Access rights, the Auchreoch sign & the Orwellian world of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority - parkswatchscotland On 20th September I wrote about the sign above in a post on Scotland’s free trade in land & its consequences – Coille Coire Chuilc and Auchreoch.  I reported the sign that same evening to the Access T...

Why can't the LLTNPA, which still pays for an access team, not quickly take down signs it agrees are contrary to Access Rights? Responsibilty, I believe, lies with the same unaccountable Chief Executive who prevents campaigners from talking to his staff parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/10/15/a...

The damaging impacts of muirburn and the issues that the wildfire summit in the Cairngorms National Park should have been addressing parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/10/12/c...

Andy Amphlett explains the system failure to protect an important population of twinflower in the Cairngorms - while the system needs fixing perhaps adding twinflower to the list of plants it's a criminal offence to destroy would help focus minds? parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/10/10/t...

BrewDog's Lost Forest - What if? - parkswatchscotland Introduction It has been well covered in the media recently that the craft beer company BrewDog have sold on their “Lost Forest” at Kinrara Estate, which stretches from Speyside into the Monadliath, t...

Victor Clements, a woodlands adviser, takes a look from a professional perspective at why BrewDog's Lost Forest went so wrong parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/10/09/b...

Why the ban on camp fires in the Cairngorms National Park maybe political rather than sustainable..... - parkswatchscotland NIMBYism’ and ‘Park politics’ rather than fire risk is probably behind the move to ban camp fires (see here).  My bet is that the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNP) has caved in to pressure from...

Prof Douglas MacMillan's post earlier this week on the cause of fires in the Cairngorms National Park shows the Scottish Government's sleekit announcement today that muirburn licensing will be delayed for another nine months is highly political parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/10/08/w...

If you believe what BrewDog did at Kinrara was bad, don't wait to see what is coming - take the time to understand what Oxygen Conservation stands for and protest parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/10/04/o...

Who lights the fires in the Cairngorms National Park? - parkswatchscotland [The post first appeared on Prof Douglas MacMillan’s Linked-In feed – ed] Last week Scottish Ministers approved a ban on recreational fires and barbecues in the Cairngorms National Park between 1 Apri...

The proof of who causes the greatest amount of destruction by fire in the Cairngorms National Park lies in the data Prof Douglas Macmillan has analysed parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/09/30/w...

Fire and fires - one law for the landowners, another for the rest of us - parkswatchscotland Scottish Ministers last week approved byelaws (see here for the text) which will make it an offence, with a fine of up to £500, for a person “without lawful authority” to light a fire or barbecue or “...

The Cairngorms National Park Authority has become a vehicle for sporting estates to divert attention from the destruction they do by blaming outdoor recreation parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/09/29/f...

Andy Amphlett shows that rather than restoring montane woodland in Coire na Ciste, which was happening naturally anyway. the Cairngorms National Park Authority have ignored the scientific evidence and planted a mix of trees with no precedent in Scotland parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/09/28/t...

Scottish Government funding of tree nurseries - all that's wrong with its approach to forestry in Scotland - parkswatchscotland Eighteen months ago I wrote a critical post  (see here) about how Scottish Forestry is not only funding companies like BrewDog (see here) and Abrdn (see here) to plant trees, they have also been subsi...

Before wasting money on tree nurseries and adding to market chaos the Scottish Government should have addressed the fundamental question, should we plant trees or would it be better to create the conditions where nature will do this for free? parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/09/25/s...

The National Park Authority could call the bluff of the new owner of Auchreoch & publicly call on them to put real conservation measures in place, like removing their sheep, instead of unlawfully trying to undermine access rights. The NPA could but won't parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/09/20/s...

The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority - how democracy has been destroyed - parkswatchscotland On Monday morning I watched  the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) Board Meeting online (see here for agenda and papers).  It should be essential viewing for anyone who cares ...

I forgot to post my post about the LLTNPA board meeting last Monday, perhaps because it was so forgettable if not for what it says about the usurpation of power by officials parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/09/17/t...

Time to blow a raspberry at the Scottish Government? By looking at what plants grow where abroad the full impact of overgrazing on the natural environment in upland areas & the need for fundamental reform of land management in Scotland becomes obvious parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/09/11/l...

If the Scottish Government was even half serious about addressing the environmental crisis in Scotland it would be considering how to control livestock grazing , learning from abroad, instead of paying landowners to graze sheep & cattle wherever they wish parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/09/09/l...

Lessons from the Italian Alps (2) - the environmental crisis continental in scale - parkswatchscotland For my first few days walking the Grande Traversata dell Alpe (GTA) – I started from the Nufenenpass on 24th July – it was cloudy, windy and periodically wet, the forests were predominantly composed o...

Heat, drought, diseases and pests - considering these issues from a wider perspective is essential if we want to tackle global warming and the collapse of the natural world parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/09/03/l...

Scottish Ministers, the Loch Long fish farm planning decision and the implications for National Parks - parkswatchscotland The timing of the Scottish Government’s announcement on Tuesday that Scottish Ministers, i.e Ivan McKee the Minister for Planning, had decided to overturn the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park A...

Using the arguments used to approve the mega fish farm at Loch Long, nowhere in Scotland is safe from industrialisation while Ivan McKee is planning minister & he will approve the Flamingo Land development. Time to restore democracy to planning parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/08/31/s...

This post explains how and why core path planning in Scotland, intended as a means to enable people to enjoy access rights, has become a meaningless bureaucratic exercise and what needs to change parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/08/28/t...

Lessons from the Italian Alps (1) - home from home - parkswatchscotland I have not blogged for almost a month because I have been away in Italy walking the northern half of the Grande Traversata delle Alpi, the Italian equivalent of the GR5 in France – which I wrote about...

Back from Italy and once again there is lots that Scotland could learn about how to protect and restore the natural environment, most notably the right of ordinary Italians to hunt on private land parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/08/25/l...

The Spey Catchment Initiative, Pitmain and the failure of conservation in the Cairngorms National Park - parkswatchscotland On 22nd July the Strathy reported (see here) the Spey Catchment Initiative (SCI) is planning to consult the local community before using “ecological engineering” techniques to restore the eroded banks...

Sporting landowners will remain happy with the Cairngorms National Park so long as it supports projects which make no ecological sense, do little or nothing to further conservation and does nothing to challenge the way they mis-use the land parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/07/25/t...

The National Park and Scottish Enterprise's land deal at the Pierhead - designed to make Flamingo Land happen - parkswatchscotland Following my post in June (see here) about how about the transfer of land from Scottish Enterprise (SE) to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) appeared to be paving the way ...

How public land and resources are still being abused to support Flamingo Land's proposed development at Balloch. What will it take for Kate Forbes and Mairi Gougeon to intervene? parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/07/24/t...

Stobo Hope, Scottish Forestry & the dubious claims made by commercial forestry interests - parkswatchscotland It is over six months since I blogged about how the crisis facing commercial forestry interests at Stobo Hope in the Borders (see here). Since then a successful judicial review by the Stobo Residents ...

Stobo Hope is a test case for much that is wrong with Scottish Forestry and forestry in Scotland. This post critiques the claims being made on the developers new website, claims that are being used across Scotland to justify the unjustifiable parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/07/23/s...

Glen Lednock Wind Farm - parkswatchscotland [Ed’s note. My apologies to Felicity Martin who wrote this briefing on the Glen Lednock windfarm application for Parkswatch 10 days ago but which I managed to miss while away. (I have added the illust...

When Oxygen Conservation bought Glen Lednock with a massive loan from Triodos bank they failed to explain they would need to build a wimdfarm to pay it back. Felicity Martin explains why the proposed planning application is so wrong parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/07/21/g...

Abrdn's legacy at Far Ralia as paid for by Scottish Forestry - another environmental liability in the Cairngorms National Park - parkswatchscotland In December abrdn told the Scotsman that they had made mistakes with their carbon offsetting tree planting scheme at Far Ralia, the land they had bought for £6.5m in 2021 and are now trying to sell. W...

When are the Scottish Government & our National Parks going to look at what land speculators - aka investors - are actually doing on the ground as a result of their obsession with tree planting targets and courtesy of the Scottish Forestry grants system? parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/07/18/a...

The Lomond and Trossachs National Park's approach to both deer control and control of non-native species is fallow and shallow parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/07/15/f...

Unacceptable telecommunications masts (29) - the new plan for Scotland from the Shared Rural Network - parkswatchscotland Ten days ago the Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme announced (see here) that they were scaling the £500m UK Government funded programme to erect telecommunications masts in Total Not Spots, areas w...

The recent decision of the Shares Rural Network programme to reduce the number of phone masts in total not spots has been driven by financial interests rather than any concern by government about Scotland's landscape parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/07/10/u...

Allowing Flamingo Land to write the legal agreement which is supposed to protect the public interest at Balloch represents complete capitulation to development interests & is like letting private suppliers of goods and services write their own contracts parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/07/08/f...

The management of the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service who have no systems in place to monitor muirburn & appear completely unconcerned about its impacts should now explain if it reduces fire risks as claimed why have the fires on Dava Moor been so big? parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/07/01/k...

Ivan McKee's decision to call in Flamingo Land's planning appeal - what needs to change - parkswatchscotland In my post on the Scottish Government’s decision to call in the Flamingo Land application for a decision by Scottish Ministers (see here), I highlighted the fact that the Planning Minister, Ivan McKee...

The power of Scottish Ministers to call-in planning applications should provide a safeguard against failures to protect the public interest but in the case of Flamingo Land is part of the problem, undemocratic, unaccountable & a misuse of power parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/06/29/i...

Time to stop the sales of what should be public land in Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park, SE to Flamingo Land, FLS to private forestry interests and RSFS at Cashel - this post argues there is an alternative at Cashel, transfer the land for free to NTS parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/06/27/t...

It doesn't appear that anyone in government knows how many sporting estates, like Gkencalvie, burn the land to increase deer numbers or have thought through how they will implement the Scottish Government's commitment to end this damaging practise parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/06/25/m...