On Sunday afternoon, taking advantage of a break in the tropical storms which have been battering Scotland, we went for a walk up Ben Lomond, a hill that everyone from the west of Scotland who is able to do so should walk up at least once in their lifetimes. I walk, run or ski it…
The Luss Gathering takes place each year on Luss playing fields which now form part of the west Loch Lomond camping management zone. Since last year the camping management byelaws have made it a criminal offence to erect a tent in a camping management zone without explicit authorisation from the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National…
Following my post yesterday (see here), I thought it worth considering further the measures the Cairngorms National Park Authority claims will “mitigate” the impacts of the proposed An Camas Mor development and the implications for access on Speyside for both residents and visitors. It is now obvious from discussion with outdoor recreation interests, that any…
On Friday the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee will consider a revised planning application for An Camus Mor (see here), the proposed new town across the Spey from Aviemore. (Click here for link to the Park’s planning portal and all 236 documents associated with the application). The main change proposed by the the application is to…
One of the priority actions under the last Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Partnership Plan was to develop long-term Land Management Plans across the National Park, an objective that everyone with an interest in land-use and landscape should support. Interested to understand what progress had been made, I asked the LLTNPA for copies of…
I have just returned from the Dolomites to find extensive media coverage on how Scotland is failing to provide the infrastructure necessary to support visitors. On Skye, there are claims that the island has reached the limit in terms of the number of visitors it can sustain (see here), while in Orkney suggestions of a…
I have been in the Dolomites a couple of weeks and had been hoping to write some posts about what Scotland National Parks could learn from Italy. The photo tells a tale. The Dolomites are almost completely free of litter. This road, to the Sella Pass and a major through route is closed on Wednesdays…
By Nick Halls, resident of Ardentinny This is the fifth in a series of articles about forestry in the National Park near where I live (see here) The impact of windthrow The value of the trees relative to the difficulty of extraction and the dangers posed by windblown trees makes harvesting from areas like…
Dear Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, Pretty no, but effective yes. These toilets had been brought in because the composting toilets – I know your Chief Executive will say, “I could have told you so” – did not work. I don’t know why they had gone wrong but what I do know is…
Dear Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, It was stated at your June Board Meeting that there was evidence that fewer campsites are being abandoned in the National Park since the byelaws came into force. The Your Park consultation never analysed how many campers abandoned tents – my guesstimate is 1% – so I…
Dear Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, What would the poet of these hills, Duncan Ban MacIntyre, who decried the destruction brought by sheep have thought of this? My old OS map shows only the track on the right, the new tracks appear to have been created as part of one of the…
The “enforcement” of the camping byelaws Over the last couple of months its become clear that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park’s Ranger service are not referring anyone to the Procurator Fiscal for breach of the byelaws. On the one hand this is because the byelaws are almost impossible to enforce against campervans,…
Dear Cairngorms National Park Authority, I had come over Carn na Drochaide and Carn Liath – crossing the track which runs up the fairy glen it is true – to be faced with the track which runs up to and across the Bealach Dearg, high under the western face of Culardoch. Besides the grouse, it…
By Nick Halls, resident of Ardentinny This is the fourth in a series of articles about the Argyll Forest part of the National Park where I live (see here). Recently, as a stage in forestry operations, fencing seems to have proliferated. In the past fencing was usually used to exclude stock from the forest, as…
An on the spot report by Mechelle Rafferty This is another report from real park users, in this case Michelle and the crew who have taken the time to record their experiences with LLTNP Camping provision at Loch Chon. I think it’s safe to say from Mechelles comments and by the looks on the kids…
By Bruce Biddulph, local resident of Balloch and amateur historian Whilst we await the first views of any precise plans that the developer has for Balloch’s Drumkinnon Woods and the west bank of the River Leven (see here) and (see here for example), we can only guess and fear what these will be. What does…
Dear Cairngorms National Park Authority, Loch Builg and the eastern flanks of Ben Avon are remote country for those arriving on foot, three hours or so from a public road. Despite the network of estate tracks I was surprised to see this trap, at the end of the track above Loch Builg ,and on the…
Loch Chon now coming into the high season and the old adage springs to mind, never time to do it right but always time to do it over as the National Park give it another go with pitch surfaces. Though the majority of these issues have been in the public eye for some months the…
Last week, following Rob Edwards’ article and my coverage of the collapse of the camping byelaws (see here) I was asked to do an interview for BBC Alba news. Quite a privilege since I speak not a word of Gaelic, although I have a passing knowledge of Gaelic place names. It should appear sometime after…
On 7th July, an application for a new hydro scheme on the slopes of Ben More by Crianlarich, one of the highest and best known Munros, was validated on the Loch Lomond and Trossachs Planning Portal (see here) (or if the link does not work go to http://www.lochlomond-trossachs.org/planning/planning-applications/find-an-application/ and search for application Ref 2017/0119/DET or…
Following my posts on the unlawful application of the camping byelaws to campervans (see here) this week I took a look at the Tarbet Isle permit area. This is one of the areas where the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority has refunded campervanners who had purchased permits – an admission that they had…
The Corriemulzie community hydro scheme http://braemarhydro.org.uk/scheme/, just west of Braemar on the road to Linn of Dee, provides an interesting case of how developments can go badly wrong despite the best intentions of the main players. I first visited this scheme, which became operational last summer, in September 2016 and was horrified by what I…
Following my post on the unlawful application of the camping byelaws to campervans (see here), Rob Edwards’ excellent article in the Sunday Herald (I have an interest!) prompted an interesting piece http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2017/07/10/wild-land/ from Mike Small which is well worth reading: “Scotland’s divorce from nature is intimately connected to its divorce from land. But whilst we…
Following my posts on the Ledcharrie (see here), Coilessan (see here) Glen Clova and Glen Prosen (see here) and (see here) hill tracks I contacted the heads of planning in both National Park Authorities to find out what they were doing about this. The responses could not have been more different. The Loch Lomond and…
By Nick Halls, resident of Ardentinny This is the third in a sequence of reports (see here) and (here) on the impact of Forestry Commission Scotland practices in the Argyll Forest Park, which forms the south western part of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. Rhododendron ponticum, an invasive species, was apparently introduced…