Last Sunday I took a walk around the Pitmain Estate on the higher ground between Newtonmore and Kingussie. There is a deer fence which runs between the ugly, and recently upgraded track, and Loch Gynack which prevents people from reaching the loch shore.
This area could, and should, provide a high quality recreational experience and indeed, on my old second series OS map dating from 1974, only a footpath is shown alongside the loch. Now the whole area is criss-crossed with major tracks. That might be good for outdoor recreation except that, as the fences show, people are being prevented from leaving the track to sit or enjoy the lochside by this “deer” fence and much of the landscape is being trashed.
But why would Pitmain estate want to prevent deer approaching the loch? Its not to prevent deer swimming across the loch to browse on the native trees on the other side because these are not fully surrounded by fences and therefore accessible by deer. The only conclusion is that this fence is designed to stop people accessing the loch. Indeed if its purpose was to stop deer it could easily have been placed on the uphill side of the track allowing people to continue to access the loch. It is thus an obstruction to access which the Cairngorms National Park Authority, following the example of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park at Drumlean (see here), needs to tackle.
The fence along Loch Gynack also demonstrates why the Welcome to the Moor signs (see here) are of such concern. The Pitmain Estate is littered with these signs with their recommendations that people keep to the path. This verbal denial of access rights is, however, not sufficient for many estates and their answer is to physically block access by the installation of deer fences.
Please therefore report to our Access Authorities, not just signs and locked gates but any fencing, whether in a National Park or not, which prevents people from enjoying the countryside.
The rock is there to help prevent creep onto the road from the hillside adjacent. Also the deer fence you complain about then go onto say would be better on the hillside would be complained about because it would restrict access to the hillside!
Maybe Jon but I did not see any obvious signs of creep which is why I was questioning this. On the fence, it effectively prevents people sitting by the lochshore and is so close to the shore that even if it had gates it would not be a good experience walking along the shore. Few people access the hill here but a stile every 200m or so would enable people to access the hillside even if a fence was needed………….