Yearly Archives: 2011

Hill Tracks consultation published

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Helen Webster

The Scottish Government has published the consultation on proposals to change Permitted Development Rights for the construction of Hill Tracks. At the moment most hill tracks are constructed without the need for planning permission as they are deemed to be Permitted Development. This consultation is in response to a campaign to change the Permitted Development Rights (PDR) which resulted in a parliamentary debate in June last year. The consultation document stops well short of proposing removing PDR for this sort of development totally or from specified designated areas which was recommended in research carried out by Herriot Watt University. The…

Posted in Access issues, News

Hollywood film to showcase Highlands

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Helen Webster

Friday sees the release of The Eagle, a new feature film, partly filmed on location in the Highlands and featuring many locals as extras. The Eagle will be released on 25 March although locals in Achiltibuie are to be treated to a special screening in a mobile cinema. The film stars up and coming Hollywood beefcake Channing Tatum as well as acting legend Donald Sutherland and Jamie Bell. As well as Achiltibuie, filming took place in Argyll, Stirling and Loch Lomond. The film, directed by Glasgow-born Kevin MacDonald, is based on Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical adventure novel The Eagle of the…

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Off-shore wind farms refused

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Helen Webster

Three windfarms proposed to be sited close to the shores of Kintyre, in the Solway Firth and Wigtown Bay have been refused planning permission by the Scottish government. A further six were given the green light and can now apply for individual planning permission and the developer withdrew a 10th application. The Scottish Government has responsibility for planning within 12 miles of the coast with the UK government handling anything further out. Responding to the appliactions, an economic assessment by the Scottish government found that the tourism sector would face the biggest losses because of the turbines’ visual impact. The…

Posted in Nature

Search finds climber's body

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Helen Webster

Rescuers searching for a climber in the Angus Glens recovered a body early Saturday morning (19 March). The joint search between Mountain Rescue and an RAF helicopter was called out on Friday night when the 69 year old Dundee man failed to return from a climbing trip. The body was recovered from Corrie Fee in Glen Doll at the head of Glen Clova and rescuers believe the man may have been caught up in an avalanche. Tayside Police said the man was a very experienced mountaineer and fully equipped for the conditions. UPDATE: The dead man has now been formally…

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Date set for Hill Tracks consultation

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Helen Webster

The Scottish Government have finally set a date for publishing the consultation on plans to limit Permitted Development Rights for the construction of Hill Tracks. The Scottish Parliament will be disolved on Tuesday 22 March prior to the elections. The Hill Tracks Campaign believes the Government plans to publish the consultation paper on that final day. Peter Peacock, one of the MSP’s behind the Campaign says that this last minute action by the Government is, “in no small part thanks to the strength of the campaign and in particular the work done by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (along with…

Posted in Access issues, Nature

Tyndrum gold mine appeal submitted

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Helen Webster

The company behind plans to mine gold at Cononish near Tyndrum have submitted an appeal against the refusal of planning permission for the scheme by the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority. The application by Scotgold Resources Ltd to drill for gold at the abandoned Cononish gold mine was turned down last August. Since then Scotgold has had several meetings with officers from the National Park to address the concerns that led to the planning refusal and the developer says that it intends to submit a new planning application for the same site in due course, but that…

Posted in Access issues, Nature

Kilt Rock hosts first BASE jump

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Helen Webster

Following hard on his success at Sron Ulladale, skydiver and BASE jumper, Simon Brentford recently undertook the first ever BASE jump from the Kilt Rock on the Isle of Skye. The Kilt Rock is a famous tourist attraction near Staffin on the Trotternish penisula on Skye. The 180 foot high cliff is composed of massive basalt columns which give the whole cliff a pleated look resulting in its name. The shore below is rocky and as the film by Adam Bibby shows, there is little time for Simon to manoeuvere himself before reaching the ground. Only the day before Simon…

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Want to help carry a car up Ben Nevis?

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Helen Webster

The John Muir Trust, the UK’s leading wild land charity, has reached an agreement with the organisers of a major car rally in Lochaber that will see a Model T Ford go to the top of Ben Nevis. The car, which has already been prepared by Model T Ford enthusiast Neil Tuckett, will be dismantled at Achintee, near Fort William, and assembled on the summit of the Ben. The planned date for the carry is Wednesday 18 May, part of a week-long rally being organised by Iain Blyth for the Model T Register of Great Britain. Local company No Fuss…

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Birth of a nature reserve, death of an aircrew

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Helen Webster

A poignant memorial service took place yesterday (Monday 14 March) amid some of Scotland’s wildest mountains to commemorate an RAF aircrew killed in a training accident in 1951. The tragedy took place just as the mountain, Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross, came to be Britain’s first national nature reserve. It happened in the early hours of 14 March 1951 when a Lancaster bomber from RAF Kinloss crashed near the summit of Beinn Eighe, killing all eight crew members. The wreckage came to land in what is still known today as “Fuselage Gully” and due to the harsh conditions it took…

Posted in Nature, News

Beaver Spring celebration planned

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Helen Webster

A celebration of beavers in spring-time will take place in Scotland this weekend (19 – 20 March), as part of the first multinational beaver festival ever to be held across Europe. The Scottish Beaver Trial, the project undertaking the first trial reintroduction of beavers to Scotland, plans to run free events at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Museum and in Knapdale Forest, the trial area in mid-Argyll which is currently the home of 12 beavers, including two breeding families which are bringing up young kits born last spring. Rallied by Frenchman, Samuel Dubie, a beaver conservationist, organisers in other European countries, including France,…

Posted in Nature