On 22nd July the Strathy reported (see here) the Spey Catchment Initiative (SCI) is planning to consult the local community before using “ecological engineering” techniques to restore the eroded banks of the Allt Mhor above Kingussie. The project is described as being “in partnership” with the Pitmain and Glen Banchor Estate, with funding – the amount…
Category: Cairngorms
In December abrdn told the Scotsman that they had made mistakes with their carbon offsetting tree planting scheme at Far Ralia, the land they had bought for £6.5m in 2021 and are now trying to sell. While admitting these mistakes included “basic things around designing woodlands and certain processes” they did not explain what they…
Some of you will have seen the articles in the National and Strathy newspapers which led to Nick Kempe’s post (see here) about the “Toxic Culture” at Cairngorm Mountain (Scotland) Ltd (CM(S)L) and the apparent lack of action by either their senior management or board or Ms. Carrol Buxton, the Deputy CEO of Highlands and…
Following my post on King Charles and the muirburn which took place on his estate at Delnadamph on 27th February, a very windy day (see here), I submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) to see if their control centre at Dundee had been notified, as per the provisions…
Before the start of the 2023/24 ski season “loyal customers”, i.e. skiers and boarders, were sent an email by Highland and Islands Enterprise (HIE)’s subsidiary Cairngorm Mountain (Scotland) offering season passes with early bird discounts and the additional benefit of funicular access until November 2024 – an extended ski season perhaps! Susan Smith, then CEO…
On 2nd May Highlands and Islands Enterprise announced (see here) that having re-opened the funicular on 27/02/2025, after one and a half years of repair work, it would be closing it again on 12/05/2025 – just ten weeks later – for another three weeks until 2/06/25: “while the company’s in-house engineering team carries out…
The proposal to plant Coire na Ciste on Cairn Gorm – a new low for conservation in the National Park
The caption reads “A solitary pine clings to the hillside in Coire na Ciste. A rare survivor in an otherwise treeless landscape”. Propaganda credit Spey Catchment IniitiatveA month ago, on 15th April, the Spey Catchment Initiative (SCI), a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), formed in December 2022 issued a news release announcing it was to…
Over the last six weeks or so I have written several posts about how Scotland is being burned to bits by land-managers, many of whom carry on with muirburn whatever the fire risk. The muirburn provisions of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act were intended by the Scottish Parliament to change that for the…
On 18th April landowners and land management interests launched a concerted campaign claiming that rather than muirburn being a significant cause of wildfire it was a means of preventing it (see here for BBC coverage). In response I was pleased to have this letter published in the Herald and then when Nan Spowart took up…
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…
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…
I was provided with this incredible photo through a friend who had been Knoydart 2 weeks ago and, for four days between 2nd and 5th April, had watched a fire on Morar to the south. An alert was raised for Knoydart and the community started to muster and prepare a response. It was not long…
Last Tuesday, on a day when the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service had issued very high fire risk warnings for the whole of Scotland, I drove up to Braemar to spend a couple of days in the Cairngorms. The muirburn I had commented on in a post previously (see here) was continuing on both sides…
On 1st April the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) issued a “Very High to Extreme” warning for the period 2nd till 7th April (see here). It advised the public “to avoid lighting fires outdoors across all areas of Scotland during this period.” The NASA global wildfire data base (see here) enables one to check…
Had the muirburn provisions of the the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 (“the Act”) passed a year ago come into force such fires at hat pictured above would be now illegal. Clause 20 of the new Act shifted the current muirburn season, which dates back to the Heather Burning (Scotland) Act 1926, from…
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…
Unacceptable telecommunications masts (26) – the case for masts in Total Not Spots has now collapsed
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…
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…
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…
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…
On 27th February I was sent this photo of muirburn on King Charles’ estate of Delnadamph, which has no deer and is managed intensively for grouse shooting (see here). The reader commented it was very windy that day, as is evident from the near horizontal plume of smoke. That was confirmed by the forecast for…
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…
A couple of week after the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA)’s approved byelaws, which seek to criminalise the generalise public for lighting a fire ANYWHERE in the National Park between 1st April and 30th September (see here), the Herald published this story about two 80 year old lottery millionaires from Kent. The contrast in approach…
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…
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…