Category: Cairngorms

April 28, 2025 Nick Kempe 2 comments

The Tinto Hills Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)  (see here) was not the only protected area to be destroyed by muirburn during the periods of high fire risk this Spring.  The muirburn triggered wild fire considered in this post took place in the glen running north from  Glenballoch in Glen Banchor which has previously…

April 22, 2025 Graham Garfoot 1 comment

This post takes a look at Highland and Island Enterprise (HIE)’s response to Gordon Bulloch’s Freedom of Information  request of 05/12/2024 (see here) and attempts to explain what went wrong with the funicular repairs. As I said in the last post (see here) both COWI, the design engineers for the funicular, and Balfour Beatty, the construction…

March 31, 2025 Graham Garfoot 1 comment

This post comments further on the heavily redacted replies to Mr Gordon Bulloch’s FOI request of 05/12/2024 about the 2023 closure of the funicular. Email 1, sent  on 23rd August at 23.17, was considered in the first post in this series. The emails are between the various parties involved:- Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE); Cairngorm…

March 27, 2025 Nick Kempe 5 comments

In November David Craig explained how advances in smart phone technology meant that any masts erected under the UK Government’s Shared Rural Network programme  to eliminate Total Not Spots would soon become obsolete (see here).  On 25th March Ofcom issued a set of proposals for consultation which would remove the regulatory block to that happening…

March 24, 2025 Nick Kempe 9 comments

On 19th March the Herald revealed (see here) that Scottish Forestry, having suspended grant payments to BrewDog after it was revealed many of the trees in the Lost Forest had died, has now paid them £1.2m and agreed to pay a further £1.5m for the project.  This post takes another look at the scandal in the…

March 7, 2025 Graham Garfoot 2 comments

On 5 December 2024 Gordon Bulloch submitted a two part information request to Highlands and Islands Enterprise.  60 working days later and only after a Review request he received a few highly redacted emails to the first part of his request which was for: All reports and associated correspondence concerning the decision to stop operation…

March 5, 2025 Nick Kempe 4 comments

Following my post yesterday on King Charles’ muirburn at Delnadamph (see here), I am very grateful to Jamie Mann, an investigative journalist at the Ferret, for alerting me to NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) database (see here).  FIRMS records satellite observations of fires, however caused,  across the world.  Satellite technology now has…

February 28, 2025 Nick Kempe 1 comment

Yesterday with almost no notice the funicular at last re-opened. Highlands and Islands Enterprise, in a news release issued on Wednesday (see here) claimed that “all safety-critical matters have now been concluded” – not exactly the same thing as stating all the safety concerns that caused them to close the funicular in August 2023 have been…

February 24, 2025 Nick Kempe 2 comments

Last week the Scottish Government published the fourth piece of legislation this Parliament ostensibly  intended to improve how we use and manage land in the countryside, including National Parks – the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill (see here for papers)   This follows the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024, passed a year ago and…

February 21, 2025 Nick Kempe 7 comments

With little sign of the Scottish Government implementing the provisions of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 and while the Cairngorms were aflame from muirburn (see here), the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) Board on 14th February approved new fire management byelaws and a draft “Integrated Wildfire Management Plan” for consultation with land…

February 17, 2025 Nick Kempe 19 comments

Driving north up the A9 on Saturday Andy Cloquet observed muirburn on five sites between Dalwhinnie and Newtonmore with “an acrid smell over five miles of road” and sent parkswatch these two photos. The ostensible purpose of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 (“the Act”), which was passed by the Scottish Government last…

January 30, 2025 Graham Garfoot 4 comments

  The treatment of staff at Cairngorm Mountain For a number of years now I and other campaigners have heard about the toxic culture at Cairngorm Mountain (Scotland Ltd (CMSL) but until now staff and former staff have been very reluctant to speak out about it.   Besides the bullying and intimidation referred to in the…