King Charles visits Cairngorms National Park

King Charles has visited the Cairngorms National Park.

The King visited to thank the community leaders, firefighters, volunteers and landowners involved in battling the major wildfire that affected the area this summer.

King Charles viewed some of the damage caused by the fire, which is regarded as one of the most economically disruptive natural events to affect the Cairngorms tourism sector recently.

The wildfire broke out on 15 July, and it burned more than 3,300 hectares of land. This led to the evacuation of several homes, businesses and campsites. Over 500 firefighters worked to battle the fire.

While in the Cairngorms National Park, King Charles also marked the twinning partnership between mountains in the Scottish Highlands and Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, United States of America. A companion granite stone commemorates the partnership.

The mountains of Scotland and Appalachia were once part of the same ancient mountain range more than 250 million years ago, before being separated across the Atlantic Ocean. The partnership was announced during King Charles’s state visit to the United States earlier this year.