A fantastic Spey decent with a great group of people. Very well organised from the initial enquiry ... responsive, helpful and professional. Highly recommended read more

Superlative outdoor activity centre. A wonderful location and excellent facilities. I visited the centre back in April 2024 and was pleased to be accepted for the Instructor training course. After a 20 year long stint of being a mental health practitioner within the NHS, it was time to focus on myself. I was immediately welcomed by Gethin, the operations manager and indeed by the other instructors. Commencing my instructor training in July 2024, at a grand old age of 53! This has not been an issue at all! Having kept pace with other student instructors, some less than half my age! The facilities and homely environment are wonderful. We soon became a mutually supportive 'family' of Rookie instructors. The first weeks settling into a new environment with a packed itinerary were fun & challenging due to a lifestyle change, but what a lifestyle change in a part of the world that oozes adventure, beauty and outdoor challenges. Supported by an absolutely cracking team, Alfie, Ross, Rowan, Liam, Fionn, Tom, Laura & James and the knowledge, welcome and encouragement from Roy and Sophia GIbson (The Owners) - themselves incredibly experienced outdoor folk! Whom were quick to share guidance, support, stories and encouragement, was more than enough to make me feel right at home and to achieve my ultimate goal - to deliver, encourage, and support others in realising their outdoor pursuit adventures, whilst giving me a first huge step onto the exciting ladder of outdoor adventure & instruction and a multi-opportunity list of qualifications. Indeed, everything is here for those who want to grasp an opportunity to learn and develop a career in outdoor pursuits. Reflecting back just now, on the last couple of months, having climbed and hiked the highlands, canoed, kayaked, rafted, and paddle-boarded the many beautiful, lochs, rivers, rapids and coastline that exists here...makes me 'pinch myself' daily...as if this is a dream! Recently, having the opportunity to instruct a local school group of youngsters in paddle-sports has really helped to hone skills and encourage young folks to literally 'pick up the paddle!' The essence of Active Outdoor Pursuits is Team work....but personal goals and challenges are always encouraged and supported with staff on hand 24 hours a day! Maintaining health and safety in any environment is paramount. Indeed the instructors and free lance instructors are totally on the ball here and always ensure safe practice and risk assessment, whilst in the realms of fun, adventure and learning, are in place. Whether I climbed a crag, wondered at the views from the Munros, to paddle sports & safeguarding youngsters and the team, to ensuring equipment is appropriate for the activity and venues selected carefully to compliment the chosen location - I always felt safe and confident in the skillset of staff and equipment. Furthermore, despite being a learned practitioner, I gleaned a vast amount of new skills in the first aid course, appertaining to the outdoors - Whilst I never wish to use these skills!, I feel confident that I am now equipped to! Like anything in life, you reap that which you sow and indeed 'get out what you put in!' Pushing myself, supporting others and being part of the team is truly wonderful, and I am proud and honoured to be a part of the Active Outdoor Pursuits team, as my course draws to a close. I wish all of my fellow rookies, the awesomely personable and qualified instruction team, and Roy & Sophia, whom have been right behind me since the start of the course the absolute best for your careers. To coin a phrase 'Look at where we are!'... LOL!' Thank you all ! Oh and if you even have an inkling of curiosity and want to find out for yourself, of what the centre has to offer, call in! go and do an activity - see this beautiful part of the world from a new exciting perspective - and help make a change! Get Active!! Get Orange! and live the adventure - 'It is not the pursuit of happiness, Happiness is within the Pursuit!'.. (PP 2024) read more

I attended their 6 months winter Instructor Training Course. Although I have gained some qualifications, in kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding and white-water safety, and made some great friends on this course, unfortunately this course fell significantly below my expectations and the company as a whole is unsafe, unprofessional, mis-advertised, over-priced and should be avoided at all costs. This course directly caused 2 young men to fall 16 meters off a crag, resulting in a broken back, broken neck, fractured skull, lung contusions and a brain bleed. Both are incredibly lucky to be alive. This accident was entirely avoidable and likely caused by Active Outdoor Pursuits teaching substandard material with under qualified staff and not taking trainees safety as their priority. Although I do not know the details of other accident(s), I have been informed that this is not the first serious climbing accident Active Outdoor Pursuits have had on its Instructor Training Courses historically. Climbing is not an inherently dangerous sport. It has high consequence if doing things wrong or at the very cutting edge of climbing. People climb for their entire lives and can only have some tendonitis or sore fingers as a result. It is not common place to have major climbing accidents if you know what you are doing. Active Outdoor Pursuits hire under qualified staff to teach substandard syllabus. They hire mostly internally which keeps this lineage of misinformation going. Mountain Training, the governing body for all climbing qualifications, state very clearly that you should not teach lead climbing with an RCI qualification. All of the staff at Active only have this RCI qualification, with not a single member of full-time instructing staff having a qualification above this and they are all teaching lead climbing. Most of them lack the skills, knowledge and experience to do this. All of the more experienced climbers on my course, raised concerns about what and how lead climbing was being taught but all these concerns were dismissed and nothing was changed from Active. We, the trainees, were then compelled to lower our safety standards to continue on the course. This is definitely my biggest regret over the last 6 months. The pastoral care and the professionalism of Active Outdoor Pursuits senior staff since the accident has been insulting and abysmal. They have offered no refund or compensation to the two victims or their families. They sent a video of the scene of the accident to one of the victims with no support in place asking for a statement within days of it happening. For the rest of the trainees, they temporally offered support with one of the company directors, then offered an opt in counselling services which you could only access through the company directors and only had limited numbers. The first climbing session after the accident, Active hired an "external" trauma-informed MCI who spent the day free soloing and said "accidents happen in climbing". They have not given any refunds or compensation. They have been emotionally manipulative. They have badmouthed around the industry ex-instructors who left following the accident. They have frequently lied to us. They ignore emails with questions or concerns. In addition to the safety concerns and professionalism concerns there are other issues with the course. The course if overpriced for what you get, with loads of hidden fees, and it is mis-advertised with multiple claims on their website which is not the case on the course. In truth you get a total of 4 qualifications and 7 courses. For the winter course, you will not get the opportunity to shadow instructors on activities and expeditions as the instructor training course is really the only thing they do during the winter. You are not trained and assessed by "the industries best coaches and instructors". On few occasions you will have some very experienced outdoor instructors but the vast majority of the time it will be newly qualified outdoor instructors with limited experience and knowledge. These instructors are great but their lack of experience and knowledge is definitely noticeable - especially with climbing and rope work. The accommodation is below the standard you'd expect for a 6-month course. It has no laundry facilities, it has mice, the storeroom - where you'll have to leave all your personal safety critical gear - is not fit for purpose with damp and mice issues. The company is good to gain entry level water-sport qualifications and that is about it. Although due to 5 instructors leaving during our course, most of the water-sports was done by freelancers from better centres. read more