This post considers Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL)’s second planning application at Cairn Gorm, to create new mountain bike trails in lower Coire Cas. The application (see here for planning papers), as I will explain, is as poorly documented and thought through as the first, which was to create two new roads on the mountain…
Tag: CNPA
On 25th February Forestry and Land Scotland and Forestry England issued a joint news release (see here) announcing that they had acquired the Camping and Caravanning Club (CCC)’s majority stake in Camping in the Forest (CITF) which manages three campsites in prime locations in Scotland’s National Parks: at Glenmore in the Cairngorms; Cashel on Loch…
The planning application for the Carn an Fhreiceadain radio mast Following my post in October on the proposal by the Pitmain Estate to erect a 6m high radio mast on the summit of Carn an Fhreiceadain, just outside the Cairngorms National Park boundary (see here), a number of people and organisations (including North East Mountain…
I had not intended to leave it two months before featuring another of Adam Watson’s photos (see here). He took this photo of the upper part of Coire Cas shortly before the Lurcher’s Gully Public Inquiry in 1981 at which he presented scientific evidence about the impact of ski developments at Cairn Gorm. Ten…
Two separate planning applications have been submitted on behalf of Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL) to create new roads and tracks at Cairn Gorm both of which are currently being considered by the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA). The first is for two new hill roads (see here for papers), the second is to develop…
Inchconnachan, the Loch Lomond island, has been in news recently because of the proposals to get rid of its wallabies. This is linked to the planning application (see here) that has been submitted by the new owners, Kirsty Young and her husband Nick Jones, to develop luxury tourist accommodation on the island, part of the…
On 15th April 2021 the Balavil estate submitted a prior notification (see here) to Highland Council to create 2.6km of new forestry “tracks” around Creagbui, 3km northwest of Kingussie and north of the A9. This is the seventh planning application/prior notification for new roads on Balavil in the last six years. The Cairngorms National Park…
Following my post on Fires, hypocrisy and access rights I was alerted that Highland Council, rather than fulfilling their statutory duty to uphold access rights, had themselves been putting up “No Fires” signs. These signs are contrary to the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC) which was approved by the Scottish Parliament: The meaning of “Wherever…
Background to the planning application A planning application (see here) has been submitted on behalf of the Pitmain Estate by Caledonian Building Surveyors Ltd for a new 4.83 “forest track” around the back of Newtonmore. This would would provide a direct road link between the single track public road up Glen Banchor and Pitmain Lodge…
Following my post Fires, hypocrisy and access rights in which I had described seeing a wall of fire as I crossed over Slochd into the Cairngorms National Park, a reader sent me a couple of photos they had taken the same day. The photo featured above is looking over to Slochd from the south: if…
[NB My apologies, I have corrected an error in the first version of this post and have used Assynt in the title, which I cannot change without destroying weblinks, when it should have said Coigach – see comment below] While staying near Ullapool last week I came across this sign, which was new to me,…
I was away up near Ullapool last week. Driving up the A9 the snow had helped pick out the muirburn in Glen Truim, north of the Drumochter and Dalwhinnie. Much of the hillside below the telecommunications mast, which is on land that appears to be owned by the North Drumochter Estate, would quickly regenerate as…
I have not so far blogged on the long-awaited (see here) masterplan for Cairn Gorm which Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) published last June (see here). Subtitled “Unlocking the potential of the Cairngorm Mountain Estate”, the masterplan is a vague and poorly drafted document: the operator, Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL) is to explore “options…
On 28th December Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL) issued this sledging policy on their website and a similar statement on their facebook page. It epitomises everything that is wrong with the current management Cairn Gorm and is unlawful. The statement appeared to have prompted by the bedlam at the patch of snow that has been…
[Update: since posting this I have been contacted by Seafield Estates who have informed me that “there are 20 sheep in Kinveachy, they have not been there long and we have already arranged for them to be gathered and returned to their rightful owner”. They also told me that “There are occasionally sheep in the…
Among the photos of Adam Watson there are a number of Ballochbuie, an important remnant of the Caledonian Pine Forest on the Royal Family’s estate at Balmoral which was overgrazed for years and has now been fenced to keep the deer out. I had not been intending to feature another of Adam’s photos so soon,…
It was Drennan Watson, long-time conservation activist in the Cairngorms, who first pointed out to me that when saplings emerge from tree shelters they are the perfect height for deer to nibble. But until yesterday I didn’t have any photos to demonstrate what happens. The tree tubes were a few kilometres beyond the neglected western…
Over three weeks after Storm Arwen, a message about storm damaged paths still runs across the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) website. Click on the link Current path closures and you are taken to two headings, “Temporary path closures” and “Current path closures.” This post takes a look at how the CNPA is ignoring the…
The Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA)’s consultation on their draft National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP) officially closes on Friday, apparently at 5pm. So far, I have only considered the draft plan from a climate and nature conservation perspective but will continue covering other aspects of the plan after the consultation closes. Before that, however, I…
In September it was widely reported (see here for example) that Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust (SLIPIT) had purchased 1,447 hectares of land in the Cairngorms National Park for £7.5m as part of its carbon strategy. This followed BrewDog’s purchase of Kinrara earlier in the year for similar purposes (see here) . This post…
In my recent post criticising the use of plastic tree tubes to plant woodland in the Cairngorms (see here), I argued that tree shelters wouldn’t be necessary if nature was not so out of kilter – primarily due to sporting land management. The addiction of the native woodland planting business to tree tubes, however, goes…
In Scotland it is often easy to tell whether land is protected for nature, it looks, sounds and feels like nature is doing well. Ben Dolphin explained this recently in a fine article for walkhighlands (see here) about why Scotland’s Nature National Reserves are a good place to walk. The challenge for both the Scottish…
One thing the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) needs to fix urgently in the new National Park Partnership Plan, which is currently out for consultation, is the plastic tree tube problem (see here). The case against using plastic in the countryside I had not driven along the A95 north of Grantown-on-Spey for a number of…
As a campaigner who is trying to change how Scotland’s two National Parks are managed, I am always pleased when posts are picked up by the mainstream media. I never expected my blog on the Royal Family and COP26 (see here) to end up on the front page of the Scottish edition of The Times…
A recent visit to the Cromdale Hills prompted some thoughts about the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA)’s policy approach to hill tracks, the use of All Terrain Vehicles and their impact on the natural environment. What the CNPA National Park Partnership plan says about hill tracks The draft National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP), which is…