UKH

Last week a Hilltalk thread highlighted an access issue in Glen Lyon. Today the MCofS has called on the Scottish Government to take action on the estate concerned, which they say is flouting Scotland’s access laws.

Read more at http://www.ukhillwalking.com/news/item.php?id=68586

In reply to UKH News:

I had this problem in 2006. My family were staying in Kinloch Rannock, and I managed to persuade my mum to drop me off half way down Glen Lyon so I could walk back. The estate had locked several gates across the paths up onto the hill, and there were a few signs suggesting access wasn't allowed. I didn't have a phone with me and didn't fancy the slog back out of the Glen, so just thought bollocks to it and climbed over them. Perhaps not the most diplomatic solution, but I remember it really annoying me at the time.

It doesn't look as if pressure applied via the press is giiving the estate cause to change thier standpoint:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-25404428

Looks as if 2014 will be a defining year for access legislation, will it be upheld, or be incrementally eroded.

In reply to ScraggyGoat:

Even if Riddell is having problems this year, he's only got himself to blame - there's a history of sometimes quite aggressive and confrontational behaviour towards other users from this estate that goes back years. Hopefully John Swinney will have a quick Google before he accepts the pish in that BBC report.

Given Glen Lyon has a reputation as one of Scotland's great beauty spots, it's long past the time when questions should have been asked about this family's ability to properly steward a national resource effectively, and whether it might not be more appropriate for ownership to be transferred to NTS, John Muir Trust or even a community buyout if there was a willingness in the local area.

In reply to ScraggyGoat:

The estate owner mentions folk walking into the estate on a saturday. He might have had cause for complaint had this been during the main stalking season; at other times of year he just has to work round people, something he is no doubt well aware of!

In reply to UKH News:

is there no scope to put path on the ridges? scaring deer into the glen for shooting

In reply to Michael Gordon:

Chesthill Estate website out of use at the moment, hhmmm that's a surprise eh?

In reply to dbarmbs:

If you keep an eye on it (as I did a couple of seasons ago) you'll notice that there is NEVER a day given as free from shooting. For such a small estate - as the gamie will keep reminding you - they seem to capture almost the entire clientele of potential shooters in Scotland!

When I was trying to 'negotiate' through his verbal flack to find a mutually suitable route onto the hills he just would not say where he was going to shoot first with his one client. It was only when I suggested that it was a bit worrying that he was about to head off with a client and a gun with no idea where he was going to shoot that he huffily took the hint and quickly gave me a line to take up the corrie.(I was willing to approach Meall Garbh from either end of the 'horseshoe' OR straight up the corrie - which I'd normally have avoided since that's where they set up a pole with a salt lick and fodder to lure the deer in!) I never saw them for the rest of the day - where they went to shoot I have no idea.
Maybe it needs to be challenged in the courts. I'd be happy to chip in for a civil action.