I am just back from a stravaig from Loch Arkaig around Knoydart and then a two day walk across the group of Munros north of the road to Ullapool. In six days on the hill we only saw one piece of litter and that only because we had camped on the rough ground between Seana Bhraigh and Eididh nan Clach Geala. I had washed by the time I spotted the can in the lochan and, with a cold wind, resisted the inclination to wade back in to fish it out.
The can looked too new to be a relic from the Tom Patey era, when mountaineers tended to be less careful with their rubbish. A shame because if it had been dropped by the famous Ullapool climbing doctor it might have had some value!
What our experience suggests is that people who enjoy visiting Scotland’s wilder areas tend now to be environmentally aware – more so perhaps than previous generations – and to “tread lightly. That is a great thing, should be celebrated and should inform how our public authorities, including our National Parks, approach the management of visitors to wild land. The impact of outdoor recreation in remote areas is very small and requires little if any management.
The same cannot be said for others who use the land and sea. We did see litter in Knoydart but that was down on the beaches at Inverie and Sourlies, and mostly a product of the fishing industry.
Funny that cos I still see that they love wrap dog shit in plastic bags and then hang it on a tree, just like Christmas placky bag tolley baubles, lovely it is.
Then there is those gel things, beautiful they are to a real addition to the countryside and how the sheep love chewing them.
Yeah love the public when they take their rubbish home with them, they are the best
There is a lot in what Nick says. I am not sure if I have posted this note before – if so I apologise – but I got sat next to a stalker on a Perthshire estate at a gathering recently and he told me he had some 200 hillwalkers on any weekend but there would be no litter. By far tr.
But if he had a dozen anglers he would be out with a bucket – and I know from inspecting sites after anglers some of their litter is very dangerous to wildlife. I have found ducks hopelessly entangled in fishing lines and even a bat hanging from a cast caught on an overhanging tree branch – it had tried to “eat” the dangling fishing fly at the end of the cast. Dogwalkers can be a problem but they sometimes hang the bags of dogshit on prominent branches intending to collect them when returning along the walk. By far commonest litter I find in walks on the Eastern Highlands is spent shotgun cartridges. I sometimes come back with a pocket full of them – passing along the way a notice saying Welcome to the Moor etc advising me, among other things, not to leave litter
Classy
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/disgusting-tourists-orkney-leave-trail-30635599.amp
So what do you think is the solution?
To what,
The shitty attitude of driver taking his camper van onto others property without permission?
Or being a filthy a###hole and deliberately,maliciously covering others property with at best grey water and at worst excrement?
Obvious answer that even you must acknowledge is that they go to stay in those private facilities that exist for over night stays and or retain their filth on board until they visit suitable facilities to off load.
I think there is a more obvious answer, the police should have charged them for dumping the waste and I agree totally they should not be dumping waste which is why this blog has campaigned for more facilities. I am not, however, clear what you were intending to achieve by posting this link and am still not. Do you want to ban all tourists to Orkney because one behaves like this? My guess is that with better communication all round this incident might have been avoided – or did this campervanner leave a shit trail across Scotland?
The police should have charged them, yip in the ideal world the police would have been driving around stopping the vans from parking in guys fields, gateways, but we both know whilst there are more police in urban areas there ain’t so many on Orkney.
As for facilities a quick search would note a number of camp sites on both mainland and the islands of Orkney, how many more are needed?
Communication yes very good thing, those that hire them out should remind those hiring of their responsibilities. Foreign visitors trickier for sure.
Why post you ask?
Why not? Your blo a virtue of your trip and no litter until the beer can was spotted.
Now we both know that Orkney is somewhat busier than Knoydart and Arkaig so to illustrate the other and often all to real situation concerning outdoor recreation and littering I feel it is more than valid to illustrate it too.
Wish all a pleasant weekend.
Cracker of a find this morning.
Not the dog shit bags hanging on trees or roadside, not even beer tins or grey water from a “wild” camper van.
Today’s find was the detritus of a cannabis growing operation.
40-50 plant remains and their growth medium chucked down the bank of secluded burn, over half a ton of material.
Nice.
And your point is?