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Core Paths Plan Review

Inform­al con­sulta­tion summary

Back­ground

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity is under­tak­ing a review of the Core Paths Plan. The first stage of this was an inform­al con­sulta­tion which allowed any­one to feed into the review pro­cess and com­ment on the pro­posed amend­ments, the net­work as a whole or sug­gest fur­ther core path additions.

This report presents an over­view of the inform­al con­sulta­tion, the responses received, and the most pop­u­lar mat­ters raised.

Con­sulta­tion overview

The inform­al con­sulta­tion ran over three months, from 29 May to 31 August 2025.

1. Online The con­sulta­tion was presen­ted online on the Nation­al Park’s web­site at Cairngorms Nation­al Park | Core Paths Plan con­sulta­tion. This included an online map show­ing exist­ing core paths and pro­posed amend­ments (addi­tions, realign­ments and removals). Mem­bers of the pub­lic were able to drop pins on the map to com­ment on exist­ing core paths, pro­posed amend­ments or on any loc­a­tion on the map to sug­gest an addi­tion­al core path. A ​“thumbs-up” agree reac­tion could also be added to any­one else’s comment.

   A list of core path amend­ments was also avail­able, and com­ments could altern­at­ively be sub­mit­ted by email.

2. Stake­hold­ers Where addi­tion­al core paths were pro­posed the rel­ev­ant land man­agers were con­tac­ted dir­ectly and invited to respond.

Vari­ous agen­cies, recre­ation­al bod­ies, landown­ers, ranger ser­vices, com­munity bod­ies etc were also con­tac­ted and invited to view the con­sulta­tion and respond. A list of these is in Annex 1.

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1. Pro­mo­tion The inform­al con­sulta­tion was pro­moted on the Nation­al Park’s web­site, social media and in the Cairn magazine (pos­ted to all house­holds in the Nation­al Park). It was also pro­moted via part­ner newsletters.

The Access Team also met with sev­er­al com­munity organ­isa­tions dur­ing the con­sulta­tion to dis­cuss the review fur­ther. In addi­tion, they atten­ded vari­ous oth­er events includ­ing the Cairngorms com­munity coun­cils annu­al gath­er­ing. Fur­ther details in Annex 2.

Con­sulta­tion responses received

1. Responses A total of 208 spe­cif­ic responses were received:

• 152 online com­ments sub­mit­ted via the web­site 140 reac­tions online (agree­ments with comments)*
• 56 dir­ect responses received (emails, phone calls, com­ments from in-per­son events)

*155 web­site com­ments but included three duplic­ate responses (sub­mit­ted twice by the same person)

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1. Geo­graph­ic­al distribution Most responses related to Badenoch and Strath­spey, fol­lowed by Deeside.

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1. Respond­ents

A total of 77 people respon­ded to the con­sulta­tion, 47 respon­ded as a mem­ber of the pub­lic, 19 on behalf of a landown­er, 6 on behalf of a com­munity group (4 on behalf of com­munity coun­cils and 2 on behalf of com­munity path groups) and 5 on behalf of an organ­isa­tion (His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land, RSPB Scot­land, BHS Scot­land, Scot­ways and Ram­blers Scotland).

1. Responses received

4.1. Gen­er­al

*   11 general responses which included comments on the whole network or paths in general.

4.2. Exist­ing core paths

*   61 comments about existing core paths:
    *   22 related to maintenance or suggestions for upgrading routes
    *   28 suggested minor realignments / mapping updates
    *   11 proposed de-designating existing core paths

4.3. Pro­pos­ing an addi­tion­al core path

*   50 comments suggesting an additional 39 routes for core path designation, of these 5 were suggestions for routes that don't exist and would require construction.

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4.4. Com­ment­ing on a pro­posed amendment

• 86 com­ments in rela­tion to the sug­ges­ted amend­ments; 43 agree­ing, 34 dis­agree­ing and 9 gen­er­al comments

4.5. Mat­ters arising

The fol­low­ing themes have emerged from the inform­al con­sulta­tion as being the most pop­u­lar mat­ters of interest, by volume of com­ments received.

• Nethy Bridge – the Tul­loch moor track
• Glen­more – the Allt Mor path from Glen­more to Cairngorm Mountain
• Dul­nain bridge to Bal­naan road (unclas­si­fied road to Carrbridge)
• Kin­gussie — the Spey­side Way to Ruthven barracks
• Aviemore – Car­rbridge pro­posed NMU (non-motor­ised user route)
• New­ton­more – the Wild­cat trail at Allt Laraidh gorge
• Lag­gan – core paths on main roads
• Remov­al of core paths over private level crossings

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What hap­pens next

All the feed­back and com­ments received dur­ing the inform­al con­sulta­tion will be reviewed and assessed as required, and the Loc­al Out­door Access For­um consulted.

Fol­low­ing this review peri­od, the next stage will be to pro­duce the Draft Core Paths Plan. The Draft Plan will then go out for a fur­ther form­al 12-week con­sulta­tion (expec­ted Spring 2026).

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Annex 1

Stake­hold­ers

The fol­low­ing stake­hold­ers were con­tac­ted regard­ing the inform­al consultation:

Agen­cies

• Cairngorms Busi­ness Partnership
• Forestry and Land Scot­land (FLS)
• His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scotland
• Nation­al Trust for Scot­land (Mar Lodge Estate)
• NatureScot
• Net­work Rail
• RSPB (nation­al and Aber­nethy and Insh reserves)
• Stra­tegic Trans­port Part­ner­ships (HiTrans and Nestrans)

Land based

• Cairngorms Crofters and Farm­ers group
• Indi­vidu­al landown­ers — 29 land man­agers (where addi­tion­al core paths pro­posed on land)
• Man­aging for Vis­it­ors work­ing group
• Nation­al Farm­ers Uni­on Scot­land (NFUS)
• Rangers Ser­vices in the Nation­al Park:
  • Angus Alive
  • Aber­deen­shire council
  • Bal­mor­al Estate
  • Cairngorm Moun­tain
  • EDF Energy
  • Forestry and Land Scotland
  • Glen Tanar Estate
  • Inver­cauld Estate
  • Nation­al Trust for Scot­land (Kil­liecrankie / Mar Lodge)
  • NatureScot (Din­net reserve)
  • Rothiemurchus Estate
• Scot­tish Land and Estates

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Recre­ation­al bodies

• Devel­op­ing Moun­tain Bik­ing in Scot­land (DMinBS)
• Out­door Access Trust for Scot­land (OATS)
• Scot­tish Orienteering
• Scot­tish Out­door Recre­ation Alli­ance (SORA):
  • Brit­ish Horse Soci­ety Scotland
  • Cyc­ling­Scot­land
  • Moun­tain­eer­ing Scotland
  • Paddle­Scot­land
  • Ram­blers Scotland
  • Scot­tish Sports Association
  • Scot­Ways
• Sport Scot­land (Glen­more Lodge)
• Sus­trans

Com­munity bodies

• Com­munity councils
• Com­munity path groups
• Com­munity Woodlands:
  • Anagach Woods Trust
  • Insh Com­munity Holdings
  • Kin­gussie Com­munity Devel­op­ment Com­pany (KCDC)
  • Brae­mar Com­munity Limited
  • Lag­gan Forest Trust
• Health Walk leaders
• Marr Area Part­ner­ship (MAP)
• Vol­un­tary Action Badenoch and Strath­spey (VABS)

Oth­er

• Out­door Access officers at:
  • High­land council
  • Aber­deen­shire council
  • Perth & Kinross council
  • Moray coun­cil
  • Augus coun­cil
• Cairngorms Nation­al Park’s Equal­ity Advis­ory Pan­el — con­sul­ted in Janu­ary pri­or to the inform­al consultation.
• Cairngorms Volun­teer rangers

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Annex 2

Pro­mo­tion

The inform­al con­sulta­tion was pro­moted through pub­li­city and events: (all dates 2025)

Pub­li­city

• News item — Cairngorms Nation­al Park news item ​“Call for views on Core paths plan review” — on web­site and social media (June)
• Social media — Cairngorms Nation­al Park social media remind­er (August)
• Cairn magazine – snip­pet in magazine pos­ted to all house­holds in the Nation­al Park (August)
• News­let­ters:
  • High­lands & Islands Cli­mate Hub news­let­ter (June and July editions)
  • High­lands Envir­on­ment­al For­um (2 x July edi­tions and August edition)
  • Marr Area Part­ner­ship news­let­ter (August edition)

Events

• Com­munity events:

  • Gath­er­ing of Com­munity Coun­cils — attend­ance and dis­play at Cairngorms ​‘Gath­er­ing of com­munity coun­cils’ event (April).

    Inform­a­tion about, and links to, the con­sulta­tion in two emails to all Com­munity Coun­cils (April).

  • Lag­gan Com­munity Paths & Play­park event – attend­ance and dis­play at drop in even­ing event (June)

  • Kin­gussie com­munity meet­ing – present­a­tion on core paths and dis­cus­sion ses­sion with rep­res­ent­at­ives from KCDC, com­munity coun­cil, path group and health walks group (August)

    Health Walk lead­ers (Badenoch & Strath­spey) – present­a­tion at event (May)

• Cairngorms Volun­teer rangers (new intake) – updated at event (May)