The newly formed Rural Affairs Committee (RAC) of the Scottish Parliament are conducting what they describe as a short inquiry into Scotland’s access rights. The inquiry appears to have been prompted by claims from the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) that access rights are impeding their ability to cull deer, although it appears likely to consider…
Following David Jarman’s highly informative 2024 powerpoint comparing the impacts of the various pumped storage hydro (PSH) schemes being proposed for Scotland (see here), I have been to look at Coire Glas, the site of SSE’s proposed scheme above Loch Lochy, twice in the last eighteen months. The first time was on a walk up…
What has been the impact of the firebreaks in Glen More on the Caledonian pinewood? By 30th July, Forest and Land Scotland (FLS) had created 6km of firebreaks in Glenmore (see here) as part of their efforts to contain and extinguish the Glenmore wildfire. As they put it: “Immediate action was required and it was…
After the retrospective planning application for the unlawful new access track to Honeypot Farm had been withdrawn and the planning documents had disappeared from the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) ‘s planning portal (see here) I submitted a Freedom of Information request to them on 7th October. Two weeks later, at the…
{NB this post has been updated on 25/10/26 to correct my mistaken assumption that the Woodland Trust bought the land from Locheil Estates] Background The areas of native pinewood around the east end and along the south shore of Loch Arkaig, taken together, form one the largest and most important remnants of the Caledonian forest…
Global warming caused by the release of CO2 into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels is all too real and with that climate change. However, climate change is not affecting all parts of the world in the same way, as was demonstrated this summer by the differences in temperature and weather experienced in Scotland compared…
The retrospective planning application for the unlawful new road to Honeypot Farm (see here), submitted in March, has been withdrawn by Michael Hyde Planning Associates, the agents on behalf of the owner of the farm, Sam Newall. Without a retrospective planning application there is no longer any justification for allow the new road to remain…
A reader sent me this photo of muirburn yesterday, taken from Tap O Noth, approximately 20 miles to the north. It was a windy day, with estimated gusts of up to 40mph. Wind and the muirburn code The old muirburn code refers to wind 13 times and contained important factual statements describing the impact of…
Last Friday, 2nd October, the area still covered by the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA)’s unlawful exclusion zone (see here) Abernethy and Glenmore was significantly reduced in size. The remaining ‘restricted’ areas on the RSPB’s Abernethy estate, which were significantly reduced in size just over three weeks ago (see here), have been removed with one…
The Duncan Mills slipway at Balloch, operated by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA), is the last remaining public boat launching facility on Loch Lomond. This follows the decision by staff to close Milarrochy Bay in 2017 (see here). The LLTNPA’s website provides some limited information about the operation of the slipway…
In 2024 the Abrdn Property Income Trust (APIT)’s shareholders took the decision to wind down the fund. Following the disposal of their other fixed assets in 2024, APIT have been having difficulty (see here) selling the Far Ralia estate which they bought in September 2021 for carbon trading purposes and then planted with trees with the assistance…
The recent wildfire in Abernethy burned over 30km2 of moorland and ancient Caledonian woodland. It was extremely difficult to control, reaching a width of almost 25km at its peak. Nearby residents had to be evacuated. There were significant delays in responding to the fire and this proved crucial and led directly to the disaster. Eventually…
This morning the board of the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) is meeting for the first time since the Abernethy/Glenmore wildfire which started on Wednesday 15th July. Increasingly the CNPA has started to resemble the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority where staff take all the decisions and the board acts as a figleaf. The…
Yesterday afternoon the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) further reduced the overall area covered by their unlawful exclusion zone in Glenmore (see here) and (here). Once again there was no news release to announce the changes although the day before the CNPA had issued a news release about King Charles’ visits to An Lochan Uaine at…
The following is a short summary of a draft report that I have prepared for my colleagues in Badenoch Climate Action to facilitate discussion about the origins of the Cairngorms wildfire in July/August 2026, its suppression and future considerations. Given the national and international reputation of the Cairngorms for wildlife, scenery and outdoor recreation, the…
The section of dual carriage way on the A9 between Dalmamein and Dalnaspidal, just south of Drumochter, was opened in November 1979. The woodland along it is highlighted in Lesley Riddoch’s film, “Scotland’s Missing Forests: the Great Eco-Conspiracy” (see here). That film, which has had over 200,000 views, focuses on the restorative tree planting by…
On Friday the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) reduced the size of Abernethy/Glenmore the “Exclusion Zone” it had created in Glenmore/Abernethy. There is nothing I can find to announce the change on its website, apart from the changes in the map shown on its path closures webpage (see here) and nothing on its Facebook Page. …
Driving up the A82 in mid-July, before going to the Alps, I was surprised to see that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA)’s works to ‘upgrade’ the Falls of Falloch car park, announced earlier this year and which I had blogged about in April (see here), were complete. Very few of the…
Todrig was once, as the photo of the main house shows, a wealthy hill farm in the Borders whose more recent decline is part of a decline in sheep farming more generally. It was acquired by Gresham House Forest Growth and Sustainability Fund LP (GH Fund) in 2022, in which the Scottish National Investment Bank…
In September 2021, the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB) announced it had committed £50m of taxpayer funds into Gresham House Forest Growth and Sustainability LP (Limited Partnership) as a ‘cornerstone investment’. The SNIB claimed 1.2 million tonnes of carbon would be sequestered over 20 years, with environmental benefits for biodiversity and ‘new jobs’ (see here)….
The extent of the Abernethy – Glenmore wildfire has been mapped (HERE). In QGIS a grid of 100 m sided cells was overlain over the fire boundary polygon, and clipped to match the boundary. The mean altitude within each cell was calculated using the Copernicus GLO-30 Digital Elevation Model, downloaded via the OpenTopography website. This…
After my post yesterday questioning the legality and justification of the Cairngorms National Park Authority’s ‘Exclusion Zone’ on Tuesday (see here), a reader sent me a photo of this sign at Inverdruie. I do not know who is responsible for the wording but there is no mention of any Exclusion Zone. That and the “welcome”…
[This is an even more belated post card from the Triglav National Park (see here) and will be the last in the series – some observations from the Austrian side of the Carnic Alps will follow]. We ended our traverse around the core mountain area of the Triglav National Park at the Vrsic pass. In…
The creation of access rights under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 did not remove restrictions on access made under other legislation. Some of those legal restrictions apply to land more or less permanently, such as those applying to working quarries, but some are more temporary. For example, under the Fire and Rescue Services Act…
I went to have a look at the southern edge of the area affected by the Abernethy/Glenmore wildfire on 23rd August, about five weeks after the fire started and two weeks after Glenmore had been re-opened on 7th August (see here for timeline from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service). All the photos in this…