A couple of hours after my post on FLS yesterday (see here) I received a response from FLS to a Freedom of Information request I had submitted on 24th February about the Sallochy campsite. I can find no acknowledgement from FLS of that request in my emails so the timing of their response is interesting! …
Author: Nick Kempe
I came across this scene yesterday at Forest and Land Scotland (FLS)’s car park in Glen Righ near the Corran Ferry. It exemplifies our public authorities’ failed approach to visitor management in the countryside. It is so bad it is hard not to laugh. Telling people to do things without providing appropriate infrastructure – in…
The Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT)’s announcement earlier this week that they had purchased the Inverbroom Estate (see here) should be another nail in the coffin for so-called green finance. Tucked away in their news release is a very significant statement: “Following the purchase, the Trust has announced several ambitions for the site, from the regeneration…
Following my post yesterday on King Charles’ muirburn at Delnadamph (see here), I am very grateful to Jamie Mann, an investigative journalist at the Ferret, for alerting me to NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) database (see here). FIRMS records satellite observations of fires, however caused, across the world. Satellite technology now has…
On 27th February I was sent this photo of muirburn on King Charles’ estate of Delnadamph, which has no deer and is managed intensively for grouse shooting (see here). The reader commented it was very windy that day, as is evident from the near horizontal plume of smoke. That was confirmed by the forecast for…
Yesterday with almost no notice the funicular at last re-opened. Highlands and Islands Enterprise, in a news release issued on Wednesday (see here) claimed that “all safety-critical matters have now been concluded” – not exactly the same thing as stating all the safety concerns that caused them to close the funicular in August 2023 have been…
A couple of week after the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA)’s approved byelaws, which seek to criminalise the generalise public for lighting a fire ANYWHERE in the National Park between 1st April and 30th September (see here), the Herald published this story about two 80 year old lottery millionaires from Kent. The contrast in approach…
Last week the Scottish Government published the fourth piece of legislation this Parliament ostensibly intended to improve how we use and manage land in the countryside, including National Parks – the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill (see here for papers) This follows the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024, passed a year ago and…
With little sign of the Scottish Government implementing the provisions of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 and while the Cairngorms were aflame from muirburn (see here), the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) Board on 14th February approved new fire management byelaws and a draft “Integrated Wildfire Management Plan” for consultation with land…
Driving north up the A9 on Saturday Andy Cloquet observed muirburn on five sites between Dalwhinnie and Newtonmore with “an acrid smell over five miles of road” and sent parkswatch these two photos. The ostensible purpose of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 (“the Act”), which was passed by the Scottish Government last…
Last week I visited the Allt Broighleachan Caledonian Pinewood Reserve on the north side of Glen Orchy (and outside the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park) on my way to Glen Coe. It was my second visit, inspired in part by the Caledonian Pinewood Conference which took place last Autumn and which I viewed online…
When first writing about the renewal of Scottish Enterprise (SE)’s Conditional Missives (Exclusivity Agreement) with Flamingo Land (see here) I had argued it was not clear if SE had voluntarily extended the agreement or was contractually obliged to do so. I had previously submitted a Freedom of Information request on 14th January asking SE to…
Following my first post setting out the background to Lomond Banks appeal and why the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA)’s reasons for refusing the development were so weak (see here & above), this post considers Flamingo’s Land grounds for appeal as set out in their Appeal Statement (see here) and will form…
At the end of August I wrote about the proposal to install a telecommunications in Glen Undalain, the glen which runs south from the campsite at Shiel Bridge towards the Saddle and is part of the Kintail National Scenic Area (NSA). While few people know about NSAs, the designation intended to protect Scotland’s most beautiful…
On 20th December, just before the statutory deadline expired, Flamingo Land lodged an appeal with the Scottish Government against the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA)’s decision to refuse their proposed development at Balloch. On the same day Scottish Enterprise (SE) announced they were extending their “Exclusivity Agreement” with Flamingo Land to enable…
When the ground is frozen or covered in snow, as it was in the west for much of the week after New Year, it becomes very difficult for red deer to find enough food and they start to rely on the fat reserves they put on in the Autumn. On our first two days in…
On New Year’s Day I went with Dave Morris for a short walk on the Dorback Estate which had previously been managed primarily for sporting purposes. The estate had been owned for the last four years by Salingore Real Estate Ltd, registered in the Bahamas, but at the end of 2024 was bought by…
On Wednesday the Helensburgh Advertiser ran a story stating that Kirsty Young’s proposal to build a luxury lodge on Inchconnachan, the island on Loch Lomond best known for its wallabies, had been approved (see here). While technically correct this was misleading as the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA)’s planning committee approved…
A few days ago Lesley Riddoch posted some excellent drone footage from Lettoch Films (see here) of the woodland that has developed in the central reservation of the A9 between Bruar and Drumochter. Most of the trees and other plants have spread there through natural regeneration and were able to do so because of the…
Hogmanay was forecast to be a wet day and Strathspey was flooded so I thought I would take a look at the River Gynack overflow, which had been reconstructed after being almost washed away in 2017 (see here), to see if it was operational and, if so, how the revised design was working. My estimate…
Happy New Year! Much of the woodland I have been by or through recently has had sheep in it (see here) as happens at this time of year. When food is in short supply on the moors and open hill sheep will find a way through deer fences or hop over stock fences into woodland. …
A parkswatch reader recently sent me this photo of an unattractive development on the bonnie banks The two new lodges were originally granted planning permission by Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) planning staff in April 2018 with work required to commence within three years (see here for planning papers). The planning deadline…
Early on Xmas Eve staff at Mar Lodge issued this tweet, sad news for a natural landmark but with reasons to be optimistic for the future. By coincidence the campaigner Andy Wightman appears to have written about this very tree in an article for Holyrood Magazine at the end of November (see here): “Sitting high…
As predicted on Parkswatch (see here) the funicular will not be re-opening for the end of December “as hoped” because Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) still need to prove the repairs undertaken by Balfour Beatty have made the railway structure safe. HIE did not announce the news until Xmas Eve (see here). Until then the…
In my last post I argued that the Scottish Government should transfer some of the £53m it has allocated for forestry grants next year to its own agency, Forest and Land Scotland, to reduce deer on its land. What’s been happening at Glen Prosen, which FLS bought in Autumn 2022 (see here), provides a good…