240515 LOAF Paper 2 Spey access and egress

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Paper 2 5^th June 2024

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CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FORUM

Title: ‑Dis­cus­sion Paper – Spey Access and Egress Points Pre­pared by: Adam Streeter-Smith, Recre­ation and Access Manager

Pur­pose This paper is presen­ted prompt a dis­cus­sion on mat­ters relat­ing to Spey Access and Egress that should be con­sidered in the near future.

Back­ground

The Spey is closely linked to qual­ity of life for Park res­id­ents and vis­it­ors alike. Provid­ing essen­tial for drink­ing water, icon­ic Malt whisky and sal­mon fish­ing for which the Spey is glob­ally fam­ous. Heav­ily des­ig­nated (and a core path) it is also out­stand­ing for biod­iversity and recre­ation oppor­tun­it­ies, being one of the premi­er tour­ing rivers in the UK. Pop­u­lar for both canoeists kayakers and increas­ingly paddle boarders.

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, and part­ners includ­ing Paddle Scot­land have iden­ti­fied that for a num­ber of access and egress points on the Spey with­in the Park bound­ary there are oppor­tun­it­ies to:

• Improve the qual­ity of the user’s exper­i­ence: • Address ongo­ing user pres­sures such as park­ing (includ­ing overnight park­ing and park­ing of canoe trail­ers) with a focus on Kin­craig and Aviemore put in points: • Invest­ig­ate oppor­tun­it­ies to cre­ate new put in points to address pres­sures at nearby ​“offi­cial” access and egress points with a focus on Aviemore: • Identi­fy which of the access and egress points could be improved for wider range of users and: • Sup­port rel­ev­ant Nation­al Park Plan object­ives such as redu­cing recre­ation­al dis­turb­ance to sens­it­ive spe­cies and sup­port­ing ongo­ing catch­ment man­age­ment object­ives. Table one details the access and egress points in the Park.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Paper 2 5^th June 2024

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Table One- Recog­nised Access and Egress points on the Spey with­in the Nation­al Park

Loc­a­tion	Grid ref­er­ence	Online descrip­tion
Lag­gan Bridge	GR.615942	River right, below road bridge.
Lochain Uvie	GR.674957	River left via lar­ger of two lochans. Park in lay-by below Cre­ag Dhubh crags.
New­ton­more	GR.709980	River right, below Spey­bridge. Vehicu­lar access to left bank only avail­able if res­id­ent on Spey­bridge Camp­site. (Avoid unau­thor­ised vehicle/​trailer park­ing at the private/​commercial lorry park at the Chef’s Grill.)
Kin­gussie	GR.759997	River right, below bridge lead­ing to Ruthven Bar­racks. (Use gate on down­stream side of the road.)
Loch Insh SW	GR.822043	Lay-by oppos­ite gate lodge. Access SW corner of Loch Insh via arch under rail­way. (Please employ great care when open­ing and then firmly secur­ing the some­what dilap­id­ated gate presently in place.)
Kin­craig	GR.835054	River right below church. Park in lay-by opposite

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Paper 2 5^th June 2024

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Aviemore	GR895117	church. Please close the gate.
Boat of Garten	GR946191	River left, down­stream of both road and foot bridges, from car park serving the Old Bridge Inn.
Broom­hill Bridge	GR996223	River left, down­stream side of road bridge. Park­ing pos­sible in lay-by oppos­ite access point.
Grant­own on Spey	GR.028266	River left by bridge. Care­ful, tem­por­ary vehicle park­ing pos­sible, down­stream side of bridge.
Crom­dale	GR066289	River left ~ approx. 450 metres above main-road bridge (by park­ing areas).

Mem­bers are invited to dis­cuss mat­ters that should be addressed in the sus­tain­able man­age­ment of access on the River Spey.

Mat­ters dis­cussed will feed into the devel­op­ment of a brief for con­sultancy work look­ing at the access and agrees points.