Emma Mykytyn Spirit of the Cairngorms: Tomintoul Distillery and Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team celebrate a special partnership
The Cairngorms are beautiful, dramatic and occasionally unforgiving. They are also home to communities whose lives are deeply connected with the landscape.
A new documentary, Spirit of the Cairngorms, brings some of those stories together, celebrating the people, scenery and sense of community found in this spectacular part of Scotland.
Created by Tomintoul Distillery in collaboration with the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, the short film explores the relationship between the landscape, the people who work within it and those volunteers who head into the mountains when others are in trouble.
We were fortunate enough to attend the exclusive premiere of Spirit of the Cairngorms at Tomintoul House in Nethy Bridge on Tuesday 1st September 2026, where we watched the film alongside members of the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team and a dram alongside some popcorn!
Spirit of the Cairngorms documentary
Spirit of the Cairngorms was shot, produced and edited entirely within Cairngorms National Park, putting the landscape itself at the heart of the story.
Rather than simply being a film about whisky or mountain rescue, it looks at the values connecting Tomintoul Distillery and the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team: teamwork, respect for the landscape and a strong sense of community.
The exclusive preview at Tomintoul House brought together representatives from the distillery and members of the rescue team, giving us the opportunity to meet some of the volunteers whose work features at the heart of this partnership.
The event also included a Tomintoul whisky tasting, bringing another element of the Cairngorms landscape into the evening.
The preview had already attracted recognition at Holyrood. A Scottish Parliament motion lodged by Moray MSP Laura Mitchell welcomed the film and praised both the dedication of the mountain rescue volunteers and Tomintoul Distillery’s commitment to supporting its local community.
Tomintoul Distillery and the Cairngorms
Tomintoul isn’t simply borrowing the Cairngorms as a scenic backdrop. The distillery has been producing single malt whisky in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park since 1965, close to the village of Tomintoul. Its whisky is closely linked to its surroundings, from the mountain air to the pure water drawn from the Ballantruan Spring.
That connection with the landscape makes its relationship with the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team feel particularly natural.
For visitors, the mountains might mean walking, climbing, skiing, wildlife spotting or simply admiring some of Scotland’s most impressive scenery.
For the rescue volunteers, those same mountains can mean heading out in darkness, snow, high winds and freezing temperatures to search for someone who is injured, missing or unable to get safely off the hill.
That contrast is an important part of the story told by Spirit of the Cairngorms.
Supporting Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team
The relationship between Tomintoul Distillery and Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team (CMRT) stretches back several years.
Tomintoul officially became the Official Spirit of the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team in 2023, when CMRT was celebrating its 60th anniversary. At the time, the agreement represented the charity’s largest sponsorship to date.
This isn’t simply a case of putting two logos beside one another. The financial support has helped the rescue team purchase equipment, improve training and maintain the resources its volunteers need when responding to emergencies.
And all those rescuers are volunteers. They give their time, expertise and, on difficult callouts, put themselves in potentially dangerous situations to help complete strangers.
Whisky funding with a real impact
One of the things we particularly like about this partnership is being able to see where some of that support goes.
Previous Tomintoul funding helped CMRT purchase an £8,000 Easy Pulse CPR device, which can mechanically maintain chest compressions while a casualty is being carried on a stretcher, something which could prove vital during difficult mountain evacuations or avalanche rescues.
More recently, Tomintoul’s 2026 funding enabled the team to upgrade its avalanche safety equipment with new transceivers for the whole rescue team.
These devices can help locate a rescuer buried beneath snow following an avalanche, adding another layer of protection for people who are themselves heading into hazardous conditions to rescue others.
This is a moment when “brand partnership” actually means something.
Having the chance to watch the film at Tomintoul House alongside members of the rescue team made the premiere all the more special for us.
These are people who routinely give up their own time to help others enjoy the mountains more safely and who may be called upon when a day in the hills suddenly goes very wrong.
Raising awareness of that work is every bit as important as celebrating the scenery itself.
Spirit of the Cairngorms release
Following the exclusive preview at Tomintoul House on 1st September 2026, Spirit of the Cairngorms launches publicly on Wednesday 2nd September 2026 at 10am.
Find out more
Find out more about Tomintoul Single Malt Scotch Whisky and visiting Tomintoul Distillery through the Tomintoul website.
You can also find out more about the work of Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, including how to support the volunteer rescue team and its lifesaving work in the mountains.
