Cairngorms

Britain's largest national park, created in 2003, protects the Cairngorms massif and the remains of an ancient Caledonian forest that once covered much of Scotland. Unlike other British parks, it holds relict populations of boreal species such as the Scottish wildcat and the capercaillie, genuine relics of the last ice age. Its subarctic climate — with winds that regularly top 45 km/h — has allowed Britain's only semi-domesticated reindeer herd, reintroduced in 1952, to survive here.