A couple of days after going to look at the botched Beauly Denny construction road restoration (see here) while walking north of Carrbridge, I came across a more recent example of SSE’s work to upgrade Scotland’s network of powerlines. Another landscape horror. In 2018, while visiting the Auchtertipper native woodland creation scheme on the Reforesting…
Tag: CNPA
I really value the comments readers make on parkswatch posts and this week there has been an interesting debate on sheep. The first reader, rightly pointed out that it is not just deer but also sheep that prevent woodland regenerating naturally. The second comment, from Tom Colville, is worth quoting in full: “The reason we…
I am not a good enough botanist to tell whether this is a Sitka or Norwegian spruce but it tells a tale. I spotted it during a stravaig round the Mar Lodge estate in what is still, despite global warming, a very challenging environment for trees. While the sapling had been browsed – two nibbled…
As the UK Government and possibly the British state continues to unravel, today is local member election day for the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA). Back in May, when I wrote a series of blogs on democracy in the National Park (see here, here and here), I had hoped the parkswatch could play…
Last month it was reported that Brewdog had been awarded over £1m in grants by Scottish Forestry Scotland as part of its Lost Forest project at Kinrara. The Scottish Forestry website is very hard to use – searches for Brewdog, Kinrara and on its land based database all come up blank – and I have…
Just two months after Forestry England (FE) and Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) bought back the Camping in The Forest (CiCF) business from the Camping and Caravanning Club (see here), all 16 campsites are all being outsourced again. FLS is currently advertising 15 year leases, through a company called CDLH, for Cobleland in the Trossachs,…
Following my post in March about Highland and Island Enterprise (HIE)’s proposal to build mountain bike tracks at Cairngorm (see here), parkswatch has not considered the matter further. Meantime the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) considered and approved the application (see here) at the end of May. I did not watch the planning committee meeting and…
I had been wanting to take a look at SSE’s “trial restoration areas” for the Beauly Denny powerline at Drumochter for several years and eventually managed to do so on Friday. Unlike the landscape scar immediately south of Balsporran Cottages and north Drumochter Lodge (see here), which is clearly visible as one travels through the…
When I stumbled across an unburied hydro pipeline in the Lakes recently (see here) it got me thinking about whether it might not be far less destructive and better for the landscape and natural environment if we left hydro pipelines above the ground. I could not help comparing that scheme in the Lakes to what…
[After publishing this post I was sent a couple of photos by Dave Morris, who had just spent a night in a campervan parked next door to a beaver lodge and the habitat they had created. Duncan Halley, a Scot resident in Norway helped facilitate the translocation of beavers for the Knapdale re-introduction]. At their…
A day after the initial consultation (see here) about creating a new National Park in Scotland closed, there was a Scottish Government sponsored debate in the Scottish Parliament on the issue, introduced by the responsible junior Minister, Green MSP Lorna Slater. (You can view the proceeedings here or read the official report here). While there…
When you see bizarre claims on a sign once they are easy to dismiss as the product of a landowner’s fevered mind. This, however, is the second sign I have come across in the last year that claims “red culls” are carried out “By Order of the Scottish Government”. (Apologies I cannot recall the location…
[Apologies, I made an error in my explanation of the law below and have updated this post. A full understanding of Board membership requires interpretation of the 2000 Parks Act, which is less than clear in this area, and incorporation of the separate designation orders and modification orders for the two Parks] Under the National…
I have spent several days in the last couple of years in and around the Phoines Estate and, while not blogging about the estate itself, have included photos of way they manage the land in posts about muirburn madness (see here) and the politics of muirburn in the National Park (showing the state of the…
On Thursday, the Scottish Government’s Biodiversity Minister, the Green MSP Lorna Slater, who also has responsibility for National Parks, launched a consultation (see here for news release) on creating a third National Park in Scotland. It is to credit of the Greens that they have forced the Scottish Government to reverse their longstanding opposition to…
I have not blogged about the destruction caused by the Beauly Denny powerline construction since last July (see here). But each time I cross the Drumochter the scars left by SSE (formerly Scottish and Southern Electricity) appear just as bad and I have been meaning to go back and take a closer look at how…
Following the end of the 2021/22 Snowsports season, Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL), the company owned and controlled by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, has reimposed mandatory parking charges for the Coire Cas car park. The only difference from before being that the charge has been increased by no less than 50%. Customers’ reaction can be…
Who can stand? Following my post Democracy and voting systems – the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park local member elections I was pleased to see earlier this week that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) amended the erroneous information they had posted on their website which suggested only local residents could…
Following the online protest organised by the Grampian Moorland Group against the National Park Partnership Plan (see here), Scotland’s “Regional Moorland Groups” have been putting a glossy leaflet through the door of every household in the Cairngorms National Park. The Moorland Groups are shadowy organisations (see here) that do not declare their membership so it…
It’s a while since I posted one of Adam Watson’s photos, contrasting then with now (see here), but I was reminded of this photo when starting out up Glen Ey late Friday afternoon. (It has featured on parkswatch before in a post by George Allan about the LINK hill tracks campaign (see here)). What you…
Today the Grampian Moorland Group have been mounting an online protest (see here) against the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA)’s proposals to reduce the numbers of red deer in the National Park from around 11 to 5- 8 per square kilometre. The protest is backed by the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) (see here) and Scottish…
On Tuesday NatureScot launched its new corporate plan 2022-26 (see here) under the guise of what it described as “an ambitious new plan for nature” (see here). The 16 page document commits NatureScot to delivering the Scottish Government’s recently adopted targets that 30% of Scotland’s lands and seas should be protected by 2030 and 10%…
I am just back from a week ski touring in the Dolomites, a holiday delayed for two years because of Covid. I was last in the area four and a half years ago, after which I wrote a number of posts comparing land and tourism management in the Dolomites, which was declared a World Heritage…
Ten days ago I went to have a look at the (larger) part of the Ralia estate that has been bought by Standard Life but first had to pass through the part of the prorperty that borders the A9 and has been retained by the previous owners. I had been there several times in the…
On Sunday I was on Speyside, had 40 minutes to spare and decided to go for a run from the outflow of Loch Morlich to have a look at the work that is being done in the McAlpine plantation by Forest and Land Scotland (FLS) as part of Cairngorms Connect: Not far along the track…