Our National Park Authorities are unique among Scotland non-department public bodies (NDPDs) in that their boards are not wholly appointed by Scottish Ministers but some members are directly elected and others appointed by local authorities. That three-way division of power in theory makes Scotland’s two National Park Authorities accountable not just to the Scottish Government…
Tag: CNPA
On 19th March I wrote to both Scottish Forestry and the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) about the locked gates (see here) in the deer fencing around the Balavil Estate’s Creag Bhalg woodland creation scheme. I had asked Scottish Forestry for a copy of their contract with Balavil, which I received yesterday, and requested they withhold…
Last week the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) issued a news release (see here) which started with the following statement: “Members of the Public are being advised not to use the following paths into Abernethy Forest from Glenmore and Nethy Bridge during early mornings (before 8.30am) over the next few weeks to avoid disturbing breeding capercaillie: Ryvoan…
Having burned late into the autumn last year, NASA Firms data base (see here) shows Scotland’s grouse moor owners and managers started burning again at the start of March. At the end of this last week the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) issued their first very high fire risk warning (see here) of the…
The woodland visible around the top of Creag Bheag was funded under the Woodland Grant Scheme 3 in 1999. Twenty years later the Balavil Estate engaged Trees for Life Woodland Services to design a new area of native woodland on the estate, around Creag Bhalg. This is about 3 km north east of Kingussie, was…
My most recent post on Abrdn’s mismanagement of the Far Ralia estate for carbon offsetting purposes (see here) included this photograph of a new stock fence erected alongside an old deer fence and across this gate making it unusable. I then notified the responsible manager at Abrdn, who was not aware the gate had been…
Last week Severin Carrell in the Guardian revealed that BrewDog had sold their “Lost Forest”, the Kinrara Estate, to Oxygen Conservation for £8.85m, £350k much more than the £8.5m they had paid for it five years previously (see here). This post considers some of the issues this raises including: why BrewDog sold the land for…
On 1st April 2022 a new Land Register, the Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land (RCI), was created under The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016. Its intention was to cut through all the off-shore companies, trusts etc, which are often used to own and manage land, and enable the “real” owners and…
[This post was updated and corrected 6th March – see post on apologies to Sandy Bremner 6th March] The Scottish Government’s budget for 2026/27 included significant cuts for both the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) and the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) (see here for budget documents). Over the course of two…
The CairnGorm Mountain [Scotland] Ltd [CMSL] accounts for the year ending 31 March 2025 were published in November 2025 (see here). They showed that the business recorded an operating loss of £2,833,280 for that financial year. That’s the day-to-day operating loss and nothing to do with the Capital Expenditures associated with the Funicular Repairs or…
The BBC Scotland Outdoors radio programme broadcast from Cairn Gorm on 17th January (see here) included a piece on the montane planting project in Coire na Ciste. You would not know from listening to it on BBC sounds (here between 48-54 minutes) that there had been any controversy about the project, both because the Caledonian…
The Public Audit Committee inquiry into the funicular and the latest accounts for Cairngorm Mountain
Last Monday, 17th November, the accounts for Highland and Island Enterprise (HIE)’s subsidiary which operates Cairngorm Mountain were published on Companies House (see here). The next day the Scottish Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is currently investigating the funicular railway, met local stakeholders at a round table session in Aviemore. Parkswatch campaigners have checked…
One wonders how much further the price of the Abrdn Property Income Trust (APIT) will drop from the current asking price of offers over £6.9m once prospective buyers become aware sheep are grazing among the newly created native woodland plantation at Far Ralia (see here)? As Drennan Watson has observed, once planted trees start to…
In response to my blog post of 10th October (see here) on ‘The near total destruction of a Twinflower population at Creag Bheithe Bheag in the Cairngorms National Park. What went wrong, and what lessons might be learnt for the future?’ I received replies from the CEO of the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA), Scottish Forestry (SF)…
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…
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…