The Cairngorms National Park, already a designated International Dark Sky Park, is set to unveil a brand new ‘Dark Sky Experience’, following a joint proposal from the Tomintoul and Glenlivet Development Trust (TGDT) and the Cairngorms Astronomy Group.
The existing Tomintoul and Glenlivet Discovery Centre in Tomintoul will host a Dark Sky Exhibit, as well as other experiences, such as a mini observatory and a planetarium linked to the village hall, according to Grampian Online.
The Green Recovery Fund, which aims to promote sustainable development and support for community projects in Scotland, helped finance the new experience
Funding was secured from the Green Recovery Fund which aims to promote sustainable development and support for community projects around Scotland.
Oliver Giles, the development manager for TGDT, said: “We’re working with a company called Lateral North. They’ve designed and started to work on the exhibit. We hope it can bring focus to why preserving our night sky is so important.”
He added that the exhibit should be installed before the end of the season in October, and in case it isn’t complete, there will be a special reopening for the unveiling, which ties in with the darker nights of winter anyway.
The Tomintoul and Glenlivet area, located in the Cairngorms National Park, in the north east of Scotland between Aberdeen and Inverness, achieved the prestigious International Dark Sky Park designation in 2018.
It is common to see such astronomical phenomenon such as the aurora borealis, also known as The Northern Lights, and efforts to eliminate light pollution to provide such clear dark skies has made the area a must-visit attraction for stargazers all around the world.
However, light pollution is still an issue that is high on the agenda for Tomintoul and Glenlivet, where most of the street lighting has been replaced with dark sky friendly lights. The local community also continues to work hard to help eliminate light pollution.
Giles said that the community has done a lot of work to help maintain the dark sky status, and should be congratulated for their work to help improve it further, as it is one of the staples of the area, and everyone wants to maintain it.
He added that achieving dark sky status was not the end of the had work either, as the teams were constantly measuring and improving the quality of the night sky.
The area usually attracts around 11,000 visitors a year, which had dropped due to the pandemic, but after a difficult 18 months, the community is ready to welcome visitors back.
Giles said: “We hope this encourages visitors back after the pandemic. It’s an outdoors activity so it should be relatively fine to visit. The night sky in our area is obviously unique as you just don’t see most of these things elsewhere in the country.”
He added that the key message is that the area is ready and waiting for visitors once again and that there are some ‘amazing things to see and do’ in the area, as well as the dark sky experience.
“We just can’t wait to welcome visitors back.”
More information can be found here.
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