I am up in the north-west Highlands for a week, staying near Gairloch, and yesterday walked into Beinn an Eoin from Loch Bad Scalaig. The first part of the track is through a native woodland scheme planted in 1998 and then leads on to the former bothy, Poca Buidhe, almost 12k in all. …
On 11th October Natural Retreats posted this photo on the behind the scenes section of the Cairngorm Mountain blog. The caption above it read: The West Wall Poma project is progressing well, with the steel work installation scheduled to commence on Monday 17th of October. The picture below shows a 20 tonne excavator which has…
As the gateway to Loch Lomond and the unofficial capital of Scotland’s first National Park the village of Balloch should be the jewel in the crown of Loch Lomond and one of Scotland’s top tourist destinations. However, it has it has failed to live up to this billing for some time now which, in part, is due…
As readers will know, there are now several organisations trying to get the Cairngorms National Parks Authority to address the problems associated with grouse moors: destruction of habitats, destruction of the landscape, destruction of wildlife and destruction of the rural population. There have been several signs in the last couple of weeks that landowners…
Last week I received a reply from the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park to my question about how much the new parking meters at Inveruglas had cost. I made the mistake first time of asking how much it had cost the LLTNPA to install these meters and was told (eir-2016-040-response-car-parks-and-charges) £562.20 plus two hours…
Breaches of the planning permission granted by Highland Council to Natural Retreats to replace the West Wall poma return wheel and re-landscape the off-ramp have been continuing (see here) The Planning Method Statement required “All fuelling and oils to be carried out in appropriate areas” and stated this would be “outside top station garage,…
On Saturday I went rock climbing on Ben An, the first time in many years, with my friend Mike who had never climbed there. En route from Callander I checked whether anything had been done about the farm litter beside the road opposite Loch Venachar House, home to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park…
Last week the Heritage Lottery Fund announced that it had awarded £2.34m to the Tomintoul & Glenlivet Landscape Partnership in the northern part of the Cairngorms National Park to deliver 20 projects over a four year period (see here). The plans include: Tomintoul Museum will become a Discovery Centre and tourist hub Blairfindy Castle and Scalan, an…
A week ago, on the same day that the consultation on the new Park Partnership Plan closed, the Cairngorms National Park Authority approved the Cairngorm Glenmore Strategy (see here). This had been subject to public consultation earlier this year. All the detailed visitor management proposals which were in the consultation draft have been stripped…
The planning permission granted for the four Glen Falloch hydro schemes in 2010 agreed to some permanent new (short) tracks along the bottom of the glen to the powerhouses, some widening of existing tracks but stipulated that the tracks to the intake dams required for construction purposes were to be temporary. Once work was…
The Observer on Sunday ran a full page article by Kevin McKenna on Flamingo Land’s appointment as preferred developer for the west riverside side in Balloch (see here and here). I normally enjoy reading Kevin McKenna but did wonder if this is the same Kevin McKenna who had previously lambasted the development in an entertaining…
Two weeks ago the Cairngorms National Park Authority added responses from their ecology adviser (see here) and landscape adviser (see here) to the retrospective planning application from Natural Retreats for the hill track at Cairngorm (see here). While welcoming the transparency of the CNPA in making these public at an early stage (which has given…
After my last post on the Glen Falloch hydro schemes, which featured the blue penstock by Derrydarroch in the photo above, I asked the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park when this penstock was going to be re-painted. The LLTNPA had approved a plan in February that showed native trees were to be planted…
I walked over Morrone from Corriemulizie by Braemar last Monday on a showery day. What I saw got me thinking about what the draft Cairngorms Partnership Plan said about paths and tracks. The public consultation on this ended officially this weekend but people can continue to influence this. The plan says nothing about the…
In May 2015 Natural Retreats were granted planning permission to Highland Council to replace the “floating” top wheel of the West Wall poma lift with a fixed wheel and to extend the run by 40m subject to certain conditions. The Cairngorms National Park Authority, in their wisdom, did not call in this application unlike the…
Following my last post (see here) on Natural Retreats, they have now started further work to re-locate the return wheel at the top of the West Wall poma lift. Suffice to say just now (I hope to do a further post tomorrow with photos of what has been going on) that the creation of a building…
Following my post questioning the Cairngorms National Park Authority assertion that grouse moors bring much needed employment to the National Park see here, on Sunday I went for a walk round the western half of the Dinnet estate via the summit of Morven. My main intention was to look at the unlawful hill tracks…
The proposed Flamingo Land development of the west riverside side at Balloch was covered by an interesting article in the Sunday Herald (and I say that not just because I was quoted in it) which made links between the proposed camping ban and the proposed development. Ultimately this is about what National Parks are for…
Today, the LLTNPA will decide its planning application to itself for a campsite at Loch Chon. There are now 54 documents associated with this proposal and I hope the members of the Planning Committee read the objections as well as the Committee Report. There are several issues about the campsite which are very relevant…
Raptor Persecution Scotland picked up (see here) on a Cairngorms blog piece and article in the Strathspey and Badenoch Herald by Peter Argyle, Convener of the the Cairngorms National Park Authority. I believe Peter’s contribution is very welcome and its very refreshing that as Convener of the National Park he seems prepared to engage…
– by Ross MacBeath At the public meeting with Strathard Community Council, Gordon Watson, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Chief Executive, tried to justify the creation of a large campsite at Loch Chon by referring to the campsite at Sallochy, on east Loch Lomond. While this is also on Forestry Commission land,…
By coincidence, the above article appeared in the Sunday Herald (in their towns supplement) just a few days after Flamingo Land had been announced as the preferred developer for the west riverside site at Balloch (see here). The contrast between what Kevin Stewart is saying and what Scottish Enterprise announced is stark: The “solution”…
If you have passed up or down the A82 this summer you may have noticed Lochs and Glens buses parked overnight in the Inveruglas car park – I have several times. This is one of the car parks where the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority want to introduce parking charges which will be…
A petition to the Scottish Government to stop the Flamingo Land development on the west riverside site at Balloch has been set up by George McMillan (see here). A number of signatories have made comments which show that people care deeply about our National Parks and believe they should be about protecting the landscape and…
In response to an editorial about the repeated breaches of planning requirements at Badaguish by Speyside Trust (see here), I had a letter published in the Strathspey and Badenoch Herald last week explaining what I think has been going on. I hope to cover this further in the next few weeks but meantime…