Formally opened on 1 September 2003, the second national park in Scotland is also Britains largest, and contains the second highest mountain in Britain - strangely, not Cairngorm, but Ben Macdui. There are 46 Munros, (mountains over 3000 feet high), we have some of Europe's cleanest rivers, and very rare plants, animals and birds - including the Scottish Crossbill, which is not found anywhere else in the world!
The twinflower which is specially picked out for mention in the literature of the Cairngorms National Park grows and flowers profusely in Curr Wood, which is directly behind the hotel, and contains by far the greatest concentration of this delicate small pink flowered and scented relative of the honeysuckle.