Discover Animals’ Geoff Moore visits Fiona Cairns to find out more about the walks she offers with her herd of alpacas in Scotland.
When she needed to get her fields grazed after she no longer owned a horse, she decided to turn to alpacas. And this change in animals brought a change in her business life too. Little did Fiona know that these rather cute looking beasts would become more than just four-legged grass mowers.
As a breed, alpacas were domesticated in South America several thousands of years ago. They live for around 20 years and generally they are bred and kept mainly for their fleece. They grow to around five feet high with adults weighing in at between 60 to 90kg. At birth, their young are around 6 to 8kg.
Fiona’s herd is all female; they tend to be easier to look after and suited the trekking work which developed after she acquired her first ones. The animals have plenty of down time for grazing as Fiona only has one or two treks for the girls to do in a day as she has another small business in the village of Dores that also keeps her busy. Although Geoff gets the idea that the alpacas are really her favourite venture!
Located on the banks of Loch Ness, the main trekking route takes you through a charming forested walk and down to the very edge of the Loch. The treks are family-friendly fun for all ages and the group Geoff joined was aged from around 7 to 70.
Getting up close to these creatures was a nice experience and as long as you keep to their fronts and sides where they can see you clearly then they feel calmer too. They tend not to like approaches from behind. They rather like a body rub and that’s when you can feel the denseness of their coats that are trimmed once a year, when the wool is spun and used to create a whole number of products.
Another feature on the walk is to take a long piece of carrot and offer it in your mouth to the animal you are trekking with and let them take it. Always a must and a great memory to record on your camera or phone!
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