Scotland enjoys an embarrassment of riches. It is renowned worldwide for its warring clans, spectacular landscapes and colourful characters. So how can we translate this broad awareness and appeal around the globe into extraordinary experiences on the ground in Scotland?  

The tourism market is estimated to be worth more than £11 billion a year to the economy and is growing particularly strongly at the luxury end of the market. You only need to look at the success of the North Coast 500 to get a sense of the insatiable demand for new and authentic experiences that touch the imagination.

Many of the great Scottish sporting estates are uniquely placed to capture a portion of that luxury driven demand and they, and we, have been working hard to broaden our collective horizons.

A Scottish holiday is now about more than just the sport, and experience-led holidays are increasingly popular.

Sporting Lets, in one guise or another, has been the cornerstone of the Galbraith leisure offering for decades. The team has unrivalled understanding of the rhythms of Scottish field-sports and a close relationship with more than 100 Scottish estates. This knowledge will continue to be critical to our day-to-day business. Demand remains strong for traditional sporting activities. If you want a day’s hind stalking, a week’s fishing, or a sporting lodge then we are still the people to ring.

But we are also moving with the times and have rebranded our leisure offering as Ossian, offering a wider range of extraordinary experiences across Scotland.

We will be bringing together field-sports and experience-led destinations all under one roof: stay in a sporting lodge, but take a photographic safari to catch a glimpse of Scotland’s big five; search for the northern lights in the night sky; learn how to cook your own freshly caught lobsters and langoustines; romantic island-hop to remote beaches by seaplane; or gallop through the Great Glen on horseback.

At Ossian we aim to inspire our visitors to blend their imagination with our unrivalled knowledge of Scotland for the perfect holiday. If you feel that your estate has the potential to create magical experiences that will resonate with clients we’d love to hear from you and work with you to make it happen.

The idea of diversification is nothing new to readers of Rural Matters. One third of high net worth individuals see Scotland as a luxury destination, so with renewables incentives reduced, could this be the major diversification opportunity of our generation? Lodges full of non-sporting clients year round, stalkers guiding photographic wildlife trips, butchery and cooking courses being run in lodges using local produce throughout the year – the possibilities are endless.