I am very grateful to all the people who have promoted my post on Sunday (see here) about Scottish Forestry and the tree planting disaster at Kinrara and my apologies that the parkswatch website then crashed. This does not appear to have been due to a cyber attack by defenders of the forestry grants system or…
Category: Access rights
After a number of FOI requests, Rob Edwards revealed in an excellent article in the Ferret on 18th January (see here) that officials at Historic and Environment Scotland (HES) had been considering trying to close the Radical Rd below Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh permanently. While shocking, that was hardly surprising. Having fenced off access for…
Soon after suggesting that sporting estates managed for grouse pose the greater threat to access rights because of their concerted attempts to make people “keep to the path” (see here), I came across this salutary reminder that some deer stalking estates are still ignoring the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC). One of the primary meanings…
On Friday the following comment was submitted to my post on Access Rights and Grouse Moors (see here) “Without mammalian (mustelid and rodent) control there would be no ground nesting birds of any kind, grouse or otherwise.” Comment: This is plainly wrong. Ground nesting birds evolved along with mustelids and rodents long before any predator…
Wildlife, however much depleted, is present everywhere. Consequently if wildlife was a reason to keep to tracks there would be no right to roam anywhere. And in my case I could not have attained my objective on Hogmanay, the trackless summit of Carn nan Tri-Tighearnan a few miles north of the Cairngorms National Park. The…
Rather like with telecommunications masts (see here), a number of organisations have come together to try and persuade Historic and Environment Scotland (HES) to re-open the Radical Road in Edinburgh which was closed after rockfall in September 2018. After a series of meetings with HES in 2022, the organisations were given the impression that the…
Along with Andy Wightman and Nick Kempe (see here) I recently spoke at the event on the Scotland/England border to highlight the campaign to extend public access rights England. The text of my contribution, which I hope has relevance to national parks and other land and water in the UK, is found below. It is worth…
On Saturday I was involved in a demonstration organised by the Right to Roam campaign at Scots Dyke, constructed in 1552 to delineate the border between Scotland and England. As one activist straddling the border put it, this foot has a right to be here, the other one doesn’t. The differences in access laws between…
Last week the Court of Appeal overturned a decision of the High Court in January that there was no right to wild camp on Dartmoor, the only place in England where such a right existed. The High Court judge had decided that wild camping was not a form of outdoor recreation and was therefore not…
Part of the reason for my recent visit to Balquhidder (see here) was to take a closer look at the forestry plantation in Monachyle Glen, the one which was sold off on the cheap by Forest and Land Scotland (see here). The road up the glen has been upgraded in preparation for timber harvesting/profit reaping…
The Right to Roam campaign https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/ has taken a far broader approach to access rights than has traditionally been the case in England and has been building a broad campaign for a new legal right of access on the Scottish model. One of the outdoor recreational activities that has been highlighted by that campaign is wild…
A significant row has developed in Glenmore, the most popular place for visitors in the Cairngorms, and various interests are now trying to stampede the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) into initiating measures to ban camping there. This post argues that primary responsibility for the problems in Glenmore lie with Forest and Land Scotland and…
On Thursday there was a debate in the Westminster Parliament about public access to nature brought by the Green MP, Caroline Lucas, and supported by the House of Common Business Committee. For anyone interested in access rights the Hansard report is well worth reading (see here). The debate started with Caroline Lucas making a powerful…
If you have not seen it and care about either conservation or outdoor recreation you should watch this video which was added to the Cairngorms Capercaillie Project facebook page on 11th April (see here). In it, two birders who had come from England to view capercaillie, confess the error of their ways after being spoken…
As we celebrate twenty years since the passing of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, and as someone who was involved in the process that led to the establishment of the statutory access rights contained in that Act, and its subsequent implementation, I would like to contribute my personal thoughts on the current discussion around…
The Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Parks are part of the UK family of national parks. The experience gained in any one of these national parks may therefore be of relevance to other parks within the family and more generally as regards the enjoyment, management and protection of land and water in the…
On Monday, a special meeting of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) is being held to consider and approve a report to Scottish Ministers proposing revisions to the byelaws which govern boating on Loch Lomond (see here for papers and to get a link on the day to watch the meeting, which…
The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) strongly welcomed the Drumlean judgement (see here) and issued a news release following Lord Clark’s initial decision in the Gartmore core paths case (see here), the subject of this post. So far, however, they have said nothing about the decision of the Inner Court of Session,…
DC a Young people in Scotland who have grown up with the Right To Roam should be seriously concerned at attempts to erode and misinterpret this important legislation. It was with great concern that I read the posts a few weeks back (see here) and earlier this week (here) about the attempts from some in Scotland…
On 20th December 2022, four and a half years after the Drumlean Case (see here), Lord Carloway and two other of Scotland’s most senior judges issued another judgement in the Court of Session (see here) which described access rights as “the right to roam”: “[1] The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 introduced new rights of…
The term “access taker” appears to be becoming part of lexicon of those charged with overseeing access rights, including our two National Park Authorities. While messages directed to the public don’t yet use the phrase (see here) – “welcome access taker” has a horrible ring – behind the scenes this is how many access officers…
I am back from six weeks in Europe, the first four walking and running the Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean by the Haute Raute (HRP), followed by a section of the GR5 from Les Houches below Chamonix to Modane. I had half-intended to keep parkswatch going with some posts while away but my…
Last month, in a great piece of investigative journalism (see here), Rob Edwards from the Ferret obtained a copy of a document called the “Salisbury Crags Rock Risk Management Options Appraisal 2021” from Historic Environment Scotland (HES). This revealed that HES are seriously considering trying to close the Radical Road in Edinburgh permanently. Although I,…
It is now three and a half years since Historic Environment Scotland (HES) closed the Radical Road below Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh and it was good to see the BBC pick up the story last week (see here). HES has also been in the news recently (see here) and (see here) because of its proposals to…
Following my post on Fires, hypocrisy and access rights I was alerted that Highland Council, rather than fulfilling their statutory duty to uphold access rights, had themselves been putting up “No Fires” signs. These signs are contrary to the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC) which was approved by the Scottish Parliament: The meaning of “Wherever…