An eagle pair successfully reared the chick at an artificial eyrie on the 10,000-acre Trees for Life Dundreggan estate, high on a rocky crag, on the remains of an old nest site. Its purpose was to encourage a pair of golden eagles to mate. It was made using branches from the native pines and birch trees that cover the mountain slopes.
Doug Gilbert is the manager of the estate. He has been checking the eyrie every spring for the last five years. He described it as a "rewilding successes story beyond our wildest dreams". He told the BBC: "I feel elated. Absolutely amazing. To have done a little bit of management, and to have a wild bird decide it's a good place to be, and produce a chick, then it's wonderful."
Mr Gilbert said the "rewilding" approach adopted at Dundreggan had helped. The estate used to be managed for deer stalking, and the animals tend to graze on tender saplings before they can become mature. Now the deer population has been reduced to a level where trees can grow again. "Golden eagle-friendly" mountaintop forests have been replanted, containing tough, waist-high "wee trees", such as dwarf birch and downy willow. There has been a recorded increase in black grouse, which is an important food source for golden eagles.
However Mr Gilbert said: "I do worry for the safety of the chick. They are renowned for wandering quite far distances. There are several black spots where eagles regularly disappear. Some of them are well within range of a young golden eagle - just 50 km away, and chicks can travel for 100-150km."
"What we are doing here won't change the course of history," said Mr Gilbert. "But if we can produce one chick, rather than one being killed somewhere else, then it's a good thing."