Aigas Field Centre
Aigas Field Centre is a nature centre based at the home of naturalist and author Sir John Lister-Kaye, House of Aigas. The centre was opened in 1977 by ecologist Sir Frank Fraser Darling, and provides nature-based holidays for adults and environmental education services for school children. It is located at Aigas, next to the River Beauly, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) west of Beauly and 20 kilometres (12 mi) west of Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands.
House of Aigas, once a Victorian sporting estate, was owned by the Gordon-Oswalds, who added the Victorian extensions to what was an 18th-century Tacksman's house. The house was then owned by Inverness County Council as an old people's home, before Lister-Kaye persuaded them to sell it to him.[1]
Aigas began a beaver demonstration project in 2006. Two Eurasian beavers were released into a 200-acre enclosure, which includes a loch and surrounding woodland. The beavers have since built lodges and had a number of kits.[2]
Aigas was host to a series of the BBC's live-action nature documentary, Autumnwatch in October 2012[3] and Winterwatch in January 2013.[4]
House of Aigas and Field Centre's charitable arm, The Aigas Trust for Environmental Education, hosts over 5,000 school children a year.
References
- Lister-Kaye, John (1980). The Seeing Eye. Allen Lane. p. 274. ISBN 0-7139-1306-1.
- "Young beaver makes its TV debut". BBC News. 18 August 2006. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
- "BBC Two - Autumnwatch". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
- "BBC Winterwatch shows beauty of the Highlands". BBC News. 15 January 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2013.