New post Parkswatchscotland: The funicular, the Public Audit Committee & CairnGorm Mountain’s propaganda offensive https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/?p=32231

Answers please ......... parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2026/01/20/w...

If Historic and Environment Scotland are unable to tolerate the natural risks associated with the Radical Road, then Scottish Ministers should transfer Holyrood Park to another body parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2026/01/16/h...

The main challenge within Scotland for making tourism more sustainable is not the number of visitors but the poor quality infrastructure provided to encourage and support them, as exemplified by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2026/01/13/w...

The Scottish Government should be learning from the numerous wildfires caused by muirbburn so why are then not requiring Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and NatureScot to report publicly on what happened on Tinto Hill last April? parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2026/01/11/p...

Will 2026 be the year when the Scottish Government say enough is enough and transfer responsibility for Holyrood Park away from Historic and Environment Scotland or will they let the failed mismanagement continue? parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2026/01/02/h...

Peatland restoration, whether by natural processes or human intervention, should over time benefit bird species associated with bogs, but does not justify the way public funding is being handed out to landowners like the Glenfalloch estate at present parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/12/30/t...

Board games parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/12/28/t...

The Ethical Standards Commission is effectively trying to silence Sid Perrie and cover up the rottenness at the heart of the Flamingo Land planning process. Its primary concern is no longer with ethics but protecting establishment interests parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/12/19/h...

The Scottish Government's tree planting targets have been a disaster, with Scottish Forestry forking out grants and approving schemes with little regard for the consequences but at Stobo Hope they have sunk to new lows parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/12/17/s...

Two posts on one Caledonian Pinewood. The first on senseless and counterproductive access management parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/12/08/a.... The second on the battle between bog & pine and it's implications parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/12/14/t...

The replacement access sign at Auchreoch may be better than the last but still does not uphold access rights and reveals the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority's muddled approach to conservation parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/12/05/a...

Plonking a plantation into what could be regenerating Caledonian Pinewood should not be allowed in Scotland let alone funded by scottish Forestry parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/12/04/t...

How is a local place plan for Balloch possible with Flamingo Land still looming? Scotland's planning system betrays local communities at every step but real planning democracy is possible parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/11/28/p...

The latest accounts for Cairngorm Mountain Scotland show the amount of public money HIE continues to pour into its business but also that the new visitor attractions are failing to deliver & the current board doesn't know what is happening on the ground parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/11/24/t...

The parallel between how the Code of Conduct for public life in Scotland is being used to punish and silence LLTNPA board members Sid Perrie and Cllr Fiona Higgins for questioning the actions of officials is striking parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/11/22/h...

Scotland's framework for native woodland creation is unfit for purpose. Instead of planting trees we should control grazing, ban burning and leave the rest to nature parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/11/20/s...

It's great that following his post on parkswatch Andy Amphlett has managed to persuade the public agencies responsible to change their systems to do more to protect twinflower. But it begs the question what else is being destroyed by commercial forestry? parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/11/19/t...

David Balharry replies to Victor Clements criticisms of the John Muir Trust. It would be good if this exchange could prompt some serious debate about the direction of not just JMT but other voluntary sector landowners in Scotland parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/11/15/w...

This post explains how the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority tried to take out the locally elected member for Balloch for daring to raise questions about the Flamingo Land planning process. parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/11/13/h...

It gives me no pleasure to publish this post, the first in a series of contributions I hope into what has gone wrong in the John Muir Trust (I have been a somewhat sceptical member for over 30 years) but I think it raises important issues parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/11/12/d...

Graham Garfoot explains how, for the repairs to the funicular to work, 4,868 pieces of metal studding currently holding the concrete structure together have to be maintained at the right tension. What that will cost? parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/11/10/w...

The asking price for Far Ralia in the Cairngorms National Park is now lower than what the abrdn Property Income Trust bought it for - a timely and welcome lesson for others speculating in land on the back of government grants and the Woodland Carbon Code parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/11/02/f...

When HIE gave evidence to the Public Accounts Committee in September they failed to explain why the repairs to the funicular themselves needed to be repaired. Graham Garfoot explains why we can now anticipate repairs to the repairs to the repairs....... parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/11/01/w...

Prof Douglas MacMillan applies a little science to sporting landowners' claims that muirburn by reducing "fuel load" helps prevent wildfire by mapping the Dava Moor fires parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/10/30/t...

If Flamingo Land are now offering to sell Drumkinnon Woods for £1 to local communities, why did the Scottish Government ever allowe Scottish Enterprise to offer FL the land in the fist place? The answer is it provided a means to approve the development. parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/10/27/w...

Victor Clements finds BrewDog's Lost Forest and explains why the site was a better option from a forestry, if not a marketing, perspective than the Kinrara estate they eventually bought parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/10/24/b...

Why have Oxygen Conservation, BrewDog and Scottish Woodlands covered up that the Lost Forest was way behind schedule when BrewDog sold Kinrara last month? And what will Scottish Forestry now do? parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/10/22/t...

While speculators drive land prices to record levels on the back of carbon markets, abrdn's asking price and valuation for Far Ralia has collapsed and rightly so. This chaos indicates the Woodland Carbon Code either needs scrapped or radical reform parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/10/20/a...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...