The Abrdn Property Income Trust (APIT) is now marketing Far Ralia for offers over £6.9m (see here), which is less than the recent £8m valuation, less than the £7.5m they bought it for five years ago and considerably less than the £12m they were asking for 15 months ago (see here). Deduct from the new…
Category: Cairngorms
Introduction to the current problems Prior to the funicular returning to service on 27th February (see here) Highland and Islands Enterprise (HIE) made this announcement on 5th February (see here):- “Staff at Cairngorm Mountain have today (Wednesday 5 February) begun a series of maintenance activities on the electrical, mechanical and hydraulic systems that govern the…
I thought we lived in a world where science guided our decisions about how best to protect nature and the planet. Sadly this would appear not to be the case. Vested interests and the voices of the powerful now hold sway, with science only deployed by government where there is good reason to expect it’s…
Introduction Two weeks ago (see here), I made the case that BrewDog’s 2020 PR shot of their soon- to- be Lost Forest was not on Speyside at all, but had a much more west coast feel about it. Feedback to the post suggested that the location was Craig Farm in Glen Orchy, and some internet…
A couple of weeks ago I e-biked with Dave Morris over to look at Phase 2 of BrewDog’s Lost Forest which I had not visited since planting started there in 2024 – the year after over 50% of the trees planted in Phase I had died. Having shown that Oxygen Conservation’s claims that the Lost…
My thanks to the reader who, commenting on an old post, alerted me to Abrdn Property Income Trust (APIT)’s interim report and results for the half year to 30th June 2025, published on 30th September (see here). This confirms that APIT, which shareholders voted to wind up last year, has had difficultly selling off their land…
On Thursday 9th October, the same day Jim Fairlie the Scottish Government minister responsible announced a further 9 month delay in the “watered down” – excuse the phrase – muirburn licensing scheme, a “controlled fire” on Culblean Hill got out of control. This caused a wildfire which it took fire fighters over seven hours to…
[Author note. Andy was previously an Ecologist, now retired, working for an NGO in the Cairngorms. He is currently the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) vice-county recorder for East Inverness-shire (https://bsbi.org/easterness)]. Introduction Twinflower (Linnaea borealis) is an iconic and charismatic flower of the Caledonian Pinewood. It is a Nationally Scarce mat-forming creeping perennial,…
Introduction It has been well covered in the media recently that the craft beer company BrewDog have sold on their “Lost Forest” at Kinrara Estate, which stretches from Speyside into the Monadliath, things not having worked out for them in the way that they might have hoped. It is actually quite astonishing that a relatively…
Why the ban on camp fires in the Cairngorms National Park maybe political rather than sustainable…..
NIMBYism’ and ‘Park politics’ rather than fire risk is probably behind the move to ban camp fires (see here). My bet is that the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNP) has caved in to pressure from residents and sporting estates who are anxious to blame somebody else for the wildfire problem land managers have, by…
Following my post on Oxygen Conservation’s purchase of Kinrara yesterday (see here) a reader sent me a few photos taken on Friday which provides up to date evidence about the state of Kinrara and confirms that BrewDog has treated the land as a “construction” project to the very end. In their news release Oxygen Conservation made…
BrewDog’s sale of Kinrara, the estate near Aviemore which it purchased for £8,800,000 in December 2020, and the announcement by Oxygen Conservation earlier this week that it had purchased it (they have not disclosed the sum) were both sadly entirely predictable. The short explanation is BrewDog financial balloon has well and truly burst while Oxygen…
[The post first appeared on Prof Douglas MacMillan’s Linked-In feed. Our apologies, the original caption to this photo said it was taken from A9 at Drumochter – ed. Photo taken same day at Drumochter is now included below] Last week Scottish Ministers approved a ban on recreational fires and barbecues in the Cairngorms National Park…
Scottish Ministers last week approved byelaws (see here for the text) which will make it an offence, with a fine of up to £500, for a person “without lawful authority” to light a fire or barbecue or “place or throw or let fall a lighted match, firework or any other thing so as to be…
[Author note. Andy was previously an Ecologist, now retired, working for an NGO in the Cairngorms. He is currently the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) vice-county recorder for East Inverness-shire (https://bsbi.org/easterness). In recent years he has published a number of scientific papers including several relevant to this project. These include, ‘Identification and taxonomy…
On 24th June the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) launched an “informal” consultation on its initial proposals to amend the core path plan it agreed ten years ago, in 2015 (see here). The consultation, which closes on 31st August, consists (see here) of an interactive map, showing existing core paths with proposed additions and removals, and…
(I wrote most of this on way to Alps a week ago and only got decent internet a week later. Apologies if it is now out of date or been overtaken by events but hope it is still worth saying). One would.hardly expext the new Chief Executive of Cairngorm Mountain (Scotland) Ltd, Mike Gifford, to…
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…
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…