“NATIONAL Trust for Scotland to ‘ask people to pay towards wilderness upkeep’ for first time,” declared the headline in The Herald last month. You might be forgiven for thinking the NTS was going to start charging folk to climb hills on their properties and indeed, following that headline several journalists rang me to ask ask for my opinion. My opinion was simple. The headline was misleading. Under Scotland’s Land Reform legislation you can’t be asked to pay to climb a hill, or go for a walk and it wasn’t until I fully read the NTS press release that I discovered…

PERMITS, bans and byelaws, the words that will forever taint the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park, and indeed an SNP Government that many people, including myself, thought would take an intense pride in the access provisions of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, legislation that has become the envy of the world.   In an attempt to curb the activities of a minority who engage in anti-social behaviour on the loch-sides of our first National Park, it has been decided that a seasonal blanket ban on camping is the way forward, a ban on camping besides roads and lochsides…

It’s not camping byelaws that are needed on Loch Lomondside but a complete shake-up of the National Park management structure, says Cameron McNeish. LIKE many others I was hugely heartened when the delegates at the Scottish National Party autumn conference voiced their concern at the Government’s proposals for Land Reform. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon had promised a radical land reform agenda would be a key objective of the Scottish Government, but it would appear that civil servants had watered down the government’s proposals to such an extent they were barely recognisable. I sincerely hope, especially with the SNP’s political dominance…

CHARLES INGRAM lives in a makeshift campsite on the verge of the A9 near Bruar in Highland Perthshire. The 70-year old former garage owner has endured three winters here, first of all living in his Mercedes car before migrating into a family sized tent. In the past year his little camp has morphed into a permanent encampment with at least three tents pitched alongside the car. A sign on the car windscreen proclaims a message about bent cops murdering his mother and it’s clear Ingram has various issues with society but whatever the reasons for his decision to live on…