands. So small you can barely see one individually, they travel in clouds of thousands. Scots are very proud of their ability to deter tourists!

Everywhere in the Highlands from May to September, especially near water at dusk

5 points

Highland Explorer — Nature Hunt