My apologies.  In my post last week on how the Cairngorms National Park Planning Committee had rejected the application for a new road linking Pitmain with Glen Banchor (see here) I had used this photo of the Allt Chaorainn bridge from the Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group.  I had then wrongly added the black line showing what I thought was the proposed road re-alignment.  That was wrong and the route shown on the plans is closer to that now marked in red on the photo, although greatly foreshortened since the proposed link appears c175m long:

The response from the CNPA’s landscape staff, which was quoted in the Committee report, gave this assessment of the proposed road re-alignment after noting that “a landscape appraisal has not been provided”:

“It is predicted that the proposed link road to the new bridge over the Allt a’ Chaorainn could result in some significant adverse landscape and visual effects within the local area, experienced from the public parking area at the end of Glenbanchor Road and travelling along the Glen Banchor Cart Track heritage path.  No details have been submitted for the link road, but it appears from the ‘proposed track layout and location plan’ drawing 143146/011 and site assessment that it may cut through the hill on the north east side of the river, potentially requiring a wide corridor of earthworks to create the rising/ descending road grade required.  A full assessment of these effects is not possible at this stage due to insufficient information.”

What a damning assessment and my apologies to the landscape staff concerned for not having quoted their concerns previously.

It is also worth noting from the plans that the Pitmain Estate wanted to create five new passing places along the public road in Glen Banchor each of which would have been 45m long.