HIDDEN GEMS: IF YOUR LITTLE darlings are determined to visit Santa and his reindeers in Lapland, then you might like to know that these engaging animals can be found a lot closer to home.
After the last ice age they roamed Ireland until the climate got too warm. In Scotland, however, subarctic conditions prevail in the Cairngorm Mountains, where a group lives quite happily thanks to a Swedish reindeer herder named Mikel Utsi.
Utsi wrote of a cold spring morning in 1947 that inspired him to reintroduce reindeer to Scotland after an absence of 800 years: "Looking across to the Cairngorms, I was reminded of reindeer pastures in Lapland. Travel in the Highlands showed that many species of lichens, the chief food of reindeer, were plentiful."
His efforts paid off, and a herd has lived wild in the mountains since the 1950s. These days the family-run Cairngorm Reindeer Centre looks after the 150-strong herd and organises sightseeing treks.
We joined a short walk through spectacular birch woodland to a feeding point. Some 40 animals, all named, bounded through the heather, enveloping us in a forest of velvet antlers as a guide dispensed barley.
Curiously, their favourite foods are hallucinogenic mushrooms. In Lapland herders used to gather reindeer with the familiar red-and-white fly agaric mushroom. They would then drink the animals' urine, experiencing a trip that magnified any movements. Santa and his flying reindeer were only a small step away.
All the Christmas magic can be found at the centre, where, as well as friendly reindeer, kids will find a Santa's bothy and an elves' house.
* Cairngorm Reindeer Centre, Glenmore, Cairngorms National Park, Scotland, 00-44-1479- 861228, www.reindeer- company.demon.co.uk
* Do you know a hidden gem? E-mail us at go@irishtimes.com