Alvie estate secures funding for expansion

A HIGHLAND estate has secured £200,000 to expand its adventure activities, including bushcraft skills, paintball, quad biking and a 1.5-kilometre zip wire course.

Alvie and Dalraddy Estates at Kincraig, near Aviemore in Strathspey, has already diversified from farming and forestry into offering accommodation, field sports and wildlife watching tours.

Now the business, which turns over about £1.5 million a year and employs 20 staff, is targeting the adventure activity market with its latest expansion of services after the Bank of Scotland funding.

Jamie Williamson, whose family has owned Alvie Estate since 1927, will serve as Highlands and Islands president at next week’s Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh and will use his role to promote the north of Scotland as a “land of opportunity” for food, renewables and tourism.

Williamson said: “We hope to make Alvie and Dalraddy Estates one of Scotland’s most sustainable, self-sufficient and economically-viable visitor destinations.”