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…
Tag: landed estates
I have been meaning to write about the Altan native woodland scheme, just to the south west of Loch Glascarnoch, since I through it in 2018 and 2021. Many hillwalkers will have used the track through the scheme which provides the quickest access to the eastern end of the Fannichs and the Corbett, Beinn Liath…
This is the first in a series of posts which looks at what forestry grants to large landowners to plant trees has done for native woodland in Scotland based mainly on the evidence I have seen on the ground over the last few years. It provides lessons for our National Parks, not least because of…
In Scotland we need to restore our native woodland cover. The Government agrees and wants to see 18,000 ha of new woodland created per annum, primarily through native woodland expansion. Not especially ambitious for an emergency, but perhaps overly ambitious for our antiquated grant system which has, except for the year 2023/24, delivered less than…
[NB this post was revised at 15.30 on 15th mainly to clarify/expand on some points] The Caledonian Pinewood remnant at Coille Coire Chuilc (CCC), on the edge of Cononish Glen near Tyndrum, was first protected in 1949 as part of the Ben Lui National Nature Reserve and then designated as a separate Site of…
I visited Coille Coire Chuilc (CCC), the second most southerly Caledonian Pinewood in Scotland near Tyndrum and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), on Tuesday. The main purpose of the visit was to look at the state of the pinewood with two other people but also wanted to check whether the unlawful access sign…
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…
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…
On 20th September I wrote about the sign above in a post on Scotland’s free trade in land & its consequences – Coille Coire Chuilc and Auchreoch. I reported the sign that same evening to the Access Team at the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) copying in Ramblers Scotland and the access…
[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…
A few weeks ago a reader alerted me that there were new unlawful access signs on the Auchreoch Estate, which changed ownership in January 2025, and that they had seen sheep grazing in the Coille Coire Chuilc. Two land-management failures in one! Unfortunately the reader sent no photos – if you see bad stuff, please…
On 24th June the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) launched an “informal” consultation on its initial proposals to amend the core path plan it agreed ten years ago, in 2015 (see here). The consultation, which closes on 31st August, consists (see here) of an interactive map, showing existing core paths with proposed additions and removals, and…
In December abrdn told the Scotsman that they had made mistakes with their carbon offsetting tree planting scheme at Far Ralia, the land they had bought for £6.5m in 2021 and are now trying to sell. While admitting these mistakes included “basic things around designing woodlands and certain processes” they did not explain what they…
The Report of the Deer Working Group “The Management of Wild Deer in Scotland” published over five years ago was very clear that the use of muirburn to improve grazing for deer was very damaging and the Scottish Government should stop supporting it financially and only allow it in exceptional circumstances: The Scottish Government…
Over the last six weeks or so I have written several posts about how Scotland is being burned to bits by land-managers, many of whom carry on with muirburn whatever the fire risk. The muirburn provisions of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act were intended by the Scottish Parliament to change that for the…
On 18th April landowners and land management interests launched a concerted campaign claiming that rather than muirburn being a significant cause of wildfire it was a means of preventing it (see here for BBC coverage). In response I was pleased to have this letter published in the Herald and then when Nan Spowart took up…
The Tinto Hills Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) (see here) was not the only protected area to be destroyed by muirburn during the periods of high fire risk this Spring. The muirburn triggered wild fire considered in this post took place in the glen running north from Glenballoch in Glen Banchor which has previously…
Since my post on how muirburn is responsible for a significant number of wildfires (see here) I have been contacted by a number of readers who have provided further information and photographs including what happened on the Tinto Hills SSSI (formerly a Site of Special Scientific Interest but now, in one reader’s words, “a site…
I was provided with this incredible photo through a friend who had been Knoydart 2 weeks ago and, for four days between 2nd and 5th April, had watched a fire on Morar to the south. An alert was raised for Knoydart and the community started to muster and prepare a response. It was not long…
Its not just grouse moor managers in eastern Scotland who have been ignoring the warnings from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) of very high fire risk (see here) and (here) but also some farmers/crofters and stalking estates on the west. Richard, who sent this photo, commented that it looked like the firea bove got…
On 1st April the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) issued a “Very High to Extreme” warning for the period 2nd till 7th April (see here). It advised the public “to avoid lighting fires outdoors across all areas of Scotland during this period.” The NASA global wildfire data base (see here) enables one to check…
Had the muirburn provisions of the the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 (“the Act”) passed a year ago come into force such fires at hat pictured above would be now illegal. Clause 20 of the new Act shifted the current muirburn season, which dates back to the Heather Burning (Scotland) Act 1926, from…
On 27th February I was sent this photo of muirburn on King Charles’ estate of Delnadamph, which has no deer and is managed intensively for grouse shooting (see here). The reader commented it was very windy that day, as is evident from the near horizontal plume of smoke. That was confirmed by the forecast for…
Hogmanay was forecast to be a wet day and Strathspey was flooded so I thought I would take a look at the River Gynack overflow, which had been reconstructed after being almost washed away in 2017 (see here), to see if it was operational and, if so, how the revised design was working. My estimate…
I had always intended to include the Royal Sporting Estate at Balmoral in my series on Deer Density in the Cairngorms (see here) after a walk round the upper part of Glen Muick in May. However, I followed that up with a further Freedom of Information request on current deer numbers at Caenlochan (see here). …