Just over a year ago the Cairngorms National Park Authority approved a planning application (see here for papers) to build “family friendly” mountain bike tracks in Coire Cas at Cairn Gorm. Two magic carpets, to be used as uplift, were constructed just before the start of the winter (see here). The construction of the main…
Tag: HIE
My post on The bus service and parking capacity at Cairn Gorm (published on Saturday 22 April 2023) received a number of comments on parkswatch and on the Save the Ciste facebook page. Parkswatch is indebted to those who took the time to point out the difficulties and costs associated with the provision of a…
The snowsports season on Cairn Gorm came to an end on Sunday 16 April 2023. It wasn’t the best or worst of seasons, although the available parking capacity was exceeded on a number of occasions, particularly at mid-term in February. During the course of the mid-term holiday in February, CairnGorm Mountain Scotland Ltd found it…
This post is a critical analysis of the latest report into the impact of snowsports commissioned by the Scottish Government which was quietly published in January (see here). The report contains some major flaws/ inaccuracies which need to be addressed and has implications for all of Scotland’s ski centres, including the three in the Cairngorms…
I have always been sceptical about Highland and Island Enterprise (HIE)’s funicular court cases going ahead because of what further it might reveal about their incompetence. But those court cases (see here) may be the price the Scottish Government has exacted for picking up the cost (c£26m?) of the funicular repairs There was an interesting…
My last post (see here), on the facilities available for snowsports enthusiasts parking in Coire na Ciste, failed to highlight the deterioration in bus services to Cairn Gorm, as a couple of readers pointed out afterwards. I hope this post will help make up for that. The current situation In June 2021 Highlands and Islands…
With the funicular re-opened, the natural advantage that Cairngorm Mountain has over Scotland’s other downhill snowsports areas due to its altitude has been very apparent this week. While the other resorts have no snow, the beginner slopes in the Ptarmigan bowl are stlll in good condition. Over 1000ft below, Cairngorm Mountain’s unnatural advantages over other…
This post has been informed by comments made on my series of six posts on “Will the repairs to the funicular work” and discussion with people with a far greater knowledge of construction and civil engineering than me. When I commented on this picture in my second post on the funicular court cases (see here)…
Yesterday, Highlands and Islands Enterprise announced (see here), earlier than anticipated, that the funicular would start operating on today (26th January) after the Department of Transport had provided authorisation under the Cableway Installation Regulations 2018 for it to re-open. While this should at last provide a reasonably reliable means of access to the upper lifts…
Following Graham Garfoot’s post yesterday on the funicular court cases (see here), a reader who had taken this photo taken from the Ridge Poma in the morning was inspired to annotate it: “the recent thaw really showed up the shortcomings of the funicular”. Brilliant! More such annotated photos from readers, on any aspect of development…
In Part 1 of this post (see here) I suggested there are at least two other major parties who should have been included in Highland and Island Enterprise (HIE)’s funicular court cases if these are intended as serious attempts to recover public money rather than an attempt to deflection attention away from HIE’s own sorry role…
After the funicular on Cairn Gorm broke down and subsequent posts on Parkswatch, there were many calling for a judge lead inquiry into the causes of the failure of the business CairnGorm Mountain Ltd and the funicular railway. HIE have continually resisted this but are currently, and have for some time, themselves been taking legal…
The lower pistes at Cairn Gorm, together with the Sunkid rope tow and the Carpark T-Bar uptrack have all been rendered unusable after just a couple of days of moderate thawing. The “Cairngorm Mountain Full Business Case” (see here), as prepared by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), has the following under Strategic Context: ‘’Cairn Gorm…
Cairn Gorm, alone amongst the five main outdoor snowsports areas in Scotland doesn’t have any chairlifts. Following on from Graham Garfoot’s post on Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and the mismanagement of snow sports at Cairn Gorm (see here), the SE Group report , commissioned at a cost of circa £120k, identified the fact that chairlifts…
In my post about how Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL) have “all the gear, no idea” (see here), I mentioned that as far as I know there is only one person in Scotland with the necessary qualifications to operate a ski resort. I then decided to have a look…
Cairngorm Mountain opened for snowsports on Saturday 17 December 2022 with uplift being provided by the two new magic carpets adjacent to the Daylodge. Ticket sales were rightfully limited to just 150 due the constrained size of the beginner area. This beginner area is served by snow from the Snowfactory which is topped up by…
After Alan Brattey’s expose of how the management at Cairngorm Mountain were failing to take advantage of the cold and snowy conditions (see here), it appears someone kicked ass. The following day, Susan Smith, their Chief Executive and Colin Matthews, their head of operations, appeared on a video (see here) announcing Cairngorm Mountain would open…
What’s going on? In 2018 after the funicular failed and Cairngorm Mountain Ltd ceased trading, Highlands and Island Enterprise (HIE) stepped in and set up Cairngorm Mountain [Scotland] Ltd (CMSL) with a share Capital of £100. In an effort to keep the snowsports business going, HIE quickly purchased a TechnoAlpin SnowFactory and eight TechnoAlpin TR8…
The work being undertaken to construct the lower of the two magic carpets bears no resemblance to that which was approved by the Cairngorm National Park Authority (CNPA) in May. First, there is the width of the construction corridor. While the width of the magic carpet was referred in in the planning application – 60cm…
I was up in Speyside mid-week and took the opportunity to take a look at the car parks on Cairn Gorm. The weather was terrible, 98 mph gusts apparently on the summit of Cairn Gorm and lashing rain. It was one of those days when car doors can be ripped off their hinges so my…
A large proportion of my campaigning to improve Scotland’s National Parks takes place behind the scenes and doesn’t appear on parkswatch, partly due to the time involved but also because there are limits to what blogging can achieve. Other media is very important which is why I am so appreciative of the Strathy, an excellent…
On the 11th November the Strathy published an interview with Susan Smith, Chief Executive of Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL) (see here) Highland and Island Enterprise’s subsidiary that manages Cairn Gorm. This week they published an excellent response from Alan Brattey, sometime contributor to parkswatch (see above). This post picks up on some of the…
[NB a postscript has been added to the post to take account of response from CNPA planners] In the last couple of weeks parkswatch has been sent several photos of works at Cairngorms by readers. Initially I thought this photo showed construction work on the magic carpet which Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) announced had…
It is more than apparent that HIE will never allow the dysfunctional monstrosity of a funicular, so abhorred by snow sports enthusiasts and environmentalists, to be dismantled, especially after the huge repair bill funded by the Scottish Government, unless something goes so catastrophically wrong that they have no choice. But there is another option, just…
What a fantastic day! Snow, lots of it and in perfect condition, weather fantastic, but the customer service left a lot to be desired, including a train that didn’t start running until after 09.30! In January 2020 I wrote a post outlining a plan for snowsports at Cairn Gorm (see here). Since then some things…