In his monthly Viewpoint column, outdoors writer, broadcaster and mountain walker Cameron McNeish looks at the proliferation of hill tracks. MOST of us thought it was a dead cert. Something the SNP government could easily do to shore up its environmental credentials, credentials that have been badly dented by continued approvals of mis-sited windfarms. I’m referring to hill tracks and the need for legislation to curb farmers and landowners bulldozing high level tracks so that shooters don’t have to walk too far. Current legislation allows “permitted development” for agricultural or forestry use but few people believe high level tracks for…

In his monthly Viewpoint column, outdoors writer, broadcaster and mountain walker Cameron McNeish responds to breaking news from the Scottish Government. As far as I am aware no European Government has put an outright ban on wind turbines on particular areas of their country that are seen as nationally important in terms of landscape quality. The much-criticised Scottish Government could well be the first to do so. As I suggested last month the Scottish government wants relatively large areas of Scotland set aside as turbine-free. They have now made their position public. In new planning guidelines that have just gone…