The Scottish Gamekeepers Association has long argued ((see here) that muirburn helps prevent devastating wildfires when the truth is that it is muirburn that has devastated nature across large swathes of Scotland. The fact that Fire and Rescue Scotland has chosen to invest resources in teaching gamekeepers how to “safely apply fire” suggests that they…
Category: Cairngorms
DC a Young people in Scotland who have grown up with the Right To Roam should be seriously concerned at attempts to erode and misinterpret this important legislation. It was with great concern that I read the posts a few weeks back (see here) and earlier this week (here) about the attempts from some in Scotland…
The lower pistes at Cairn Gorm, together with the Sunkid rope tow and the Carpark T-Bar uptrack have all been rendered unusable after just a couple of days of moderate thawing. The “Cairngorm Mountain Full Business Case” (see here), as prepared by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), has the following under Strategic Context: ‘’Cairn Gorm…
Following on from my post on peat bog restoration in Glen Banchor (see here), in 2020/21 three new woodland enclosures were erected along the River Calder as part of a conservation project. It involved a fair amount of machinery, raw materials (including bags of cement just out of the photo) and materials for fencing. How…
Following the completion of my post on Deer and Peat Bog restoration on the Glen Banchor estate, I was sent a photo by a reader of deer grazing the Caledonian Pine forest remnants at Kinveachy, all of which is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and some of which is a Special Area of…
Annotated woodland plan for Glen Banchor showing a) area of peatbog restoration b) three new woodland exclosures extending across the River Calder onto the Cluny Estate c) the approx position of the sporting pond. Map Credit Cawdor Forestry.The woodland management plan contained in the latest Planning Application to build a track around Newtonmore (see here)…
Cairn Gorm, alone amongst the five main outdoor snowsports areas in Scotland doesn’t have any chairlifts. Following on from Graham Garfoot’s post on Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the mismanagement of snow sports at Cairn Gorm (see here), the SE Group report , commissioned at a cost of circa £120k, identified the fact that chairlifts…
In my post about how Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL) have “all the gear, no idea” (see here), I mentioned that as far as I know there is only one person in Scotland with the necessary qualifications to operate a ski resort. I then decided to have a look…
On Tuesday Raptor Persecution UK had an excellent guest blog from Bob Berzins about the persecution of raptors in the Peak District National Park (see here). This explained that part of the reason for the National Park Authority’s failure to address this illegal persecution is a lack of transparency and accountability to the public, particularly…
Writing in the magazine British Wildlife in August 2018 David Hetherington, ecologist with the Cairngorms National Park Authority, explained the importance of natural regeneration in expanding the existing remnants of the Old Caledonian pine forests in the Cairngorms. Natural regeneration is the key defining character of these forests, demonstrating that they are descended directly from…
Cairngorm Mountain opened for snowsports on Saturday 17 December 2022 with uplift being provided by the two new magic carpets adjacent to the Daylodge. Ticket sales were rightfully limited to just 150 due the constrained size of the beginner area. This beginner area is served by snow from the Snowfactory which is topped up by…
On 4th November the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) notified all those who had commented that the proposal to create a 4.83 km road linking the Pitmain and Glenbanchor Estates, allegedly for forestry purposes, had been withdrawn (on 27th October). In a post the following day (see here) I highlighted the lack of any explanation…
After Alan Brattey’s expose of how the management at Cairngorm Mountain were failing to take advantage of the cold and snowy conditions (see here), it appears someone kicked ass. The following day, Susan Smith, their Chief Executive and Colin Matthews, their head of operations, appeared on a video (see here) announcing Cairngorm Mountain would open…
The title of the Scottish Government’s consultation, “Wildlife Management in Scotland” (see here), which closed yesterday, was very revealing. Despite the nature emergency and the Scottish Government’s commitment to protect 30% of the land by 2030 (see here), there were no questions about how natural processes could be restored or we might reverse the catastrophic…
What’s going on? In 2018 after the funicular failed and Cairngorm Mountain Ltd ceased trading, Highlands and Island Enterprise (HIE) stepped in and set up Cairngorm Mountain [Scotland] Ltd (CMSL) with a share Capital of £100. In an effort to keep the snowsports business going, HIE quickly purchased a TechnoAlpin SnowFactory and eight TechnoAlpin TR8…
A week ago the Ferret (see here) exposed how the Tulchan Estate, on the northern boundary of the Cairngorms National Park, was being funded both to restore damaged peatland and to burn moorland in the same small area. A similar scandal is happening on King Charles’s grouse shooting estate, Delnadamph, on the upper reaches of…
The term “access taker” appears to be becoming part of lexicon of those charged with overseeing access rights, including our two National Park Authorities. While messages directed to the public don’t yet use the phrase (see here) – “welcome access taker” has a horrible ring – behind the scenes this is how many access officers…
The work being undertaken to construct the lower of the two magic carpets bears no resemblance to that which was approved by the Cairngorm National Park Authority (CNPA) in May. First, there is the width of the construction corridor. While the width of the magic carpet was referred in in the planning application – 60cm…
Having highlighted the issue of forest fences being covered in plastic to prevent bird collisions a year ago (see here), it is very good to see that the Cairngorms Capercaillie Project has been doing more work with the Seafield estate to remove the orange netting. Unfortunately, rather than removing the fences completely, they have been…
NatureScot’s consultation on National Parks closes today. In my view the most important section of the online survey (see here) is about the powers and functions of National Parks (questions 13-16). Get this right and there would be no need to resort to “green” finance as the means to address the undoubted problems in our…
I was up in Speyside mid-week and took the opportunity to take a look at the car parks on Cairn Gorm. The weather was terrible, 98 mph gusts apparently on the summit of Cairn Gorm and lashing rain. It was one of those days when car doors can be ripped off their hinges so my…
After the first three questions in NatureScot consultation on National Parks, which are about whether to turn them into vehicles for “green finance” (see here), the fourth is about the role of local communities (see here). The introductory text to the section claims that our National Parks “provide exemplars of community engagement” but contain no…
On Monday Forest and Land Scotland (FLS) announced (see here) that a new company called Twinflower will take over the management of the Glenmore campsite from 1st December. It has made no announcement as yet about its other two campsites in the Loch Lomond and Trossach National Park, Cobleland and Cashel, which it put out…
Following the poorly designed consultation on creating a new National Park for Scotland which took place May-June (see here), the Scottish Government asked NatureScot, its statutory adviser on such issues, to provide advice on the role of National Parks and “how new nominations for National Parks could be evaluated”. In the summer NatureScot set up…
A large proportion of my campaigning to improve Scotland’s National Parks takes place behind the scenes and doesn’t appear on parkswatch, partly due to the time involved but also because there are limits to what blogging can achieve. Other media is very important which is why I am so appreciative of the Strathy, an excellent…