Craggan Outdoors News

Corkscrew rapid on the Findhorn

Craggan Outdoors, the TripAdvisor.com top-rated activity centre in the Scottish Highlands, is pleased to announce three new additions - paintball, white water rafting and a selection of art and creativity-based activities - to its existing range of activities. This follows on from the addition of indoor climbing/bouldering, massage, pony trekking, yoga and zip wire earlier in the year.

Speaking about the new activities, owner and Managing Director Keith Ballam, who along with his wife Jill took over at Craggan Outdoors last October, said: “We are hugely excited to be able to offer activities of the attractiveness and calibre of paintball and white water rafting. It is also good to be able to offer the art and creativity-based activities, something that we feel gives corporate clients something a little different to consider when looking at team-building, as well as new options for hen parties, school trips and other youth groups.” He continued: “It is our intention to carry on developing the range of activities that we offer at the centre, with the aim of creating a ‘one stop shop’ for potential clients so as they won’t feel the need to look elsewhere when choosing the activities that they wish to do during their time in Aviemore and the Cairngorms.”

The next addition is expected to be mini-quads for 6-11 year olds. The new 50cc quads are already at the centre, and work is currently ongoing to set up the new track and establish and test operating procedures. All being well the mini-quads will be in operation by the end of July.

Craggan Outdoors is the internationally renowned review website TripAdvisor.com’s top-rated ‘thing to do’ in Aviemore and the Cairngorms, and is ranked second across the wider Highlands, and also second across Scotland as a whole from almost 1,200 attractions that are listed. The centre is the top-rated outdoor activity provider in Scotland, with rankings based on the experiences of people that have visited. Craggan Outdoors is proud to currently have received nothing but 5-star ratings!

In a new development for Craggan Outdoors, early July saw the centre become a film location for the first time, playing host to a ‘young carers’ group that were enjoying a respite break that centred around the making of a short film.

A joint project between Borders Young Carers and specialist film company VOMO (Voice of My Own), the group spent a week at Craggan Outdoors making the film, with a script developed from the collective life experiences of this particular group of young carers, young people who each care for mentally or physically ill, drug or alcohol dependent parents &/or siblings.

The group worked long hours from Monday to Friday in what were mostly far from ideal weather conditions, filming at a range of locations around Craggan Outdoors, & also in Grantown-on-Spey itself. Departing on Friday the group seemed very pleased with what they had achieved.

The team at VOMO will now be hard at work editing the several hours of film that they shot into the finished 10 minute production. The film is due to premiere in Edinburgh in September.

Following on from the 93% & 95% customer ratings in April & May, June was another strong month with a further showing in the 90s. Customers rated their experiences with Craggan Outdoors during June, giving an average score given of 9.2 out of 10, equating to a 92% rating for the period, demonstrating consistent service excellence over the first three months of the 2009 season.

As well as Craggan Outdoors’ own in-house customer feedback system measuring what people think of their time with us, independent review website TripAdvisor.com offers support to these findings, currently ranking Craggan Outdoors as the top-rated ‘thing to do’ in the Scottish Highlands, & indeed the whole of Scotland.

The latest in the series on monthly prize draws, made from all customer feedback forms submitted during the prior month, has also been drawn. The winner for June is Graeme Moffat who brought a stag group to Craggan Outdoors in early June to do white water rafting & clay pigeon shooting. Graeme wins a £25 activity voucher.