Its all change for Summit Talks with Dave Hewitt now bringing his outdoors wit and wisdom to us on a weekly basis covering all the issues that matter.
As always he is keen to hear from you about any problems or concerns you might encounter in the hills. Contact him at Dave.Hewitt@dial.pipex.com
Ann Bowker, based in Portinscale just outside Keswick, reports that Skiddaw and most of the northern Lakeland fells have finally formally re-opened after the foot and mouth closures - although, curiously, the main Skiddaw tourist path is still off limits.
The reason for this is unclear - Ann muses that it might be "a solution to erosion perhaps, (or to) keep the hoi polloi off the hills". It also begs the question of whether folk are allowed to join, or even cross, the path higher up. Perhaps walkers traversing from Bassenthwaite to Threlkeld are meant to take a running leap across it, as though in some kind of perverse party game.
FMD-related access problems north of the Highland line continue to crop up sporadically, many months past their sell by date. The area immediately north and east of Spean Bridge, where public roads run up Glen Gloy and Glen Roy, has been one of the areas least willing to accept that we live in a democracy in which the government passes (or doesn't pass) laws about access and such matters.
On one of the "reclaimers" gatherings earlier in the year, a raiding party removed several Keep Out signs from these glens - handpainted/crayoned efforts which looked suspiciously like they had been produced by primary school kids as part of some class project. Such educational techniques would be laudable were it not for the rather obvious fact that what the signs suggested had no basis in legality.
With this in mind it's been interesting to hear some recent statements made by Kirsty Macleod, who along with her husband David manages 7,500 acres in Glen Gloy. MacLeod was one of the prime movers in organising a day conference entitled "People - the Forgotten Species". Held in Perth, a couple of hundred landowners and land managers turned up, few if any of them expressing any great enthusiasm for the purveyors of conservation and access rights.
The main bad guys, insofar as the conference came to any conclusions, were deemed to be Scottish Natural Heritage, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and - overarching all of these - the evil old Scottish Executive. "People are expressing disquiet and anger about the huge influence which self-styled environmental experts are exerting over government policies," MacLeod was quoted as saying, adding that there was "too much collaboration between environmental groups and the Executive."
Her justification for this argument is instructive. "It's far too cosy. SNH is far too biased towards the single-interest groups," she said. Really? So the landowning/managing community isn't itself cosy? If the foot and mouth access crisis has shown the country as a whole just one thing, it is surely the extent to which the farming community (with a few honourable exceptions) is remarkably "single-interest" - ie. its own interest and sod everyone else.
It's also worth remembering that a great many ordinary walkers, climbers, off-road cyclists and the like see Scottish Natural Heritage as a heavily landowner-friendly organisation, much more likely to heed those clad in tweed than in Gore-Tex. It almost makes you feel sorry for SNH, caught between the two polarities like that.
In the course of railing against the RSPB and SNH, MacLeod said, "There are a lot of intelligent, worried people in the countryside and they are not going to take this rubbish any more." All of which does rather suggest that anyone legally walking the hills above Glen Gloy, or even driving or cycling up the public road, is unlikely to find much in the way of a welcome. Note - any similarity between Highland landowners and the backwoodsmen and rednecks in upcountry USA is entirely coincidental.
Much the same applies in Glen Lyon, perhaps Scotland's most notorious access blackspot. Here North Chesthill estate has long tried to keep walkers off "its" hills, most notably the inevitably popular horseshoe of four Munros on the north side of the glen. To this end a massive metal gate has been in place for several years, blocking the obvious (and traditional) access point at Invervar. Reports of walkers - and even car-park picnickers - having been hassled by what appear to be estate workers have been so regular over the years that the words smoke and fire come to mind. Certainly there is considerable anti-Chesthill feeling down the glen in Aberfeldy, where local trade has been affected by the general "don't visit Scotland" feel of Scotland's longest and arguably most scenically beautiful glen.
North Chesthill is owned by the Riddell family, a complex organisation in which the old patriarch nowadays takes a back seat while the land is managed by the much livelier underbosses, Alastair and Niall. Alastair (who has been trying to re-establish himself after having been drummed out of the military) has usually been the bullish one with regard to access but in recent times bold Niall has started handling the estate's PR.
This initially took the form of a letter to the Mountaineering Council of Scotland's newsletter earlier this year - a vehement anti-walker (in fact anti-everyone) missive that contrived to be both hilarious and menacing simultaneously. Not surprisingly, this drew a hefty response from the newsletter's readers and now Niall Riddell has decided to chip in again. Here's what he has to say in the latest MCofS newsletter, under the heading "Contentious Access in Glen Lyon" Read the newsletter here
"Regarding access to the hill in Glen Lyon. You do not understand the situation that is quite clear. I live on Chesthill estate and have walked on those hills all of my life. Over the years a walker's equivalent of the M5 has been found from one peak to the next. I find it disgraceful that 99% of the people who walk on these hills haven't even considered contacting the landowner before trespassing on this property. The number of ptarmigan has dropped significantly on the hill due to disturbance and deaths due to walkers' dogs. There are no deer anywhere near the "path" any more due to disturbance. The reason that the gate is locked is very obvious. It is to stop a high velocity bullet from a stalkers gun accidentally killing an unthinking walker. I also think that your claims that members of the estate are threatening walkers and vandalising their cars absolutely outrageous and unsubstantiated. Please do something grown up about these problems you are facing. Yours, Niall Riddell."
So there you go. Two thoughts about this. One is that I've heard a report that the gate (which inevitably has to be climbed by anyone attempting to regain the public road at Invervar) was responsible for injuries to two walkers earlier this year. I'll endeavour to find out more about this over the next week or two.
And there has long been a simmering mood of direct action amongst many in Aberfeldy and its surrounds, so Niall Riddell's latest outburst is likely to further stoke that particular fire. There is an ever-increasing possibility of several minibus-loads of walkers being dropped off at Invervar - strangely no one seems keen to leave a car thereabouts. There is even talk of this happening on a regular basis, every week or so until the Riddells start getting the hang of this democracy lark. Again, more on this in due course.
Several of the issues mentioned above have been aired on the excellent rhb (relative hills of Britain) yahoogroup - a forum for hill lovers and kindred spirits to discuss outdoor matters - and rhb has also thrown up an interesting development in the issue of military control over UK hills. You'll recall that this column recently celebrated the removal of the army observation posts on Camlough Mountain and various other tricky-to-climb summits in Northern Ireland.
There was bound to be a flipside to this however and it has come via the events of 11 September. Jim Tinnion of Telford failed in his recent attempt to pop up the normally trivial 478m mid-Wales hill Mynydd Eppynt (southwest of Builth Wells). This was due to a guardhouse ("well, a Portacabin actually") at the start of the short stretch of track leading from B4519 the to the top. "I was politely but firmly refused access and referred to the main guardhouse at Sennybridge. It was getting late, so I left it but will be ringing/writing to the MOD to seek permission."
The problem with Mynydd Eppynt is that its mid-height moorland is largely given over to military firing ranges. Chances are this will be a temporary restriction, although quite how temporary depends on how long it takes the BBC's John Simpson to liberate the rest of Afghanistan. It also raises the issue of other hills with potential for being "shut down" for security reasons. A considerable number of upland areas carry firing ranges or training areas - eg aroud Glencorse in the Pentlands and on Ben Clach west of Braco and notoriously on Mickle Fell in northern England. Other hills - eg the Lowthers - carry civil aviation masts and it's easy to see that these might also become touchy subjects.
Then there is Saxa Vord, the most northerly of all the 1552 Marilyns, right at the top end of Unst in Shetland. Reaching the summit here has always been tricky due to military listening equipment. One keen bagger managed to nip through an open gate while no-one was looking but others have been less brave/reckless. It would be interesting to hear whether there are currently problems on this summit, or indeed on of the UK's bemasted or blasted heaths. One to keep an eye on, anyway.
Dave Hewitt
16/11/2001
