Yesterday saw teams of pall-bearers carrying a coffin over the hills into the Monadhliath to symbolise the loss of Scotland’s wild places to wind farm developments.
The protest – led by outdoors blogger Alan Sloman – saw the coffin rowed across Loch Farraline south of Loch Ness whilst a fiddler played a lament. The coffin was then carried over the moors by a group of around 40 before heading down to pass Dunmaglass Lodge on the estate owned by millionaire Jack Hayward, who has already received planning consent for a windfarm on the northern parts of the Monadhliath hill range. There the protest was met by police before the coffin was carried on up onto the high wild moors where the windfarm – one of 5 new sites planned for this range – will be built.
Alan Sloman said “This protest around the Monadhliath is a microcosm of what is happening across Scotland… There are going to be three times as many turbines as are planned already, and once the wild land is lost it can never be recovered. This is a massive industrialisation of the Highlands. I think it is already too late – which is why this protest is a Wake for the Wild.” There were readings by both a Reverend and a Humanist Celebrant before a toast was drunk as a wake to the loss of the wild places.
According to Scottish Natural Heritage, Scotland lost a quarter of its remaining wild land between 2002 and 2008.
