Dear Cairngorms National Park Authority,
I had come over Carn na Drochaide and Carn Liath – crossing the track which runs up the fairy glen it is true – to be faced with the track which runs up to and across the Bealach Dearg, high under the western face of Culardoch. Besides the grouse, it services a scientific research station on the bealach (visible where the track bends left). The National Park has stated it wishes to stop track development in our hills, a welcome step, but I think it needs to go one step beyond, follow the example of the National Trust for Scotland on Beinn a Bhuird and start to identify tracks that should be removed to re-wild our landscape. The Culardoch track would be high on my list but why not ask other people what they think?
There are numerous tracks in the hills across Scotland, not just in our National Parks, which are ‘unnecessary’ ; by ‘unnecessary’ I mean that they are no longer used or the purposes they serve could be achieved without them or with a foot path. For example, how many vehicle tracks go to shooting butts which could equally well be served by a footpath from the main vehicle track? The question, then, is how to incentivise landowners to act?