Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 7 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 12 June 2026

Com­mit­tee report

Devel­op­ment proposed:

Sec­tion 42 applic­a­tion to vary Con­di­tion 8 of 2023/0267/DET – Erec­tion of a dis­til­lery, 3No. ware­houses, access, park­ing, offices, bore­holes at U220 250M South East Of Spey Dam, Laggan

Ref­er­ence: 2026/0098/DET Applic­ant: Spey­side Dis­til­lers Com­pany Ltd Date called-in: 23 March 2026 Recom­mend­a­tion: Approve sub­ject to con­di­tions Case officer: Kath­er­ine Don­nach­ie, Plan­ning Officer and Lacquarn Rose, Gradu­ate Planner

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 7 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 12 June 2026

Map of Site and Surroundings

(Map show­ing Spey Dam, Lag­gan, Crath­ie, Coul Fm, Dale­hully Ho, Balt­mis­hag, Gen­er­al Wade’s Mil­it­ary Road, Sher­rabeg, Dun da làmh Fort, Achduch­il, Carn a Bha­dain, Lag­gan Br, Drum­gask Fm, Cre­ag Ruadh Monu­ment, Cre­ag Bhuidhe, All­t­na Cubhaige, Cre­ag Meall an Do. Inset map show­ing wider area includ­ing Coire Dubh, Allt-Glen­shero Lodge Loch, Crun­achdain, Strath Mash­ie, Aber­arder Lodge, Inver­p­at­tack, Strath­mash­ie House.)

Dis­claim­er: This map has been pro­duced to aid in the stat­utory pro­cess of deal­ing with plan­ning applic­a­tions. The map is to help identi­fy the site and its sur­round­ings and to aid Plan­ning Officers, Com­mit­tee Mem­bers and the Pub­lic in the determ­in­a­tion of the pro­pos­al. Maps shown in the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be used for the pur­poses of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. Any oth­er use risks infringing Crown Copy­right and may lead to pro­sec­u­tion or civil pro­ceed­ings. Maps pro­duced with­in this Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Report can only be repro­duced with the express per­mis­sion of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and oth­er Copy­right hold­ers. This per­mis­sion must be gran­ted in advance.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 7 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 12 June 2026

Site descrip­tion, pro­pos­al and history

Site descrip­tion

1. The applic­a­tion site is loc­ated to the south­w­est of Lag­gan and close to Spey Dam, where the U2014 pub­lic road runs west­wards from Lag­gan towards Mel­garve and the Cor­rieyair­ack Pass. It is cur­rently accessed off this road via a field gate just to the south­east of the dam and the bridge which car­ries the road over the River Spey.

2. The red line applic­a­tion site is around 27 hec­tares, and the applic­ants con­trol adja­cent land. The site is presently mainly grass­land used for sheep graz­ing with a ​“U” shaped area of con­ifer plant­a­tion in the east­ern part. There is some ripari­an plant­ing along the River Spey which bounds the site to the north and a rocky out­crop close to the Gen­er­al Wade Road which crosses through the middle of the site. There is slop­ing moor­land in the west­ern part of the site, with some areas of wet­land / marsh here too, and there are exist­ing ditches with­in the site run­ning along the south and east boundaries.

3. The site is gently undu­lat­ing with some high­er areas such as the out­crop and some level areas to the middle. The ​“Black Craig,” a dis­tinct­ive poin­ted wooded hill, lies to the imme­di­ate west of the site form­ing a land­mark fea­ture in the loc­al land­scape. The sched­uled monu­ment of Dun na Lamh (pre­his­tor­ic hill fort) is loc­ated on top of this hill.

4. There are a num­ber of core paths in and around the site. As noted earli­er, the Gen­er­al Wade Road crosses through the site which is a core path and right of way. To the north of the site the long dis­tance route to the Cor­rieyair­ack pass runs along the pub­lic road lead­ing west­wards and anoth­er core path (the Cor­rieyair­ack link path) runs along an exist­ing forestry track from the pub­lic road south­ward through to the A86 trunk road, where it emerges at the Strath­mash­ie cot­tages close to the Lag­gan Wolftrax centre. This track is pro­posed to be used as the access to the applic­a­tion site. A fur­ther core path branches off this track and leads to the top of the Black Craig to the fort.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 7 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 12 June 2026

1. The River Spey itself is also a core path, and it runs imme­di­ately to the north of the site. It is a des­ig­nated Site of Spe­cial Sci­entif­ic Interest (SSSI) and Spe­cial Con­ser­va­tion Area (SAC). The River Mash­ie runs to the far south-east of the site and crosses under the exist­ing forestry track.

2. There are a num­ber of scattered rur­al prop­er­ties in the sur­round­ing area includ­ing Coul Farm and Crath­ie Cot­tage to the north on the oth­er side of the Spey. Crath­ie Cot­tage is loc­ated on the hill­side high­er up, and Coul Farm closer to the val­ley floor. A row of cot­tages lies to the far south­w­est at the end of the exist­ing forestry track onto the A86 road at Strath­mash­ie / Achduch­il. Dal­chully House, a cat­egory C lis­ted build­ing of archi­tec­tur­al and his­tor­ic import­ance, lies to the east, screened from the site by topo­graphy and planting.

Pro­pos­al

1. The draw­ings and doc­u­ments asso­ci­ated with this applic­a­tion are lis­ted below and are avail­able on the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity web­site unless noted oth­er­wise: 2026/0098/DET | Sec­tion 42 applic­a­tion to vary Con­di­tion 8 of 2023/0267/DET — Erec­tion of a dis­til­lery, 3No. ware­houses, access, park­ing, offices, bore­holes | U220 250M South East Of Spey Dam Laggan

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Plan — Site Loc­a­tion Plan	0125.PL.001 Rev A	21/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Bore­hole Locations	CO23	01/04/23	01/05/26
Plan — Loc­a­tion of Site Invest­ig­a­tion Tri­al Pits and Boreholes	CO21	01/04/23	01/05/26
Plan — Loc­a­tion of Site Invest­ig­a­tion Tri­al Pits and Bore­holes (with levels)	C031 Rev C	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Plant­ing Plan	erz 22.36 PO5 Rev B	08/06/23	01/05/26
Plan — Site Detail Sec­tion 1	erz 22.36 SO3	22/05/23	01/05/26

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 7 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 12 June 2026

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Plan — Site Sec­tion 2 East West	erz 22.36 SO2	22/05/23	01/05/26
Plan — Site Sec­tion 1 North South	erz 22.36 SO1	22/05/23	01/05/26
Plan — Light­ing Strategy	erz 22.36 SK230503	03/05/23	01/05/26
Plan — Topo­graph­ic­al Survey	C020	01/04/23	01/05/26
Plan — Tree Con­straints Plan	erz 22.36 PO6 Rev A	08/06/23	01/05/26
Plan — Site entrance vis­ib­il­ity splays	CO34	01/08/23	01/05/26
Plan — Dis­til­lery Elevations	0125​.PL. 301 Rev C	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Dis­til­lery First Floor Plan	0125​.PL. 102 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Dis­til­lery Ground Floor Plan	0125​.PL. 101 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Dis­til­lery Roof Plan	0125​.PL. 103 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Dis­til­lery Sec­tions AA and BB	0125​.PL. 201 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Dis­til­lery Sec­tions CC and DD	0125​.PL. 202 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Gen­er­al Arrange­ment Plan	erz 22.36 PO2 Rev H	19/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Mar­ket­ing Suite NW and SW Elevations	0125.PL.303 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Mar­ket­ing Suite SE and NE Elevations	0125.PL.304 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Mar­ket­ing Suite Pro­posed Floor Plan	0125.PL.105 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Mar­ket­ing Suite Sections	0125.PL.203 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Office Elevations	0125.PL.307 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Office plan	0125.PL.108 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 7 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 12 June 2026

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Plan — Power­house Plans	0125.PL.104 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Site Lay­out show­ing pro­posed drain­age layout	C032 Rev C	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Site Lay­out show­ing set­ting out	C030 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Site Lay­out show­ing swept path analysis	C033 Rev A	22/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Ware­house No. 1 Elevations	0125.PL.305 Rev A	21/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Ware­house No. 1 Plans	0125.PL.106 Rev A	21/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Ware­houses 2 and 3 Elevations	0125.PL.306 Rev A	21/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Ware­houses 2 and 3 Plans	0125.PL.107 Rev A	21/09/23	01/05/26
Plan — Access Road Upgrade Works	CO37 Rev A	01/10/23	01/05/26
Plan — Tree Con­straints Plan	erz 22.36 PO6 Rev A	08/06/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — Abnor­mal Load Assessment			01/05/26
Oth­er — Design and Access State­ment Part 1	0125.DAS001 Rev 3		01/05/26
Oth­er — Design and Access State­ment Part 2	0125.DAS001 Rev 3		01/05/26
Oth­er — Design and Access State­ment Part 3	0125.DAS001 Rev 3		01/05/26
Oth­er — Design and Access State­ment Part 4	0125.DAS001 Rev 3		01/05/26
Oth­er — Design and Access State­ment Part 5	0125.DAS001 Rev 3		01/05/26
Oth­er — EIA non-tech­nic­al summary	676491 Rev 2	30/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — EIAR volume 1 writ­ten statement	676491 Rev 2	30/05/23	01/05/26

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 7 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 12 June 2026

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Oth­er — EIAR volume 2 Fig­ures Part 1	676491 Rev 2	30/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — EIAR volume 2 Fig­ures Part 2	676491 Rev 2	30/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — EIAR volume 2 Fig­ures Part 3	676491 Rev 2	30/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — EIAR volume 2 Fig­ures Part 4	676491 Rev 2	30/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — EIAR volume 3 Tech­nic­al Appen­dices Part 1	676491	30/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — EIAR volume 3 Tech­nic­al Appen­dices Part 2	676491	30/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — EIAR volume 3 Tech­nic­al Appen­dices Part 3	676491	30/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — EIAR volume 3 Tech­nic­al Appen­dices Part 4	676491	30/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — Phase 1/II Geo-Envir­on­ment­al and Geo­tech­nic­al Inter­pret­at­ive Report Part 1	2201-06	01/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — Phase 1/II Geo-Envir­on­ment­al and Geo­tech­nic­al Inter­pret­at­ive Report Part 2	2201-06	01/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — Phase 1/II Geo-Envir­on­ment­al and Geo­tech­nic­al Inter­pret­at­ive Report Part 3	2201-06	01/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — Phase 1/II Geo-Envir­on­ment­al and Geo­tech­nic­al Inter­pret­at­ive Report Part 4	2201-06	01/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — Peat Man­age­ment Plan			01/05/26
Oth­er — Plan­ning Statement			01/05/26
Oth­er — Socio Eco­nom­ic Statement		01/06/23	01/05/26

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 7 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 12 June 2026

Title	Draw­ing Num­ber	Date on Plan*	Date Received
Oth­er — Trans­port­a­tion Assessment	22163 Rev 1a	17/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — Dust and Air Qual­ity Assessment			01/05/26
Oth­er — Noise Assessment	Rev 2		01/05/26
Oth­er — SEPA COMAH Statement	9070	04/09/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — Out­door Access Plan			01/05/26
Oth­er — Flood Risk Assessment	KC2194 Rev 3	27/09/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — EIAR volume 2 Fig­ures Part 5	676491	30/05/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — EIAR volume 3 Tech­nic­al Appendix 4.4 Breed­ing Bird Survey	676491	28/06/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — EIAR volume 3 Tech­nic­al Appendix 4.5 Rep­tile Survey	676491	28/06/23	01/05/26
Oth­er — Con­struc­tion Meth­od Statement			01/05/26
Oth­er — Con­struc­tion Noise Statement			01/05/26
Oth­er — Con­struc­tion Traffic Man­age­ment Statement			01/05/26

*Where no spe­cif­ic day of month has been provided on the plan, the sys­tem defaults to the 1^st of the month.

1. Plan­ning con­sent was gran­ted in June 2023 for the erec­tion of a dis­til­lery, 3 ware­houses, access, park­ing, offices, bore­holes at this site (ref­er­ence 2023/0267/DET). This con­sent was sub­ject to a num­ber of plan­ning con­di­tions. None of these con­di­tions have been dis­charged and work has not star­ted on site. A copy of the pre­vi­ous com­mit­tee report is attached as Appendix 2.

2. This cur­rent applic­a­tion seeks to vary the terms of con­di­tion 8 of the 2023/0267/DET con­sent, which presently reads as fol­lows: ​“No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on site until details of the design and fin­ishes of the sprink­ler tanks, cool­ing tower, pipe bridge and check dam have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The devel­op­ment shall there­after be con­struc­ted in accord­ance with the approved details.”

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 7 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 12 June 2026

1. The reas­on for the con­di­tion was to ensure the devel­op­ment com­ple­ments and enhances the land­scape in accord­ance with Policy 4: Nat­ur­al places of Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 and Policy 5: Land­scape of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021. At the time of the ori­gin­al con­sent there were only indic­at­ive plans of these pieces of infra­struc­ture, so the con­di­tion sought to obtain the final design details for approval.

2. The cur­rent applic­a­tion has been sub­mit­ted under the terms of Sec­tion 42 of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 (as amended), which makes pro­vi­sion for applic­ants to apply to devel­op land without com­pli­ance with con­di­tions pre­vi­ously attached to a plan­ning consent.

3. The applic­ants have provided a sup­port­ing state­ment which explains that ongo­ing eco­nom­ic and pro­gram­ming pres­sures affect­ing the wider devel­op­ment have delayed ele­ments of the pro­ject timetable. The applic­ant there­fore seeks addi­tion­al time to final­ise pro­cure­ment arrange­ments and detailed design inform­a­tion asso­ci­ated with the rel­ev­ant infra­struc­ture. Con­sent is there­fore being sought to vary the terms of con­di­tion 8 to amend the trig­ger point for provid­ing the details of the sprink­ler tanks, cool­ing tower, pipe bridge and check dam. Instead of provid­ing inform­a­tion before devel­op­ment starts on site, the applic­ant is seek­ing con­sent to provide the inform­a­tion before work starts on these par­tic­u­lar pieces of infra­struc­ture. The sup­port­ing state­ment high­lights that this is a sim­il­ar approach to oth­er plan­ning con­di­tions on the con­sent, for example con­di­tion 9 which requires details of the fin­ishes of build­ings and foot­bridges before work starts on the build­ings themselves.

4. Accord­ingly, the applic­ant seeks to vary the con­di­tion as fol­lows: ​“No devel­op­ment shall com­mence on the erec­tion or install­a­tion of the sprink­ler tanks, cool­ing tower, pipe bridge and check dam site until details of the design and fin­ishes of these ele­ments have been sub­mit­ted to and approved in writ­ing by the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity act­ing as Plan­ning Author­ity. The devel­op­ment shall there­after be con­struc­ted in accord­ance with the approved details”.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Item 7 Plan­ning Com­mit­tee 12 June 2026

1. No oth­er alter­a­tions to the plan­ning per­mis­sion are proposed.

2. The par­tic­u­lar items referred to in con­di­tion 8 are loc­ated in the part of the site to the south of the pro­posed new dis­til­lery which con­tains oper­a­tion­al com­pon­ents. The cool­ing tower is loc­ated to the rear of the dis­til­lery and close to the power­house build­ing. The three sprink­ler tanks are loc­ated to the south of the dis­til­lery build­ing beside the access road to the ware­hous­ing. The pipe bridge con­nects the dis­til­lery build­ings and the ware­hous­ing so is again behind the dis­til­lery build­ing. Finally, the check dam is loc­ated to the north­w­est of the dis­til­lery build­ing beside an exist­ing pond area.

3. No changes to the pos­i­tion­ing of these ele­ments are pro­posed nor to the wider land­scap­ing of this part of the site.

His­tory

1. 2023/0267/DET — Full plan­ning per­mis­sion was gran­ted in Novem­ber 2023 for the erec­tion of dis­til­lery 3 No. ware­houses, access, park­ing, offices, bore­holes at U220, 259m south­east of Spey dam, Gravan­more, Mel­grave, Laggan.

Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Appraisal

1. A Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­al (HRA) was under­taken at the time of the pre­vi­ous applic­a­tion to con­sider the likely sig­ni­fic­ant effects upon the River Spey Spe­cial Area of Con­ser­va­tion (SAC), which runs along the north­ern bound­ary of the site and is des­ig­nated for its Atlantic sal­mon, fresh­wa­ter pearl mus­sel, sea lamprey and otter interest. The HRA con­cluded that with suit­able mit­ig­a­tion in the form of imple­ment­a­tion of a pol­lu­tion pre­ven­tion plan and con­struc­tion meth­od state­ment there would be no adverse effects on the integ­rity of the des­ig­nated site and the con­ser­va­tion object­ives would be met. The cur­rent applic­a­tion to change the tim­ing trig­ger for sub­mis­sion of details of the design of some infra­struc­ture com­pon­ents does not affect these con­clu­sions or neces­sit­ate a fur­ther HRA.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park