Last Sunday I took a walk around the Pitmain Estate on the higher ground between Newtonmore and Kingussie. There is a deer fence which runs between the ugly, and recently upgraded track, and Loch Gynack which prevents people from reaching the loch shore. This area could, and should, provide a high quality recreational experience…
Category: Cairngorms
SNH are currently consulting on a new plan for the Invereshie and Inshriach National Nature Reserve (see here). The NNR covers the land between the road up the east side of Glen Feshie (and the moor of Feshie) and the fine ridge which extends from Carn Ban Mor over Sgurr Gaoith to Creag Dubh. The…
Almost everywhere you go in the Haute Maurienne is evidence of community use of the forests which cover much of the valley sides. Locals use wood to heat their houses and in construction. The contrast with Scotland is striking: how many such wood stores do you see in the Argyll Forest Park or in Crianlarich?…
Just over a week ago Cameron McNeish sent me this photo of a sign he had come across while walking on the RSPB Nature Reserve at Loch Insh near Tromie Bridge in the Cairngorms National Park. The sign was clearly against the Scottish Outdoor Access Code – and in breach of our access legislation…
Our National Parks Authorities are two small cogs in the much wider structures which govern life in Scotland and subject to similar pressures and influences as other such organisations, whether austerity or the ever increasing trend towards centralisation of government in Scotland. Many of the comments made by speakers at the “Act as if we…
I am back from a couple of weeks ski touring in the Vanoise and, having taken a break from parkswatch last week, thought I would share this week a few things Scotland’s National Parks could learn from the Vanoise. The Vanoise National Park is the oldest in France, created in 1963, and consists on an…
A couple of weeks ago I stopped at at one of the two laybys on the new section of A9 dual carriageway between Kincraig and Dalraddy. Its been nicely landscaped and provided with a bin, unlike the laybys on the A82, thanks to Highland Council but is too close to the road to be a…
While over the last couple of years I have frequently raised concerns about the management of the natural environment at Cairngorm, the absence of any proper plan for the area and the proposals for yet more inappropriate developments and the financial position and practices of Natural Retreats, parkswatch has so far not commented on their…
Anyone passing through the Drumochter, even in snow, should be able to see the scars on the hillside between the summit of the pass and north Drumochter lodge but far fewer people are aware of the scars and failed restoration hidden behind the shelter belts on either side of this. Its taken me six months…
When Highlands and Islands Enterprise sold Cairngorm Mountain Ltd to Natural Assets Investment Ltd they did so on the basis that its operational arm, Natural Retreats had the knowledge, competence and financial strength to bring new ideas and new investment to Cairngorm. In the last week further evidence has emerged to show how laughable those…
Yesterday the Cairngorms National Park Authority called in a planning application (see here) for a dry ski slope by the Coire Cas Car Park at Cairngorm which had been lodged at Highland Council by Cairngorm Mountain Ltd, whose registered address is now Wilmslow in Cheshire. The idea of a dry ski slope here was originally…
The existing Cairngorms Forest Framework is ten years old and the Cairngorms National Park Authority have been consulting on a Cairngorms Forest Strategy to replace it (see here). The document sets out the “strategic direction on future forest management and the restoration of woodlands in the Cairngorms National Park over the next two decades” with…
The day of my post about the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority becoming a camping management authority (see here), the article above appeared in the Herald. Proof, if you want, that what I said is not the whole story and a reminder – if one is needed after the Cononish gold mine decision…
The Cairngorms National Park Authority meeting today has a fairly limited agenda (see here): an informative report from their Chief Executive on what has been going on; a four year corporate plan, a one year operational plan together, somewhat strangely, with a (welcome) paper on not paying Board Members who fail to attend meetings; a communications…
Companies House, the part of Government responsible for registering and dissolving companies and filing information, including accounts, required by the Companies Act 2006 is under-resourced and ineffective. As a result often basic information which would help the public, shareholders or public agencies to understand what is really going on in a company is not available,…
I have been engaged in constructive correspondence with the HIE Chief Executive, Charlotte Wright, about what is going on at Cairngorm. While I welcome her willingness to engage, so far this has done nothing to prevent the mismanagement of Cairngorm Mountain continuing, while there is now significant circumstantial evidence suggests that “Natural Retreats” are heading…
The consultation on the Cairngorms National Park Authority Main Issues Report ends tomorrow. Following previous posts (see here) and (here), this post takes a closer look at housing, which plays a prominent role in the report and features within a number of the Main Issues identified. Main Issue 2 Designing Great Places The Report notes…
The consultation on the Cairngorms Main Issues Report (see here), the discussion document which precedes the new development plan, closes this Friday. The Scottish Government has mooted in the Planning Bill the abolition of such reports with Planning Authorities moving direct the draft plan stage in the name of efficiency. To their credit, the Cairngorms…
On Sunday, returning early after a short ski tour over the Cairnwell in a white out, we stopped at the Devil’s elbow, where I had the pleasure of reading an estate sign which used the National Access Forum’s recommended template and form of words as set out in their Guidance on Deer Stalking and Public…
Two weeks ago, when I was in Glen Clova, I went to take a closer look at some of the tracks I had seen while doing a round of the Glen Prosen skyline (see here). This post takes a further look at what has been happening. None of the five tracks featured here appears on…
The Scottish Government’s Planning Bill and the CNPA response In December, the Scottish Government published its Planning Bill and this is now going through Parliament and will be considered this month by the Local Government Committee. While in the Memorandum accompanying the Planning Bill the Scottish Government clearly states “The purpose of planning is to…
Last weekend was the first time I had visited Glen Clova for several years. The public road up the glen terminates at a Forestry Commission (paying) car park and visitor centre. In contrast to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, which has installed gates across car parks which it then locks, the public are…
I was alerted to Scottish Natural Heritage’s consultation on the Corrie Fee National Nature Reserve “We want to hear your views on our proposed management and any additional ideas you would like us to consider” through Mountaineering Scotland news (see here). The consultation (see here for draft management plan and excellent history) is open until…
Further evidence of the political power of landowners in our National Parks was revealed yesterday when Kate Forbes, the SNH MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, held a reception for the Gift of Grouse http://www.giftofgrouse.com/ at the Scottish Parliament. This was preceded by an excellent post from Raptor Persecution Scotland (see here) lambasting the claims…
This post explores considers very recent developments in what is going on at Cairngorm Mountain, following earlier posts (see here), how this is symptomatic of wider ills in how companies are allowed to operate and the implications for the proposed development at the Ptarmigan. Unfortunately being in a National Park offers no immunity to this…