On the longest day, the Cairngorms National Park Authority initiated enforcement action against the Cluny Estate for the unlawful track up Carn Leth Choin at the head of Glen Banchor (see here). This is extremely welcome. In March the CNPA had written to me stating that they had been in discussions with the…
Tag: landed estates
On 27th April, the same day the above article appeared in the Strathie about felling at Curr Wood, on Speyside, SNH’s latest post on Scotland’s Nature popped into my inbox https://scotlandsnature.wordpress.com/2017/04/27/time-to-celebrate-bugs-in-the-cairngorms-national-park/. And guess what bug featured? One so rare that …………….it only occurs at a single location in the National Park, Curr Wood………….shome mistake surely!…
On Wednesday evening I went to have another look at the northern section of the access track which had been created for the construction of the Beauly Denny powerline and which was due to be restored last year (see here). Its situated on the east side of the A9 behind the tree shelter belt and…
The Cairngorms National Park Authority Board is meeting on Friday to discuss and approve its new Partnership Plan, the overarching Plan which guides what it will do over the next five years (see here for the 60 page plan and supporting documents). The LLTNPA’s announcement about this can be read (here). Its positive the Board…
The sale of the Tulchan Estate, which straddles the northern boundary of the Cairngorms National Park, was announced last week (see here). The estate, or rather Tulchan Sporting Estates Ltd which Leon Litchfield, the previous owner, set up as the vehicle to own it soon after he purchased the estate in 1993, was bought by…
Following my post questioning what the Cairngorms National Park Authority was doing about the unlawful hill track leading onto Carn Leth Choin in upper Glen Banchor, west of Newtonmore (see here), I wrote to the Cairngorms National Park Authority. On 8th March (I have been in Norway in-between) I received this response from Murray Ferguson:…
The LLTNPA is discouraging camping at designated sites. Following the implementation of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Management Zones on 1st March and the requirement to purchase a permit for the use of designated sites or risk a criminal conviction I revisited two sites to refresh my recollection of the environmental condition…
Following my post about the failure to restore the destruction caused by the Beauly Denny by the developer, Scottish and Southern Electric, I went last Monday to have a look at the section of the “temporary” construction track on the Drumochter Estate. Under the Beauly Denny planning application determined by the Scottish Government, all…
The Cairngorms National Park announced last week it has won a planning quality award for the extension of the Speyside Way from Aviemore to Kincraig (http://cairngorms.co.uk/planning-award-for-speyside-way-extension/): “The judges praised the Park Authority for its partnership working, community consultation and sheer determination over a decade to develop the best off road route to connect Aviemore…
Following my post on “How to protect wildlife in our national parks” I have been thinking about how the Cairngorms National Park could achieve its stated objected of landscape scale conservation on the Dinnet Estate where I walked in September. I have since used it to illustrate the connection between grouse moors and rural…
I was in Aberdeen on Tuesday night giving a talk to the North East Mountain Trust on “What is the Cairngorm National Park for?”. I have been a member for years, because of the excellent work they do and their magazine Mountain Views, which I regard as an essential source of information for anyone who…
I am up in the north-west Highlands for a week, staying near Gairloch, and yesterday walked into Beinn an Eoin from Loch Bad Scalaig. The first part of the track is through a native woodland scheme planted in 1998 and then leads on to the former bothy, Poca Buidhe, almost 12k in all. …
As readers will know, there are now several organisations trying to get the Cairngorms National Parks Authority to address the problems associated with grouse moors: destruction of habitats, destruction of the landscape, destruction of wildlife and destruction of the rural population. There have been several signs in the last couple of weeks that landowners…
A week ago, on the same day that the consultation on the new Park Partnership Plan closed, the Cairngorms National Park Authority approved the Cairngorm Glenmore Strategy (see here). This had been subject to public consultation earlier this year. All the detailed visitor management proposals which were in the consultation draft have been stripped…
The planning permission granted for the four Glen Falloch hydro schemes in 2010 agreed to some permanent new (short) tracks along the bottom of the glen to the powerhouses, some widening of existing tracks but stipulated that the tracks to the intake dams required for construction purposes were to be temporary. Once work was…
Following my post questioning the Cairngorms National Park Authority assertion that grouse moors bring much needed employment to the National Park see here, on Sunday I went for a walk round the western half of the Dinnet estate via the summit of Morven. My main intention was to look at the unlawful hill tracks…
Raptor Persecution Scotland picked up (see here) on a Cairngorms blog piece and article in the Strathspey and Badenoch Herald by Peter Argyle, Convener of the the Cairngorms National Park Authority. I believe Peter’s contribution is very welcome and its very refreshing that as Convener of the National Park he seems prepared to engage…
I have previously touched on elements of the Cairngorms National Park Authority draft Partnership Plan (e.g see here and here) and wanted to take a look at the Plan as a whole as it is supposed to provide the framework for what the National Park will do over the next five years. It’s therefore the…
I passed this fire last Sunday at the start of a walk round the Glen Kendrum horseshoe, near Lochearnhead. It was still burning when we came back 6 hours later. By chance, Ross MacBeath had just passed on to me an FOI response he had made to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park…
Peter Argyle, the convener of the Cairngorms National Park Authority, published a thoughtful blog piece on 19th August promoting the consultation on the new draft Park Partnership Plan and more specifically the need to work “partnership”. While I do not doubt Peter’s good intentions, the reality is that many landowners and some businesses in the…
The inclusion of a paper Agenda Item 9 – Reducing litter in the National Park for discussion at the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Board Meeing on Monday (13th June) is welcome. The paper makes a number of welcome statements, which are very relevant to the issues which have been raised on Parkswatchscotland by…
Raptor Persecution Scotland published a piece today about the BBC Countryfile programme at the weekend on the Invermark Estate and the recent history of persecution in the Angus glens. The list of crimes, most never “solved” or brought to justice is horrific. In the interests of accuracy though its worth stating the vast majority of…
Raptor Persecution Scotland has published information today about a goshawk criminally killed on a “sporting” estate in Donside, in the eastern part of the Cairngorms National Park, in April – the exact location has not been revealed. The comments rightly raise question about how such crimes are allowed to continue our National Parks and some suggestions…