Regular readers will know that parkswatch has, since its creation, been arguing that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA)’s approach to visitor management is fundamentally flawed: instead of providing appropriate infrastructure, they blame visitors for the things that go wrong as a consequence (litter, human waste, cars blocking roads); instead of promoting…
Author: Nick Kempe
The National Park Partnership Plan is a five year plan which sets out the overarching framework for what happens in our National Parks, the contribution of the various public authorities involved and priorities for action. The current plan for the Cairngorms runs out in 2022 and the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) is in the…
On Wednesday I drove to Luss, the first time I had been along the A82 since May, and was amazed by the transformation. Instead of the usual litter strewn verges and laybys, I had to look quite carefully to spot any litter. The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority has for years had a…
The Herald yesterday revealed that Argyll and Bute Council have had an offer to buy the car park at the foot of the Cobbler accepted. The sum has not yet been disclosed. Unfortunately what should have been good news, bringing a piece of private land into public ownership for the benefit of the public, is…
In January 2020 I wrote a post (see here) about the LLTNPA’s consultation on “Active Park, Healthy People”, parkspeak for what had been an Outdoor Recreation Plan, and said this about paths: “Paths are crucial for outdoor recreation and – whether you agree with the spin or not – for the delivery of the LLTNPA’s…
On 19th August a firm called Caledonian Building Surveyors Ltd submitted a Screening Request (see here) to Highland Council on behalf of the Pitmain and Glenbanchor Estate Ltd. It asked if an Environmental Impact Assessment was required before they could upgrade and create new tracks and upgrade part of the public road up Glen Banchor…
This post takes a look at the implications of the co-operation agreement and shared policy programme that has been agreed between the SNP Government and the Greens (see here) for National Parks in Scotland. Investment in National and Regional Parks While the SNP said absolutely nothing about National Parks or Regional Parks in their election…
On 25th August Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) announced (see here) that the re-opening of the funicular had been postponed until Autumn of 2022. Their news release was widely copied and pasted by various media outlets with little critical comment (with a few honourable exceptions, e.g (see here)). This post compares HIE’s latest claims about…
When the Scottish Parliament resumes in Edinburgh on Monday, MSPs should go and take a look at the access problem that is visible from their doorstep. The Radical Road below Salisbury Crags has now been closed by Historic and Environment Scotland for almost three years following a rockfall. The prolonged closure raises issues of national…
There are two good things to say about the publication two weeks ago of Cairngorm Mountain (Scotland) Ltd (CMSL’s) accounts (see here) for the year ending 31st March. The first is that they were made public just four months after the end of the financial year, well before the nine month deadline for private companies. …
Following my two posts on BrewDog’s proposals to create a Lost Forest (see here) and (here) at Kinrara, plans for peat bog restoration on the estate appeared on Highland Council’s planning portal (see here). In April the Scottish Government issued new planning guidance on Permitted Development Rights (see here) which required peat bog restoration schemes…
Out of Doors on Radio Scotland yesterday (see here) had a great piece on Network Rail’s attempt to close the “private” level crossing at Dalwhinnie (from 35.30), an attack on people’s ability to exercise their access rights. This was first covered in the Badenoch and Strathspey Herald two weeks ago (see here) and now become…
Watching the torrential rain showers in Glasgow over the last ten days, I have been wondering about what impact they have been having in hills, both in our National Parks and more widely. Erosion is a natural process but the impact of increased heavy rainfall due to climate change on eroded slopes such as that…
A ding-dong battle On Thursday an organisation called Rewilding Britain issued a news release (see see) highlighting the destructive impact of grouse moor management in national parks in the north of England and the Cairngorms and which urged: “ministers to show real leadership by creating wilder national parks and setting up core rewilding areas in…
This post looks at two further examples of the use of plastic tree tubes (see here and here), this time on the western side of the Cairngorms National Park, argues that their use is completely unjustified and it is time they were banned completely. The use of plastic tree tubes in the A9 dualling project…
Last week I was sent this picture of a sign spotted outwith the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Loch Chon campsite (see here) in Strathard. It is a con. The Scottish Government stated right from the start on the pandemic last year that our access rights as set out in the Land Reform…
If BrewDog’s description of Kinrara as a “Lost Forest” is appropriate for the Strathspey part of the estate (see here), it feels even more apt as you descend the Burma Rd past scattered pine trees towards the River Dulnain. But then, after you cross the Allt nam Muireach, you realise the pines are not so…
I have stretched the meaning of the “Cairngorms” in this series of posts, half of which have featured land west of the A9, and I am going to stretch it even further in two posts which take a look at Brewdog’s proposals to create a “Lost Forest” on the Kinrara estate which they bought earlier…
A week after walking up by the Allt Fionndrigh off Glen Banchor to look at the extensive landslips there (see here), Dave Morris returned to look at the impacts red deer are having higher up the hill. He was surprised to find that the track, which had been completely covered by debris washed down by the…
Storms and construction work While my own walk round Cairn Gorm on my week in Speyside was affected by a heavy shower (see here) , I hate to think what might have happened had the torrential downpours which occurred in Grantown and Glen Banchor a few days before before (see here) had hit the mountain….
At the June meeting of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA), Board Member Ronnie Erskine repeated the suggestion he had made in March, that they should prepare to showcase the work they are doing for the Climate Change summit that begins on 31st October. The political need to prepare for the COP…
Rothiemurchus Estate has been split in two since it sold off the Caledonian Pine Forest in its middle section to Forestry Commission Scotland, as it then was, for £7.2m in 2016 (see here). The upper part, which extends to the head of Glen Einich, is sandwiched between the landholdings which have formed Cairngorms Connect and…
Late last Friday afternoon I went for a walk up Glen Banchor and over Creag Liath, via the track by the Allt Fionndrigh. The track featured on Parkswatch 18 months ago due to the Glen Banchor and Pitmain estate’s plans to extend it for the purposes of grouse moor management (see here). All the ground…
Following my post on the failed restoration of the Beauly Denny powerline access tracks (see here), someone asked on twitter “how would you have done this differently”? The answer lies just over the hill on the southern face of Carn Dearg Mor above Glen Feshie. There, Wild Land Ltd is in the process of removing…
The contrast between good land management and bad land management on the western side of the Cairngorms National Park and the impact this is having on the climate and environmental crises is quite stark. I spent the last week on Speyside, collecting evidence about what is happening on the ground while out and about enjoying…