The visitor centre at Beinn Eighe, Britain’s oldest National Nature Reserve (NNR) has added to previous accolades by taking a gold standard in the Green Tourism Business Scheme.
The centre in Kinlochewe is managed by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and has attained silver awards for several years after annual assessments of how the visitor facilities perform as a sustainable tourism operation.
Alison Rowe of SNH confirmed: “We are delighted to achieve this gold award as we continuously look at ways of minimising energy use and our impacts on the environment. Many of the measures are simple, such as switching over to low-energy light bulbs.”
And Sheila Currie, SNH’s greening officer, added: “Promoting excellent green practices is part of what SNH does and the visitor centres at our national nature reserves are no exception. The renowned Beinn Eighe visitor centre joins the four other SNH visitor centres to achieve a gold award from the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) which recognises the sustainable and environmentally-friendly way we run our centres. We have seven visitor centres in the scheme, of which five have gold and two silver.”
The visitor centre has been running since 1974 and has just closed for the winter, having seen more than 10,000 visitors through its doors this summer.
The Beinn Eighe mountain trail woodland trail and talking trail are open to visitors the year round allowing people to experience Britain’s first reserve.
Plans are being made to upgrade some of the visitor information and displays over the next few years, maintaining the reserve’s status as a key visitor attraction in Wester Ross. Mountain routes on Beinn Eighe can be found on Walkhighlands.