After a successful public appeal for sightings of hen harriers over the spring and summer, with over 100 reports recorded, the Heads Up for Harriers group is asking walkers to help once again this winter. The hen harrier is one of Britain’s rarest birds of prey, with most harriers found in Scotland. To help safeguard the species, a number of organisations are working together on conservation projects to promote summer breeding success, under the Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime Scotland (PAW Scotland). But there is little known about where the birds go in the winter months and of the…

Vital repair work has begun this week on the Ben Nevis mountain path and walkers are being advised to consider alternative routes whilst the work is ongoing. The project will stabilise and improve over half the total length of the track between Achintee and St. John’s Wall as part of a £1m project lead by Nevis Landscape Partnership and funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, Scottish Natural Heritage and Highlands & Islands Enterprise. In total the work will take three years to complete, with this year’s contracts running from now until March 2016 to avoid the mountain’s extremely busy spring/summer period.…

Mountaineers and wild land campaigners are delighted to hear that a threat to build a wind farm on the edges of Rannoch Moor has been thrown out. The application to build the Talladh-a-bheithe wind farm, which would have seen 24 giant wind turbines, together with bulldozed access tracks, buildings and infrastructure, on an area of raised moorland between Loch Rannoch and Loch Ericht, has been ruled ‘not competent’ by Scottish Ministers. A letter issued by the Scottish Government’s Energy and Climate Change Directorate noted that the application was received on 23 June 2014, but that the applicant, Talladh-A-Bheithe Wind Farm…

The Highland Council has been strongly urged to reject a bid by Culachy Estate to overturn planning conditions on a section of the controversial Beauly-Denny power line. The estate, near Fort Augustus, has sought permission to make permanent nearly 8 kilometres of temporary access track and two bridges, running almost parallel to the famous Wade Military Road through the Corrieyairack Pass in the Monadhliath. The track is part of the access road for construction of the power line, given approval after a long battle between developers Scottish Hydro-Electric Transmission Limited (part of SSE) and conservationists, and only granted permission on the condition…