A week after the Herald piece, on 29th December, Prince Charles was interviewed about his views on the natural environment by Margaret Atwood, guest editor for the Today programme (see here – from 2.20.30 to 2.29.30). It is highly recommended listening. I had not realised that Prince Charles had been speaking out about the dangers…
Four days after its damp squib of an official opening on 19th December (above), Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL) announced that it was shutting up shop indefinitely (see here), but also that it had decided to lock the snow gates at Glen More for good measure, making it very hard for anyone else to enjoy…
Just before Xmas Scottish Enterprise (SE) announced (see here) it intended to renew its Exclusivity Agreement (EA) with Flamingo Land which was due to expire at the end of December. If approved by Scottish Ministers, the EA will legally commit SE to selling the land it owns at Balloch to Flamingo Land, should they secure…
In the last three weeks two very significant pieces of information about the funicular railway have been made public and both raise serious questions about the proposed repairs. The original plans for the construction of the funicular Highland and Island Enterprise (HIE)’s £16m business case for repairing the funicular (see here) did not explain why…
“Health and Safety and customer service is what drives us at Cairn Gorm” so claimed Susan Smith, Interim Chief Executive at Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL) in a video on 9th December (see here), a message repeated earlier in that same video by Colin Matthews their Operations Manager. If that is the case why, after…
The landslips that have blocked the A83 through the Rest and Be Thankful more or less continuously since August are a wonderful example of what happens when decision-making is not informed by an understanding of the natural environment and fails to consider the consequences. From the original decision to route the A83 across the unstable…
As usual, the latest edition of Earth Heritage (see here) has some excellent articles about Scotland but I was particularly interested to read “Reflections from a Geoheritage Sabbatical in Scotland: The View from America”: “Scotland was a natural choice for a geoheritage sabbatical for several reasons: spectacular and diverse geology; the importance of Scottish scientists…
[Post corrected 16th December 18.15] A week ago Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd posted a video on facebook (see here) in preparation for the official opening of the new ski season on 19th December. Both interim CEO Susan Smith and Colin Matthews referred to the excellent snow cover on the mountain. As the video panned across…
Amid the public outcry about the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority’s approval of the Hunter Foundation development at Ross Priory, the Scottish Government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division has opened a case (see here) on whether an Environmental Impact Assessment should have conducted. Until that is decided, the LLTNPA’s decision has effectively been…
The tree tube problem The theme of the Spring/Summer issue of Reforesting Scotland was climate change. It ended with an excellent piece by a forest manager, Willie McGhee, on “Seas of plastic in the countryside”. His guesstimate is that in Scotland we may have used 200 million plastic tree tubes in the countryside over…
On Monday I watched, or tried to watch, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board meeting online (see here for papers) . The “lifesize” video link kept cutting out soI had to log back in ten or so times. It appeared from disappearing Board Member and vice-convener Willie Nisbet that I was not…
The problem with the Scottish Government’s response to the Werritty Review (see here), which I blogged about almost a year ago (see here), is that fails to tackle the central issue, the intensification of moorland management in order to produce more grouse for shooting. The conversion of Scotland’s moors into vast farms for grouse is…
Last Monday the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Planning Committee approved the Hunter Foundation (THF)’s proposals (see here) and (here) for a “Global Leadership” (and wedding) Centre on the shore of Loch Lomond unanimously. While the meeting was webcast live, unlike other public authorities our National Parks do not make recordings of their…
Signs in the countryside form part of the narrative about access and help shape public understanding about what the right to roam in Scotland means. Even if ignored by many, I find it hard to pass signs without taking a photo. Six weeks ago, on spotting a cluster of signs behind a Welcome to the…
In the summer of 2017, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) organised the demolition of the Coire na Ciste and West Wall chairlifts (see here). That work was done at the same time as other clear-up work and it came at a cost of £267k in public money. Now that Coire na Ciste has been all…
At the end of September, almost three years after I had first seen it, I went back to look at the River Gynack overflow (see here) for the fourth time. It was still not functioning and since my last visit it appeared rocks had been bulldozed from the bed of the river against the…
This post takes a critical look at the new laws on travel that the Scottish Government introduced last week and their implications for outdoor recreation, in all its forms. I argue that the restrictions would, if interpreted by the police and courts as the Scottish Government apparently intends, be unjustified and discriminatory and fail to…
The Planning Application for the Hunter Global Leadership Centre at Ross Priory, which I wrote about in June (see here), is due to be considered by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority on Monday. The Planning Report makes sorry reading and throws any pretence at objectivity to the wind. As in the…
Highland and Islands Enterprise/Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd are now pushing ahead with repair work to the Funicular and the smoothing ground-work outside the Daylodge has been completed (see here). There are also plans to install two new tube slides, create a new access track, move the snow factory and install car park barriers. Meanwhile, nothing…
Backed by a host of environmental NGOs, the Greens have secured a debate in the Scottish Parliament this week about the Nature Emergency. With the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful still closed, it seems to be a good time to highlight further the challenges posed by landslips (see here for Glen Falloch and…
In September I visited the Pentlands Regional Park twice and was quite concerned about how access was being managed in response to the influx of people into the countryside. Parking was restricted, toilets closed and there was a proliferation of “no” signs (see here). Apart from some quite helpful signage about social distancing and one…
I was pleased to have this letter published in the Herald on Monday. While Nicola Sturgeon didn’t introduce legal restrictions on travel yesterday, she made it clear that her government is working on them (see here): “These will remain in guidance over the next week but we continue to prepare the regulations, and resolve the…
On 3rd November Highlands and Islands Enterprise announced that work to repair the funicular had started (see here). A large number of planning documents were published on the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning portal the week before (see here). Among these is a timetable for the works: It would appear work has commenced two months late. …
In October I went for a walk over Brown Cow Hill on the Delnadamph Estate, which was bought by the Queen in 1978 and gifted to Prince Charles on his marriage to Diana. I had not been for many years but was keen to see how the estate was being managed given Prince Charles’ role…
It is hard to know whether to be inspired or depressed by the battle over vehicular use of “green lanes” which I touched on a year ago in post comparing what was going on in the Lake District National Park and the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park (see here) The latest newsletter of…