News about yet another unlawful killing of a golden eagle in the Cairngorms National Park (see here for the latest list from Raptor Persecution Scotland), found poisoned on the Invercauld Estate in March, should surprise no-one. The Cairngorm National Park Authority’s stated intention to eliminate raptor persecution (see here) will never work until it tackles the underlying land management issues that give rise to it. So long at estates like Invercauld (see here) are allowed to manage their land to produce as many red grouse as possible, it will never be in their interests to allow predators other than humans to kill those birds before they can be shot. The extensive muirburn on Invercauld, is not just bad for carbon capture and human health, it inevitably results in wildlife persecution.
The limitations of law enforcement
While Police Scotland’s strong statement about the poisoning (see here) is welcome, bringing those responsible for wildlife persecution to justice is particularly complex and not the fundamental issue.
At least in this case, the location of the crime is not much in doubt, unlike the dozens of cases where tagged raptors have gone missing. It is not a coincidence that this often occurs close to estate boundaries, which creates doubt as to which estate may have been involved and makes police investigations almost impossible. Even when the location of the crime scene can be established, however, that still leaves the problem of establishing who committed the crime, hence why the police conducted a series of raids on Invercauld on 4th May. The chances of them having found anything would appear very low, with those who illegally kill protected wildlife being only too aware of the need to cover their tracks.
These difficulties in proving who is responsible become even greater on large estates like Invercauld where a number of gamekeeping and other staff are employed. It was partly to tackle this issue that in 2012 a law of vicarious liability was introduced. This allows a landowner or their agent to be held responsible for the criminal actions of an employee. It well explain why the Estate Manager, Angus McNicol – who could be in line for being charged – decided to make news of the raids public before the police: he wanted to establish his good character. Mr McNicol was also quick to claim (see here):
“The area where the bird was found is on a let farm in an area which is managed for sheep farming and is on the edge of an area of native woodland regeneration. It is not managed for driven grouse shooting”.
Raptor Persecution Scotland has shown the second sentence is not true, the RSPB’s Investigations Officer having confirmed that the poisoned eagle “was found within an area of strip muirburn within 200m of a line of grouse butts” (see here). If land in the area is let for farming, I can find no record of such a lease on the Land Registry, although this could be recorded on the older register of sasines. But the point is that Mr McNicol was not just wanting to deflect moral responsibility onto some poor farmer – who almost certainly will be at the beck and call of the estate and bound to tolerate the incursion of gamekeepers onto the land they manage – it’s that legal responsibility under the law of vicarious responsibility becomes more complicated on land that has been leased out. Should it be the leaseholder or the landowner who is held vicariously responsibility? And, if the leaseholder, what happens where the land is leased out but the landowner retains the sporting rights?
The law on vicarious liability has only been successfully used on two occasions since it was introduced (see here). Although the location of this crime and therefore the landowner is known, the chances of anyone involved in managing the Invercauld Estate being brought to justice would appear low.
The CNPA and land management at Invercauld
Following its silence last year about cases of raptor persecution, at least this week the CNPA issued a short statement about the golden eagle, though the headline refers to a “death” ,not a crime:
The focus of the statement, however, is about responding to the “incident”, rather than tackling what caused it, which is the way land on the Invercauld Estate is being managed. The Police investigation provides a convenient excuse for the CNPA to avoid having to say anything about how their partnership with the Invercauld Estate, which is part of the East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership, is going. This is supposed to be setting new standards for moorland management and co-operation, but there is no transparency about what, if anything, has changed on Invercauld as a result. What we do know, however, is that Invercauld Estate left it to Police Scotland to notify the CNPA of this crime – some partnership that!
The sad truth is that Invercauld, along with most of the other estates in the East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership (ECMP), are using the CNPA to pretend they are doing good things for wildlife, while they continue to intensify the way they manage grouse moors. Invercauld has been particularly active in issuing propaganda about what it is doing for species that just so happen to pose no threat to shooting interests (see here for example). It has also made a point of deploying staff to search for missing wildlife (see here), when the chances are either some of those staff were responsible or knew who was. After the neighbouring estate of Delnadamph, owned by Prince Charles and a member of the ECMP, was shown to have been actively involved in slaughtering mountain hares (see here), Invercauld then used the CNPA to issue yet more propaganda about how the area was in fact a stronghold for mountain hares (see here).
The poisoned golden eagle was found not far from Crathie, where the Royal Family worship when in residence at Balmoral. Don’t expect Prince Charles to speak out against this latest crime, however. When it comes to wildlife persecution, all these privately owned estates are joined in a common bond because of their shared pre-occupation with managing their land for field sports.
What has the ECMP achieved?
Last May, the CNPA considered a report on the work of the ECMP (see here). While the ECMP has progressed a number of tokenistic projects, in the tradition of the postage stamp planting along the River Dee catchment (see here), when it comes to landscape scale conservation a large proportion of the progress is down to Mar Lodge Estate. This is managed by the National Trust for Scotland, and the conservation successes there would have happened whether or not the ECMP had ever been created. For example, NTS have committed to delivering 2,000 of the 2,500 – 3,000 hectares of forestry expansion planned over the next ten years -and that through natural regeneration, not planting. This is a consequence of their successful efforts to reduce numbers of red deer on their land and their decision to stop all muirburn.
What the muirburn map in the CNPA report suggests is that if it wasn’t for the NTS (who own the land marked in red on the bottom left) very little has changed. While there is also little muirburn on much of the Balmoral estate (red area bottom right), that area has had some of the highest levels of red deer in Scotland. This is preventing natural regeneration of the land (see here). It is those red deer numbers, and the failure of the Royal Family to bring these under control, that explains the low levels of forest regeneration planned for Balmoral (80 ha at Glen Muick and 99 ha at Ballochbuie – both within fenced enclosures). As for the Glenavon Estate which includes the red area above Mar Lodge, while some areas are not being burned, almost certainly because of their remoteness, elsewhere destructive muirburn continues unabated:
It is little wonder that while such land practices continue, so does wildlife persecution. Most of the staff working on conservation issues in the National Park understand this, the problem is they are not free to say so and instead are forced to devote their efforts to tokenistic projects. Meantime, the land round about burns.
What needs to happen
The poisoning of the golden eagle provides confirmation that the ECMP is a pointless exercise which has failed to protect wildlife. Why NTS goes along with this, when many of the raptors hatched on their land disappear when they move east (see here), is unclear. A large part of the solution to the problem lies in the CNPA using its conservation powers to ban the practices associated with intensive grouse moor management, which inevitably result in wildlife persecution.
Land owning interests are so powerful, however, that conservation byelaws on their own – just like the proposals to require grouse moors to be licensed – are unlikely to be sufficient to change the way the land is managed. Landowners and managers are likely to continue to defy the law. If the CNPA therefore really does believe raptor persecution “has no place in 21st Century Scotland”, then it should ask the Scottish Government to help it take over privately owned land in our National Parks that is not being managed in the public interest. Invercauld would be a good place to start.
One way to help finance this would be for the Scottish Government to raise the penalties for failing to manage land in the National Park according to conservation principles (or, for land elsewhere, the requirements of the promised licensing scheme for grouse moors).
Sometimes, a particular incident seems to be the final straw that leads to what some might see as ‘extremism’ or ‘wishful thinking’. This is one such incident – yet another raptor poisoning in the National Park. Would it, I wonder, be too extreme, too much wishful thinking, to imagine that, building on existing and expanding re-wilding efforts in parts of the Cairngorms National Park, there might possibly be a large scale trial, across the entire National Park, of a total end to the killing of any and all wildlife, both ‘sporting’ and otherwise, except for specifically licensed and strictly limited occasions where populations of a species are demonstrably out of balance in terms of their own future? Would it be too ridiculous to suggest that gamekeepers instead become wildlife rangers and paid visitor wildlife guides as well as instruments of land management within a strictly defined re-wilding and wildlife supporting context? Would it be nonsense to suggest that within the Cairngorms National Park, muirburn should be completely outlawed? Would it be beyond the pale to suggest that the Scottish Government could legislate to create such a bold approach, and fund farmers, leaseholders and landowners to implement it? If not, why not? After all, what’s a National Park for?
Thanks Nick for a cogent description and explanation of the principle issues around upland management for ‘sport’.
My hope is that you may be broadening the knowledge of some of your readership/audience, though I suspect that like me, most of your readers are aware of and fed up with the ongoing issues around upland management for bloodsports. So, I have, where I can, been trying to just simply change the description of landscapes when out walking with people who enjoy the outdoors but may not be so au-fait with major issues.
When a walking companion stops to admire the view, praising what they are looking at, I gently say something like, “You know that this is a landscape of death though”. Which allows me to hopefully explain sympathetically just how and why the landscape looks like it does. I also try the same with people I meet on the hill. I had a wonderful conversation with a couple on the summit of Lochnagar who engaged thoughtfully with my descriptions, explanations and observations. I always now change my language in description and use expressions like “managed for the pursuit of blood sports”. I know deer need to be managed ie culled, but the reason there are so many per km2 in places like Balmoral is so shooting can be carried out for recreation, ie fun!
We need more people to understand that what is seen as classic archetypal Scottish landscape is a landscape for and of death.
Yes, it really important to talk to people and explain how sporting estates have been responsible for the removal of both wildlife and people from the glens
Your photograph shows mismanagement at its highest and a clear flouting of the worthless muirburn code. The most prominant burn patch is clearly on thin soils with outcroping boulders. Between it and the river is the skeleton of what look likes a granny pine. It looks like there might be some tree tubes suggesting that they might feel a little guilty for sytematically destroying an internationally important asset. But the burning of the pine wood still continues. Have a look at the aerial photo of gridref NO 14612 93286 just north of Braemar.
In 2016 I found a bird caught by illegally set traps on Invercauld Estate. They were spring traps baited with dead rabbit and secured to the ground by chains and stout pegs, driven in firm. The bird was caught by traps on each of its legs and in repeatedly trying to fly off, it was pulling the metal traps off the ground until jerked back by the taught chains. This was causing it to pull its own legs off and it was covered with blood. I wrote to Peter Argyll, park convener at the time whatever that means, and he and Grant Moir met with people associated with Invercauld to discuss the incident though there is no record of their meetings. A gamekeeper was supposedly moved on after the incident but it looks like others were ready and willing to take his place. Criminal activity against birds in Cairngorms National Park is a serious issue but I have zero faith in CNPAs ability or willingness to tackle it. I certainly felt my letter to CNPA was a waste of my time and that is borne out by subsequent events.
Thank you for reporting this Graeme, a tragic incident but very revealing of the issues at play. The fact that a gamekeeper was “moved on” says it all, as it is evidence of the real source of this illegal persecution (and it was not in fact a “set-up”, the latest in a long series, as many of them keep claiming on social media, e.g. for the current case by Jolyon Bryce and Andy Richardson, again alleging work of “animal rights activists” https://twitter.com/voice_rural/status/1390147687387963397). Moreover if the estate took responsibility in that fashion then they should (theoretically at least) have faced some sanction under vicarious liability? It is also immensely frustrating that CNPA seem to have caved in to pressure from them by agreeing to hush it all up, so it seems as nothing has been put into the public domain – in some jurisdictions at least it would be illegal to have alleged meetings of that nature and deliberately conceal the minutes – an injustice to yourself who reported the matter but were only learnt of the outcomes via rumour and anecdote. So in the end they were let off scot free – sending a clear signal that these crimes will continue to be tolerated, moreover these actions, including those of CNPA apparently (so far as we can tell) being complicit in the cover-up, apparently lead directly to further incidents such as the current alleged case.
More than that, it was also highly revealing in that the press statement issued by the estate claiming that what you recorded and reported did not in fact constitute “evidence of illegal activity” (no-one cas dispute that whoever did it was indeed engaged in illegal activity, their only defence is that no-one can prove who that illegal actor was) was published on their behalf by their friends the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. This is irrefutable proof that despite their claims to the contrary, and their foundation as a charitable organisation (asking us to fund their research), GWCT are in practice still operating as a lobbying group in favour of the status quo, specifically where illegal persecution is both tolerated and defended – they are the ones sticking their neck out to do the defending, they have no need to issue statements of this nature, quite the contrary.
In this front it rather surprises me that in a large organisation such as this there is no-one prepared to speak out in favour of the wildlife they are apparently all working to “conserve”, and query their seriously imbalanced PR strategy. You would think if they were to change their position, i.e. desist in using demonstrably empty words to condemn persecution while at the same time doing everything they can to support those who are doing it, even in blatant cases with estates such as this where there is an ongoing track record of irrefutable illegal activity done by someone, that things might eventually begin to change. Anyway, the ball is in their court, but I’ve just had a look and a week on so far neither they, nor their normally outspoken Director of Communications, Marketing and Membership, have had a single word to say on the current matter – very revealing in itself.
This article was very informative for me. Got here from a Facebook group that I am part of to educate myself on the issues facing ecological restoration in Scotland.
I have to say, from what I have seen so far, the situation looks dismal at the moment but I can also see small rays of light shining through the clouds.
As I used to say when I first moved here 6 years ago, it’s always sunny _somewhere_ in Scotland.
Thank you!
Eagle persecution will most likely continue in the CNP partly due to a toothless bobble hat Ranger service that Keepers can make a fool out of any day of the week, unfortunatly almost all if not all the people employed by the CNP and SNH have no local knowledge, never even went to school with Gamekeepers.
Howcan the SDFB employ local people to the standard in Law that they can hold a warrant card, in which it is an offence for ANY PERSON to obstruct a water bailiff in the exercise of their powers.
But wildlife seems to get nothing from the CNP of SNH, give rangers the same power as Bailiff’s, but it would be pretty useless if the Rangers were not prepared to do the work Bailiff’s do and i know the CNP and SNH rangers just couldn’t hack it, not the most pleasant job, or 9 to 5 hrs with weekends off, sometimes wildlife need protection outside these hours but the Park is useless in protecting wildlife day or night.
But alas no we have the toothless Ranger service that it takes the newly appointed staff from outwith the area years to find thier way around the CNP, there is as much hope for other Wildlife as there is for the Capercaillie.
I have spent a lot of time in National Parks in British columbia Canada and when a Ranger tells you something, you know you got to listen.
All those people you disparage have no powers in law. You need to be directing your ire at legislators. All of the rangers I know are as appalled by persecution as you and I are. We need to direct our energies where they can make a difference. MSP and the Park Board and Executive.
Bimbling, thanks for this.
inaccurate, irrelevant, insulting.
is there no moderation on this blog?
One of the main aims of parkswatch is to promote critical thinking and that requires comment and debate – I, like other readers, agree with some things that are said, not others. I try to avoid censoring comments and readers have an important role in challenging inaccuracies, whether by authors of posts (several readers have been good enough to correct me in a post on campervans) or comments by other readers. So, if you think a statement is inaccurate or you have a different point of view, please say so. I would also distinguish between disparaging remarks and insults – its a difficult line sometime – and while any Ranger reading it might well feel bruised, they might also feel inspired by the idea of having similar powers to water bailiffs to address wildlife crime.
really? debate needs to be based on respect for facts and respect for people.
difficult to know where to start, or finish….
you invite ‘critical thinking’: ‘almost all if not all’- which? or isn’t it obvious doesnt know and is just making it up?
‘9-5 hours with weekends off’- clearly hasn’t seen the seasonal rangers’ rotas, which include evenings and weekends.
so, not factually based. so, just prejudice. so, insulting.
so, the writer is either an ignoramus or a liar. you decide. i’m happy to give him the benefit of the doubt.
and no, I wouldn’t feel inspired by ‘more powers’, preferring to work on the basis of ‘consent’- you’ll have heard the term used recently re Kenmure Street.
For too many years now the CNPA has pretended to be in a partnership with the East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership. Yes, it was worthwhile to try and work with ECMP to try and develop a real and voluntary conservation management plan. It is very clear that the ECMP has just used the CNPA to give it a credibility that the group does not deserve. It is time for CNPA to totally change its attitude to the man-made environment that the members of the ECMP have created in order to pursue for their own outdated and selfish ends.
I appreciate that the CNPA has limited powers in law, but it is now long overdue for it to start to use the limited powers it has on enforcing the muirburn code, taking what action it can against estates where raptor poisoning and other predator persecution is found and curtailing the proliferation of hill-track development. Where CNPA does not have the powers to change this form of wildlife and environmental destruction in the pursuit of blood sports, it should be lobbying Government for changes in the law (and be seem to be doing this).
The CNPA has for too long now tried to take reflected credit for the great environmental and wildlife successes happening in the Cairngorms (e.g. Cairngorms Connect), but in essence the CNPA has taken very little real action to encourage such projects. CNPA has received a significant amount of money for its Capercaillie project. Time will tell whether this project produces any real environmental return on this investment.
Bimbling you are right,
All those people you disparage have no powers in law. You need to be directing your ire at legislators.
We have had how many years of the National park and what has it really done and what has it cost, to me and all the locals who were here long before it became a National park feel it’s done nothing, it is and always has been disconnected from the local community, why not start an apprenticeship at school to get local kids qualified to be able to get jobs such as rangers withing the park, after all these kids grow up connected to the area want to earn a wage that they can afford to stay in the area and go to school with kids that will become local gamekeepers, farmers ect.
Surely it is for the CNP to approach the Scottish govenment to give Rangerss in all National Parks the powers needed to protect wildlife and protect ares of SSSI.
If the SDF board can employ kids that went to school locally in villages and towns along the river with powers of a warrant card why can’t the National park give local kids a start after all what local kid wouldn’t want to earn this kind of wage for the 37.5 hour week this was the first job offer i looked at, local kids in park are lucky to earn half of that, no wonder they will never be able to afford a house where they were born.
Job Title: Cairngorms Peatland Action Project Officer
Salary: £31,438 – £37,844 (Band D) plus excellent benefits such as flexitime, generous annual leave and a defined pension scheme to name just a few
Contract: 3 Year Fixed Term Contract
Working Hours: 37.5 hours per week
In support of these points, I understand that Kingussie High School offers a course in gamekeeping – compared to how many courses for Rangers? What was the Cairngorms Outdoor Access Trust did try and address the issue by training young people in path construction, but without our National Parks employing path repair teams, there are no local jobs for them to go to.
I think you misunderstand the nature and scope of Rangering. Ranger work usually requires a graduate qualification.
There are many courses leading to this. SRUC does one in Countryside/Environmental management. From which, quite a few graduates have entered Rangering. And yes, it does include practical elements.
Also, the CNPA has started a scheme for local young people to introduce them to Rangering.
So, the answers to the questions posed and assertions made above, are out there.
It’s a pity that folk dont ascertain the information before sounding off. The site will lose credibility otherwise.
“Also, the CNPA has started a scheme for local young people to introduce them to Rangering” can you direct me to where this is advertised and how long it has been running.
19 years or so the National park has been in existence can you tell me how many Rangers employed who went to School locally,
I think you misunderstand the nature and scope of Rangering. Ranger work usually requires a graduate qualification.
I can assure you i miss nothing out in my comments, all i want to try and find out is how many Local kids have had the opportunity to work for the CNP in an area it takes years to get to know, if you have the information i would be grateful if you could let me know.
I have a very good friend who works for the CNP and family that work in the local Schools and still i can’t find the info you state, do you work for the CNP ? if so please post the details of the Scheme to help local kids beome Qualified as Rangers in the National Park.
On reading back on one of barrie’s posts i feel i should add that i probably am an ignoramus, i left school education without a degree and have no qualifications in Rangering.
but i have worked outdoors since leaving school working on two estates and observed wildlife in the Badenoch area for 50 years, i learned more from the guys i went to the LOCAL school with, the same people who are now Gamekeepers, Farmers and land managers.
I have studied Schedule one Species almost EVERY day during the Summer months in the CNP for 10 years starting at 4am every morning during the Summer
Studied Otters in the CNP almost EVERY night of the last year following on from watching Otters 20 years ago in the same area of the CNP, right now a female with two cubs, i also worked on the River Spey for 13 yrs and qualified as a bailiff yes my only paper qualification, i aso took part in many early morning Sawbill studies up and down the River Spey within the CNP for years.
So yes i am an ignoramus as far as quilifications are concerned, but a lifetime watching nature in this area since a kid and more than i have mentioned.
Perhaps you could educate an ignoramus like me and let us all know your qualification in local wildlife and wildlife protection, an old saying you can’t learn Wildlife out of a book or in a classroom, but go ahead educate me.
CNPA Kickstart project- ask your ‘very good friend who works for CNP’ about it.
https://cairngorms.co.uk/caring-future/education/learning/junior-rangers/
https://ww1.sruc.ac.uk/courses-training/subject-areas/conservation
– that’s 3 opportunities for local young people to get into rangering that you appear to have overlooked.
However, it would be great to have more. And now the CNPA have set up the seasonal ranger/volunteer ranger/park ranger programmes, we might see more local young folk getting into the profession, as a result of seeing the role models . ‘you have to see it to be it’
This month saw the first ever National Parks UK Junior Ranger camp take place in The Peak District National Park – the Cairngorms Junior Ranger team gives us the low down.
19 years of the CNP and that’s it, …………better very late than never i suppose.
Anyway it’s 4am as i write this, and i am still wondering if you work for the CNP, would be nice to know, i stated my back ground in Wildlife in the CNP, perhaps you could do the same.
Just got home from a very early start as normal and i have to say i am very dissapointed in your cut copy and paste answer to the FIRST EVER National Parks UK Junior Ranger camp take place in The Peak District National Park – the Cairngorms Junior Ranger team gives us the low down.
19 years…. don’t want to sound like a broken record but it has taken 19 years of the National park to start a Junior Ranger team, WOW my what speed the CNP works at getting local kids involved in the area they are brought up in.
I have stated my background in Wildlife in the area and wait for you to answer the questions you missed, it would be good to know if you work for the CNP in any form or have any connection with the CNP, i really hope not, but let everyone know.
this is becoming tedious correcting your erroneous assertions.
you say: ‘it has taken 19 years of the National park to start a Junior Ranger team’
in fact: The Cairngorms National Park Junior Ranger Project was launched in June 2009 involving 21 young people aged 12-15 in two 5 day programmes – one in Deeside and one in Strathspey. https://cairngorms.co.uk/uploads/documents/Learn/JMA_juniorrangers_130130_v1.pdf
can’t you do your own homework?
Barrie,
FANTASTIC, and sorry for the erroneous assertions, i will write to the CNP this week and request the details of the Junior Ranger project and find out how many local kids from the project went on to become Rangers in the CNP, and in doing some homework i will request a list of CNP Rangers employed by the Park.
I will try AGAIN as you seem to be ignoring my question AGAIN and i don’t want to make another erroneous assertion that you or any of your family are employed by the National Park, it would be something you would surely be happy to disclose.
More than happy to do some homework this week regarding the CNP Ranger service, but before i do please reassure us that you are not employed by the CNP so everyone knows it’s not a biased opinion.
Gordon, yes, the Junior Ranger programme probably did introduce a lot of local young folk to opportunities in the Park, especially if they meet a wide range of folk working in the countryside. Could perhaps be extended? and the recent kickstart programme might help too.
And no, not employed by CNPA. But yes, I’m biased: we are all biased! There’s a Greek saying that it doesnt matter who you are- qualifications, accent, status, etc- what matters is the quality of what you are saying/bringing to the table.
I was interested in your comparison with Canada’s Ranger Service. My understanding was that they had 2 different types- Education and Enforcement. But my experience was some decades ago, so things may have changed: can you update me?
Barrie there is no pont in any comparision between National parks in Canada and Scotland, the disgusting mess all Summer at Loch Morlich which was allowed to go on all Summer while the Foresty Rangers did nothing, absolutely disgusting and just wouldn’t happen in Canada, it was left to the local fire brigade to go back and forth putting out fires, people were using the beach as a toilet and dumping Tons of Rubbish, every one of those people would have been ticketed for an on the spot fine in BC.
The forestry control the car parks around Loch Morlich with no overnight parking signs, and yet it was like Glastonbury every night.
4.1 million people visited Banff National Park before the Covid and they manage it perfectly unlike the Scottish Parks that are managed by well it’s best i don’t say what i really feel.
A few years ago at Moy Game fair i met a former CNP Chief Executive Officer, his couldn’t wait to tell me he had been visiting Aviemore since the Sixties, i had to tell him iv’e been living in Aviemore since the Sixties not visiting, what a plocker picking up £70 to £80,000 a year, Geez
AS you drive out of Canmore you see a sign, drop litter out of your Vehicle $2000.00 fine, i could go on about how the Park provides park areas for visitors and locals that would shame all the Parks in Scotland, here it’s just embarrassing.
Gordon, I find myself largely in agreement with you. In my opinion, we need more robust facilities- not everyone is skilled in the outdoors life. Coupled with good education of visitors- in how to use these facilities: Rangers could deliver that. And finally, enforcement, for by then there would be no excuse.
BTW I see Aberdeenshire Council are now looking for kickstart candidates. Maybe the tide is turning, and local kids could see a future helping visitors enjoy the place responsibly?
BTW please accept my apology for my earlier personal remarks: I guess I took umbrage at your pejorative use of ‘bobble-hatted’: one of my mentors was Adam Watson, noted scientist of the Cairngorms, who passed away just a couple of years ago. Adam was rarely without his ‘bobble hat’.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/06/adam-watson-obituary
Sorry been busy at work the last few weeks, Adam was a different breed from the Ranger service we have in the CNP, i have not been to Glenmore and around Loch Morlich, i hear it is a disaster again with fires, trees getting cut down, people using the beach as a toilet and every bush the same.
Something you would never see in a Canadian National Park, but here….. it’s pathetic how this park is Managed, they should all be fired out the door, or better still, get rid of the Park altogether.