Wild Land Saved! Allt Duine Wind Farm Rejected.

A rainbow over the Allt Duine area

The long-running Allt Duine wind farm saga is finally over. Today the Scottish Government rejected this proposal for a huge wind farm in the Monadh Liath mountains on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park. This is a great victory for wild land and, along with other recent refusals of wind farms in wild land areas, hopefully presents a turning point for wild land protection.

The story began in 2011 when the wind farm was first proposed. Highland Council rejected it which triggered a public inquiry in October 2012, in which I took part for the Save the Monadliath Mountains campaign. Since then there has been silence until now. However the launch of the Wild Land Map and new planning regulations a year ago gave hope that the wind farm would be rejected as the area was clearly one that should be covered by these.

Many people and organisations have campaigned against this wind farm - the John Muir Trust, Mountaineering Council of Scotland, Cairngorms National Park amongst them. Today we can all celebrate. I feel elated, relieved and stunned - the latter because it seemed as though a decision would never come.

Camp above the Allt Duine

In rejecting the wind farm John Swinney, Deputy First Minister, said  “I have considered the Allt Duine application fully and have refused permission as the proposal would have a significant and unacceptable landscape and visual impacts in the local area, including on the Cairngorms National Park and on a wild land area.”

In response John Muir Trust Chief Executive Stuart Brooks says: "The battle to save this precious area of wild land has been long and hard. We are delighted that the Deputy First Minister John Swinney has come down on  the side of the people and the landscape against the energy giant RWE.

"We are  especially heartened by the Scottish Government's growing recognition of the importance of landscape, which is in tune with the views of the big majority of the population of Scotland and of the Highlands as revealed in two major opinion surveys.

"We also welcome the Minister's  acknowledgement that Allt Duine would have adversely affected the Monadhliath Wild Land Area [WLA 20]."

 

The Allt Duine hills

For the Mountaineering Council of Scotland Chief Officer David Gibson says " Like many other organisations and individuals we worked hard to seek refusal of consent for this development. We hope this is evidence of a firm and consistent commitment by the Scottish Government to the protection of wild land and Scotland’s mountains from similar massive industrial scale developments. That would demonstrate that it understands the value of wild land and the need to protect its special qualities for the benefit of all."

Both the JMT and the MCofS call for a clear commitment to wild land by the Scottish Government and for the rejection of the proposed Glencassley and Sallachy wind farms.

Today is a day for celebration.

Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards Video Shoot - And You Can Vote For Me

Craigellachie woods

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 As I posted last month I've been nominated for the Glenfiddich Spirt of Scotland Awards in the Environment category for my work with the Save the Monadhliath Mountains campaign. This is a public vote and there's still time to support me, if you so wish.

Today Ross, a video photographer, came up from Edinburgh to film me at work. The organisers had suggested that he should video me at my computer but that sounded dull and boring and anyway my office is rather disorganised (i.e. there's outdoor gear, books and magazines strewn everywhere). Instead I suggested we head for the outdoors as that is where I really do my work - the writing is just formalising it. I do actually think out much of what I write while walking as well of course as taking photographs.

Outdoors video agreed we met in the Mountain Cafe in Aviemore (as I've mentioned before this wonderful cafe is a favourite meeting place -I'm happy to use any excuse for a visit!). Then we headed up into Craigellachie Nature Reserve where the lovely birch woods are still showing the last of the autumn colours. Here I wandered round being filmed walking and looking at the trees and the views.

For a bit of variety we decided to film me taking photographs - which seemed relevant as I have visited the site of the proposed Allt Duine wind farm several times over the last year to take photographs and some of these were used as evidence in the Public Inquiry and have appeared in newspapers and magazines. Being filmed taking photographs felt rather odd and I needed to distract myself so I would look more natural. There was only way to do this. Take photographs! So I stopped pretending and started looking for compositions and adjusting the camera. That's when the photos shown here were taken.

Photographing the photgrapher photographing the photographer .......

Then Ross took some close up video and asked me to point my lens straight at his camera, which was only about a foot away. Again I thought it best to take a real picture so above you can see Ross videoing me photographing him. Some of the things we do seem really strange!

Craigellachie