If you see a digger in the hills……………report it! On Friday, I went for a run up Geal Charn and went just beyond the summit because the views then open up down Loch Ericht. There was a digger a little way to the south on what used to be a stalkers path into the Fraoch…
Tag: CNPA
Arguably the most important item on the agenda of the Cairngorms National Park Authority Board Meeting on Friday (link to papers) was the Local Development Plan. The current five year plan was approved two and a half years ago but the consultation for the next one is due to start at the end of the…
After the extensive coverage parkswatch gave to the destruction caused by engineering works in Coire Cas last year (see here for example), at the end of August a small group of us went to have a look at how the restoration work was going. In my view while there have been some improvements, there is…
At the end of August, after a stravaig over the east Drumochter hills, I looped back to Dalwhinnie through the Drumochter pass, the idea being to combine enjoyment with a look at the effectiveness of the restoration of the land along the Beauly Denny. Just beyond Dalnaspidal and hidden behind the A9 shelterbelt, I came…
Highlands and Islands Enterprise appointed McGowan, an Aviemore contractor, to undertake the “clear-up” that is currently being undertaken at Cairngorm. This has involved removal of potentially re-usable lift infrastructure from Coire na Ciste and has ignored environmental standards (see here). HIE have now provided, as a result of FOI requests, information ITT Report – Redacted…
Trees for Life announced this week a new project to use old isolated Scots Pine to restore areas which were formerly covered in Caledonian Pine Forest. It brought to mind An Camas Mor…………… ………..where the isolated old pines now sit among regenerating forest. A great example of rewilding (see here) and of what Trees for Life…
o Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group recently had the bright idea of playing the political parties at their own game and commissioning Survation, who conduct weekly national polls, to ask what people in Scotland thought of the proposed development at An Camus Mor. For those who care about the future of our National Parks it…
Large developments are, I believe, fundamentally incompatible with the whole concept of National Parks, wherever they are located across the world. National Parks are places where the natural environment should come first, not second. That’s why I, like many people, object to the An Camas Mor development in principle. We should not be building…
Anyone who tries to understand human affairs from a global perspective will have probably greeted last week’s announcement that a poll of readers of the Rough Guides had found Scotland to be the most beautiful country in the world with a deep shrug. It is of course just a piece of marketing based on…
The work funded by HIE to remove the ski infrastructure from Coire na Ciste, using trucks, has progressed apace in the last week. The sheer amount of rubble pictured above provides evidence of the number of truck journeys that have been made up and down the mountain to the West Wall area without protective measures…
Like many people, I suspect, I have been waiting for months for another case of raptor persecution to occur in the Cairngorms National Park. For under the current grouse moor management regimes that dominate much of the National Park, its not a case of “if” but “when” another raptor will disappear. While its taken longer…
This letter in response to the current destruction of ski infrastructure in Coire na Ciste provides an excellent summary of how downhill skiing has been managed by HIE at Cairngorm. It raises much wider issues of what are National Parks are for. Also this week on BBC Highland there was a feature on HIE…
While the impact of windfarms on landscape make front page news – the latest being the predictable decision by the Courts to uphold the Scottish Government’s decision to give the go-ahead to the Creag Riabhach scheme in Sutherland (see here) – hydro schemes rarely receive any coverage at all. For a long time, most people…
On Monday I was up at Cairngorm on a pre-arranged visit to look at the Shieling Hill Track (about which more in due course) and did not go to the top of the hill. It was not difficult though to get photos illustrating the lies and hyprocrisy about what is going on at Cairngorm (see…
On Monday works started to remove the West Wall chairlift. These demonstrate yet again that both Natural Retreats and HIE are totally unfit to manage Cairngorm. This is not just because of the environmental damage they are causing, its because the works appear deliberately designed to frustrate any chance of alternative development in Coire Cas…
On Friday, to no-one’s surprise, the Cairngorms National Park Authority unanimously approved the revised planning application for An Camas Mor and in effect gave Johnnie Grant a further three years to meet planning requirements. Paradoxically, this new decision, I believe makes An Camas Mor less likely than ever to go ahead. This is mainly because…
Following my post yesterday (see here), I thought it worth considering further the measures the Cairngorms National Park Authority claims will “mitigate” the impacts of the proposed An Camas Mor development and the implications for access on Speyside for both residents and visitors. It is now obvious from discussion with outdoor recreation interests, that any…
On Friday the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee will consider a revised planning application for An Camus Mor (see here), the proposed new town across the Spey from Aviemore. (Click here for link to the Park’s planning portal and all 236 documents associated with the application). The main change proposed by the the application is to…
Dear Cairngorms National Park Authority, I had come over Carn na Drochaide and Carn Liath – crossing the track which runs up the fairy glen it is true – to be faced with the track which runs up to and across the Bealach Dearg, high under the western face of Culardoch. Besides the grouse, it…
Dear Cairngorms National Park Authority, Loch Builg and the eastern flanks of Ben Avon are remote country for those arriving on foot, three hours or so from a public road. Despite the network of estate tracks I was surprised to see this trap, at the end of the track above Loch Builg ,and on the…
The Corriemulzie community hydro scheme http://braemarhydro.org.uk/scheme/, just west of Braemar on the road to Linn of Dee, provides an interesting case of how developments can go badly wrong despite the best intentions of the main players. I first visited this scheme, which became operational last summer, in September 2016 and was horrified by what I…
Following my posts on the Ledcharrie (see here), Coilessan (see here) Glen Clova and Glen Prosen (see here) and (see here) hill tracks I contacted the heads of planning in both National Park Authorities to find out what they were doing about this. The responses could not have been more different. The Loch Lomond and…
Over the last fifteen months Parkswatch has highlighted the lack of maintenance and rubbish at Cairngorm, one of the worst examples being the dump at the former Fiacaill T-Bar. This was originally justified as a temporary holding area for old fence posts which were supposed to be removed in the winter season but never were. …
During a round of the Glen Prosen watershed 10 days ago, I came across a bulldozed track on the plateau at the head of the Glen which appears to be just inside the boundary of the Glen Isla Estate and therefore created by that estate. The lack of vegetation on the surface – on what…
Glen Clova Hydro Construction Track A week before taking action against the Cluny Estate track (see here) the Cairngorms National Park Authority issued a planning contravention notice against the owners of the Glen Clova estate for failing to remove the temporary hydro construction track behind the hotel. This is another very significant action from…