A few weeks ago some friends went in their campervan to Glen Muick, on Deeside, and stopped off overnight in the lower part of the glen. They were woken in the early hours by the sound of passing traffic. They were stunned by the number of visitors, remarking that it was just like the Lake…
Author: Nick Kempe
Since lockdown was relaxed, it seems hardly a day has gone past when there has not been some national media coverage claiming that visitors have been responsible for a wave of litter that is said to engulfing the countryside. In the vast majority of cases visitors have been condemned, abused even, sometimes by people purporting…
Little did I know when blogging about the Cairngorms National Park wildlife sinkhole (see here) that the League of Cruel Sports was going to publish their report, Calculating Cruelty (see here), on 14th August. The Report, if you have not seen it, is a based on a comprehensive field survey of seven estates. From this…
On Friday the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park issued a Stop Notice to prevent further work taking place on the creation of this new entrance onto the A811 on the south side of Loch Lomond (see here). Kilmaronock Community Council, which covers the area, had alerted them to the work a few days…
Last Tuesday, almost exactly a year after the large floods that caused so much destruction in Glen Falloch (see here), torrential rain triggered another massive landslip on the slopes of Beinn Luibhean closing the A83 and the old Military Road below the Rest and Be Thankful. This post argues that the Scottish Government’s tinkering option…
Yesterday, I was due to meet a few folk from Aberdeen and go for a walk around the eastern fringes of the Cairngorms National Park. With the outbreak of Covid-19 in the Granite City, that was clearly not sensible and we have re-arranged for a later date. The aborted trip, however, prompted me to take…
The Cairngorms National Park Authority may have acted promptly against its vice-convener, Gena Blackett, last week for something she said (see here), but when it comes to meaningful actions on conservation, it is not fit for purpose. This post takes a look at the CNPA’s multiple failures when it comes to protecting wildlife as revealed…
The Cairngorm National Park Authority Board investigation was completed very quickly. The same day this article appeared the CNPA convener, Xander McDade, announced (see here) that the Board’s Risk and Audit Committee had decided that “the potential of a breach of the Code of Conduct should be referred to the Standards Commission”, the body responsible…
No sooner had I complimented Forest and Land Scotland on how they had opened up their car parks in Glen More to campervans (see here) than they did an about turn as a result of events on the weekend that followed (see above). FLS is now trying to close car parks in Glen More to…
In the last ten days I have travelled up and back down the A82 and, as usual, stopped off in a few popular visitor destinations to see how they are being managed. Toilet provision At Tarbet it was good to see that mobile toilets had been provided by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park…
[Update: I had a phone call from Jahama Estates on 5th August to say all three signs referred to in this post and subsequent update have now been removed. I thanked them for this though my view remains the signs should never have been erected] I have just come back from a week in Lochaber,…
A number of developments have taken place since I covered the unlawful felling of trees and the creation of a new entrance to Ben Cruach Lodge at Tarbet, on the western shore of Loch Lomond, in May (see here). Coverage in the Helensburgh Advertiser (see here) appears to confirm that Ben Cruach Lodge is owned…
On 13th July Highlands and Islands Enterprise announced that Cairngorm Mountain was re-opening today (see here). While the Scottish Government had been advising people they could travel unlimited distances by car since the weekend of 4th July, HIE decided to keep the Coire Cas car park, the most popular access point to the northern side…
“It is always a great crime to deprive a people of its liberty on the pretext that it is using it wrongly” (Alexis de Tocqueville) The latest government guidance on release of the lockdown treated informal camping in exactly the same way as formal campsites (see here): “Those who want to camp in tents in…
Audit Scotland’s report into HIE’s management of Cairn Gorm since 2008 was published two weeks ago (see here). The first two parts, on the outsourcing of Cairngorm Mountain Ltd to Natural Retreats and subsequent management of the contract, are a disappointment but not a surprise They completely exonerate HIE. Effectively Audit Scotland’s message is that…
Having argued last week (see here) that the Scottish Government could lift the shutdown of self-catering accommodation and its advice not to travel further than 5 miles, its announcement on Wednesday (see here) that this would now happen on 3rd July was a step in the right direction. Neither restriction has been necessary for weeks…
Two weekends ago Police Scotland charged the same number of people for breaching the camping byelaws in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park than had been charged over the whole of the previous three years. Stirling Council’s response to people traveling into the National Park after the first phase of lifting of lockdown was…
From an Outdoor Recreation and tourism standpoint, the one good thing about the Scottish Government’s latest announcements about how to manage the on-going risks from Covid-19 is that: “Evidence now shows the risk of outdoor infection is very low if people stay two metres apart”. The “now” is misleading. SAGE, the Scientific Advisory Group for…
While Parkswatch has been critical of the Cairngorms National Park Authority’s failure to control Highlands and Islands Enterprise at Cairn Gorm, it has been doing far better in Glen Clova. The two most recent meetings of the Planning Committee have been rightly criticised for approving the planning applications to repair the funicular and install car…
My post last week on the Scottish Government’s guidance on travel for Outdoor Recreation .(see here) was re-posted, with my permission, on the UK Climbing and Hillwalking Forums and shared elsewhere. It received lots of comments and a fair amount of abuse. The abuse appears to have been founded on the view that anyone deciding…
Back in February I blogged about the Hunter Foundation’s proposals to develop a “Global Leadership Centre” on the shore of Loch Lomond near Ross Priory in partnership with Strathclyde University (see here). A Planning Application was submitted at the beginning of March (see here for planning papers) and has been slowly progressed during the Covid-19…
Today, Friday 12th June, the Cairngorms National Park Authority will consider HIE’s latest ill-conceived plans for Cairn Gorm. You can view the deliberations live at 14.30 here [now on YouTube (see here)]. Two reports to the Planning Committee (see here for Committee papers), just two weeks after their last meeting, predictably recommend approval of HIE’s…
Toilets, or rather the risk of Covid-19 being transmitted in toilets, appear to be a major factor why the Scottish Government’s advice to people has been to stay local (see here): “Because of the high chance of the virus living on hard surfaces, we don’t want people using public toilets or going into someone’s home…
On Saturday, I once again ignored Scottish Government guidance and drove 50 miles south from Glasgow to go walking in the Lowther Hills. I was doing nothing illegal and, unlike on Durisdeer last week (see here) where we saw two people, this time we saw nobody at all. These hills could have had a thousand…
Earlier this week one of parkswatch’s critical readers – a good thing! – posted a link to a BBC news piece (see here) about two hillwalkers who had been charged by the Police with “Culpable and Reckless Conduct” after being rescued on Beinn a Chroin near Crianlarich. Since then, there have been a number of…