Three weeks ago the Cairngorms National Park Authority decided to approve the retrospective planning application for a section of the unlawful Glen Banchor track. Its a positive thing that members of the CNPA planning Committee are so concerned about the proliferation of hill tracks – Dave Fallows was right to describe the Glen Banchor…
Tag: landed estates
Last week the Herald reported figures from Trip Advisor showing that a trip through Glen Coe and other unnamed parts of the Highlands was rated as THE top visitor attraction in Scotland. The central importance of landscape and cultural history to tourism, not to mention our own physical and mental well-being, is well researched. Despite…
Savill’s, acting on behalf of the Pitmain Estate, submitted in early June a retrospective Planning Application to Highland Council for the new unlawful track in Glen Banchor which I had featured last November and which I had reported to the Cairngorms National Park Authority. They had been forced to do this because the CNPA had,…
On April 26th 2018 the media (see here for example) reported a fire on the Glen Tanar Estate, Deeside, flames on a front 5km long and at a remote location. Nick Kempe contacted the Cairngorms Campaign, of which I am the Convener, about this and I agreed to visit the site and did so in…
On Sunday, hoping to have missed the worst of the thunderstorms, I set with my daughter for a two day round of the ring of Tarff as training for her first mountain marathon. I had not thought of checking the state of the Bruar hydro restoration (see here) and (here) and had planned to approach…
Mining and quarrying have formed two of the greatest challenges faced by National Parks in England Wales. This is because the upland areas there are rich in minerals and provide rock good for housebuilding and because most of the National Parks are situated in close to large urban conurbations. Our two National Parks in…
Nestled in the hills behind Newtonmore, Glen Banchor (pronounced Banachar and meaning the horn or bend in the river) is, like so many Highland glens, both beautiful and desolate, a part of that ‘wild land’ image that the Cairngorms National Park Authority and others like to promote as one of Scotland’s great assets. But Glen…
Following the disappearance of a sea eagle on the Invercauld Estate, Raptor Persecution Scotland provided some excellent coverage of the disappearance (see here) along with subsequent commentary. So far this has covered the welcome statement from Grant Moir, Chief Executive of the Cairngorms National Park Authority, condemning the disappearance (see here) and then a commentary…
I was struck by the contrast been this story in the Herald last week and the story the week before about the children from the east end of Glasgow who had never seen the sea (see here). While Kelvinside Academy has set up its own outdoor centre in what used to be the Allargue Arms…
Anyone passing through the Drumochter, even in snow, should be able to see the scars on the hillside between the summit of the pass and north Drumochter lodge but far fewer people are aware of the scars and failed restoration hidden behind the shelter belts on either side of this. Its taken me six months…
For the first time, in over two years of campaigning, I can report that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority has done the job it was set up to do and, by pursuing the access problems at the Drumlean estate all the way to the Court of Session, they have done everyone in…
Yesterday, on way up to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority meeting on the Cononish goldmine, I stopped off to take another look at the Derrydarroch hydro scheme in Glen Falloch – I had not been to the powerhouse area for over a year. I don’t recall seeing the top sign on the…
The consultation on the Cairngorms Main Issues Report (see here), the discussion document which precedes the new development plan, closes this Friday. The Scottish Government has mooted in the Planning Bill the abolition of such reports with Planning Authorities moving direct the draft plan stage in the name of efficiency. To their credit, the Cairngorms…
On Sunday, returning early after a short ski tour over the Cairnwell in a white out, we stopped at the Devil’s elbow, where I had the pleasure of reading an estate sign which used the National Access Forum’s recommended template and form of words as set out in their Guidance on Deer Stalking and Public…
The Scottish Government’s Planning Bill and the CNPA response In December, the Scottish Government published its Planning Bill and this is now going through Parliament and will be considered this month by the Local Government Committee. While in the Memorandum accompanying the Planning Bill the Scottish Government clearly states “The purpose of planning is to…
Further evidence of the political power of landowners in our National Parks was revealed yesterday when Kate Forbes, the SNH MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, held a reception for the Gift of Grouse http://www.giftofgrouse.com/ at the Scottish Parliament. This was preceded by an excellent post from Raptor Persecution Scotland (see here) lambasting the claims…
Prompted by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority’s refusal this week to provide me with a list of the research they have commissioned in the last five years, I have been checking the contracts they have awarded from the Scotland Contracts portal (see here). While this did not reveal much about what research…
Over the last year Parkswatch has featured a number of posts about the destruction of the landscape at Drumochter, including: the unrestored Beauly Denny construction track between Dalnaspidal and Drumochter (see here); the failure of Scottish and Southern Electric to restore the ground at Drumochter as required by the Beauly Denny planning consent from the…
I start with a belief that how the land in our National Parks is managed is central to what they do. Currently I have an appeal being investigated by the Scottish Information Commissioner about the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park’s refusal to provide me or to make public any information from the land management…
Last Saturday, I had a great day ski touring around and up A’Chailleach above Newtonmore. There were feet of snow at the back of A’Chailleach and its wonderful how it obliterated most of the usual signs of human impacts, instant re-wilding! We skied from the village, gliding over the fields by the wildcat trail which…
For the last 18 months parkswatchscotland has been highlighting the failures of both our National Parks to protect the landscape and more specifically to ensure that planning conditions are enforced. On Friday the Cairngorms National Park Planning Committee, on which all Board Members sit, approved a plan to address the issues. Its extremely welcome and…
The £500 fine for a man who mistakenly shot a buzzard on a pheasant shoot raises some interesting questions about shooting in our National Parks. The incident took place on the Ralia/North Drumochter estate – an estate in two parts – although its not clear which from the newspaper report. While I have seen evidence…
After my visit a few weeks ago to Glen Bruar and my post on the restoration work on the pipeline (see here), the Cairngorms National Park Authority indicated they had some further documentation about the restoration works and would place these on the planning portal. They did so a couple of weeks ago (see here)….
Following my post on the new and “upgraded” hill track in Glen Banchor (see here), the Cairngorms National Park Authority has informed Dave Morris and myself that they will fully investigate what has happened and feed back to us what action they can take. This is most welcome. I also reported to them that works…
Earlier this year, the owner of the Pitmain estate, who appears to be Abdul Majid Jafar, bought the Glen Banchor and Strone Estate behind Newtonmore. I say “appears” because the information on Pitmain Estate Ltd at Companies House fails to declare who has significant control over the company. While Abdul Majid Jafar resigned as a Director…