After the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 was passed the days of sporting estate landowners trying to impose blanket restrictions on access across swathes of the countryside in the name of deer stalking should have ended. Unfortunately this sign shows that that practice, now unlawful, continues 20 years on. The red and green colours say…
Tag: access rights
On election day, 4th July, after the anaemic campaigns of the major parties, it was good to see some real politics being given prominence in the Herald and to be reminded of the time when the Scottish Parliament was prepared to introduce radical new laws. The royal family, the Scottish establishment and access rights…
After a number of FOI requests, Rob Edwards revealed in an excellent article in the Ferret on 18th January (see here) that officials at Historic and Environment Scotland (HES) had been considering trying to close the Radical Rd below Salisbury Crags in Edinburgh permanently. While shocking, that was hardly surprising. Having fenced off access for…
Soon after suggesting that sporting estates managed for grouse pose the greater threat to access rights because of their concerted attempts to make people “keep to the path” (see here), I came across this salutary reminder that some deer stalking estates are still ignoring the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC). One of the primary meanings…
Wildlife, however much depleted, is present everywhere. Consequently if wildlife was a reason to keep to tracks there would be no right to roam anywhere. And in my case I could not have attained my objective on Hogmanay, the trackless summit of Carn nan Tri-Tighearnan a few miles north of the Cairngorms National Park. The…
Rather like with telecommunications masts (see here), a number of organisations have come together to try and persuade Historic and Environment Scotland (HES) to re-open the Radical Road in Edinburgh which was closed after rockfall in September 2018. After a series of meetings with HES in 2022, the organisations were given the impression that the…
Along with Andy Wightman and Nick Kempe (see here) I recently spoke at the event on the Scotland/England border to highlight the campaign to extend public access rights England. The text of my contribution, which I hope has relevance to national parks and other land and water in the UK, is found below. It is worth…
On Saturday I was involved in a demonstration organised by the Right to Roam campaign at Scots Dyke, constructed in 1552 to delineate the border between Scotland and England. As one activist straddling the border put it, this foot has a right to be here, the other one doesn’t. The differences in access laws between…
Scotland National Parks and the Scottish Government If you want to understand why Scotland’s National Parks have achieved so little in the 20 years since they were created, you need look no further than successive Scottish Governments, both the Ministers responsible and the civil servants that have supported them. Instead of encouraging and empowering our…
Last week the Court of Appeal overturned a decision of the High Court in January that there was no right to wild camp on Dartmoor, the only place in England where such a right existed. The High Court judge had decided that wild camping was not a form of outdoor recreation and was therefore not…
Part of the reason for my recent visit to Balquhidder (see here) was to take a closer look at the forestry plantation in Monachyle Glen, the one which was sold off on the cheap by Forest and Land Scotland (see here). The road up the glen has been upgraded in preparation for timber harvesting/profit reaping…
Ten days ago I was in Balquidder and as far as I could tell most of the unlawful no access signs along the shore of Loch Voil are still there (see here). Some of these signs pre-date the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 which created access rights and the formation of the Loch Lomond and…
A few weeks ago I was contacted by a person who had parked their car to go for a walk from Sallochy on east Loch Lomond and had been harassed by rangers for doing so. Last week I was sent these photos which show the gates are now being locked in the day to prevent…
The Right to Roam campaign https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/ has taken a far broader approach to access rights than has traditionally been the case in England and has been building a broad campaign for a new legal right of access on the Scottish model. One of the outdoor recreational activities that has been highlighted by that campaign is wild…
In a recent letter to the Strathspey and Badenoch Herald (29 June, see below) I suggested ways that the management of the land around Loch Morlich and nearby areas in Glenmore Forest Park could be improved to meet public concern over environmental degradation. Such improvement is likely to be far more important than the potential…
A significant row has developed in Glenmore, the most popular place for visitors in the Cairngorms, and various interests are now trying to stampede the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) into initiating measures to ban camping there. This post argues that primary responsibility for the problems in Glenmore lie with Forest and Land Scotland and…
On Thursday there was a debate in the Westminster Parliament about public access to nature brought by the Green MP, Caroline Lucas, and supported by the House of Common Business Committee. For anyone interested in access rights the Hansard report is well worth reading (see here). The debate started with Caroline Lucas making a powerful…
Six years ago, on 1st April 2017, Gordon Watson, the Chief Executive Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA), closed the slipway and tried to close the ranger base at Milarrochy without consultation and without any consideration by his board . When the Loch Lomond Association wrote to James Stuart, the Convener of the…
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…
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…
Last summer the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National ParK Authority (LLTNPA) advised those who had responded to its much delayed (see here) Outdoor Recreation Plan (ORP) tthat it had decideded to incorporate it into the next National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP) (see here). The draft NPPP is to be considered by the LLTNPA Board today, prior…
On Monday I went for a bike ride on the Dunachton Estate with Dave Morris, a friend and fellow access campaigner. We rode from near Kincraig over to the River Dulnain and came across a number of advisory access signs, some good some bad, but one in particular really caught our notice. A new moorland…
As we celebrate twenty years since the passing of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, and as someone who was involved in the process that led to the establishment of the statutory access rights contained in that Act, and its subsequent implementation, I would like to contribute my personal thoughts on the current discussion around…
The Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Parks are part of the UK family of national parks. The experience gained in any one of these national parks may therefore be of relevance to other parks within the family and more generally as regards the enjoyment, management and protection of land and water in the…