Silt first started flowing into the Gynack River system, which flows into the River Spey, six and a half weeks ago (see here). I reported and others reported this to both the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA). The CNPA responded that they were not sure whether the silt flowing…
Category: Cairngorms
Trunk roads and Scotland’s National Parks (2) – dualling the A9 through the Cairngorms National Park
A few days before Transport Scotland’s latest plans for the Rest and Be Thankful were launched (see here), Fergus Ewing MSP was in the news calling for the dualling of the A9 to be speeded up. Just as with the proposals for the A83, there was no mention of the fact a significant part of…
I am just back from a stravaig from Loch Arkaig around Knoydart and then a two day walk across the group of Munros north of the road to Ullapool. In six days on the hill we only saw one piece of litter and that only because we had camped on the rough ground between Seana…
On 9th May Highland Council issued a decision on the proposals submitted on behalf of ABDN to upgrade the track to Far Ralia and construct an alternative to the Wade Bridge (see here). The way the proposals have been dealt with and the decision itself raise serious questions about how the planning system in the…
In January 2022, Highland Council granted prior approval to a new “forestry” road at Balavil for which there was no justification or need. At the same time I was made aware of large borrow pit which had not appeared on any of the plans and reported this to the Cairngorms National Park Authority (see here). …
[This post has been updated to clarify the difference between the River Spey SAC and River Spey SSSI] While not nearly as bad as it was (see here), the consequences of the engineering works in the Allt Mhor/River Gynack continue to flow down in the River Spey river system. Silt has now been washed down…
On Friday silt was washing down the Allt Mhor/River Gynack into the River Spey Special Area of Conservation from the work to repair to the Pitmain Estate flood alleviation channel. I have been informed that this is not the first time this has happened recently. On 28th April (see here) I commented on how much…
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…
My apologies. In my post last week on how the Cairngorms National Park Planning Committee had rejected the application for a new road linking Pitmain with Glen Banchor (see here) I had used this photo of the Allt Chaorainn bridge from the Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group. I had then wrongly added the black line…
I was pleased to be quoted in an article in the National on Saturday (see here) about how the Scottish Parliament still drafts legislation designed to exclude the Royal Family and Crown Estate. Twenty 20 years ago outdoor recreational interests successfully fought to close a loophole which would have meant access rights did not apply…
Last Friday the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) Board rejected the planning application to construct a new road round Newtonmore that would have connected the Pitmain and Glen Banchor estates (see here). The video of the meeting is still on the internet, which is contrary to the usual practice of the CNPA but is a…
My post on The bus service and parking capacity at Cairn Gorm (published on Saturday 22 April 2023) received a number of comments on parkswatch and on the Save the Ciste facebook page. Parkswatch is indebted to those who took the time to point out the difficulties and costs associated with the provision of a…
The Gynack flood alleviation channel was constructed in 2017 and started to erode away as soon as it was used before it was closed due to the risks of catastrophic failure (see here). Ostensibly designed to reduce flood risks in Kingussie by diverting some of the flow of the Allt Mhor into Loch Gynack, the…
[Update 3rd May: this map, which was contained in the Committee report was incorrect, it shows the 4.83km of proposed new track but the application extended west and included a new bridge over the Allt Chaorainn to the left of the Parking symbol]. The Planning Application for a new “forestry” road, which would connect the…
The snowsports season on Cairn Gorm came to an end on Sunday 16 April 2023. It wasn’t the best or worst of seasons, although the available parking capacity was exceeded on a number of occasions, particularly at mid-term in February. During the course of the mid-term holiday in February, CairnGorm Mountain Scotland Ltd found it…
The approach that Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) is taking to native woodland restoration at Ben Avon in the Trossachs based on natural regeneration, which I considered in my last post (see here), provides a stark contrast with how they are managing their land in the McAlpine plantation by Loch Morlich which I first considered…
This post takes a further look at what is going on at Far Ralia which was bought in September 2021 by the Standard Life Property and Investment Trust (SLIPIT), renamed the ABDN Property Income Trust last summer. The Wade bridge First, a little good news. The gate that featured in my post on the Far…
This post is a critical analysis of the latest report into the impact of snowsports commissioned by the Scottish Government which was quietly published in January (see here). The report contains some major flaws/ inaccuracies which need to be addressed and has implications for all of Scotland’s ski centres, including the three in the Cairngorms…
Footpaths and climate change Yesterday there was an interesting feature in the Herald magazine about Bob Brown, the National Trust for Scotland’s footpath manager, who has kept the faith and continues to repair paths by hand rather than doing so on the cheap by machine, often with poor consequences (see here). Coming a few days…
The results of the local member elections for the Cairngorms National Park Authority, which take place by post vote, were announced on Thursday 23rd March and confirm that the voting system in both our National Parks is in urgent need of reform (see here for the elections to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park…
I have always been sceptical about Highland and Island Enterprise (HIE)’s funicular court cases going ahead because of what further it might reveal about their incompetence. But those court cases (see here) may be the price the Scottish Government has exacted for picking up the cost (c£26m?) of the funicular repairs There was an interesting…
On 1st February Gilkes Hydro announced proposals (see here) to create a new pumped storage hydro scheme on the Ardverikie Estate in a beautiful and unspoiled area: “At up to 900MW installed capacity and 33,000MWh stored energy, this will be the largest such project in the UK”. If constructed, the scheme would link Lochan…
I biked over to the River Dulnain two weeks ago not to search out unlawful access signs on the Dunachton Estate (see here) but to take a look at the forestry and a new native woodland scheme around An Suidhe. There is some lovely woodland surviving on the estate, even if none that I saw…
I was pleased to receive this photo and comment at the weekend from a parkswatch reader who has been following the funicular story for several years and has experience of health and safety on North Sea oil rigs. “I finally made it up the hill to the Cairngorm Ski Area. I think it would be…
On Wednesday NatureScot, formerly known as Scottish Natural Heritage, issued a news release (see here) about how they had entered a partnership with the Hampden & Co, Lombard Odier Investment Managers and Palladium (the company that in in a partnership with National Parks across the UK called “Revere). They described this as: “a ‘national first’…