Skip to content
Please be aware the content below has been generated by an AI model from a source PDF.

Landscape - engagement version

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 1 of 28

Top­ic: Landscape

Engage­ment ver­sion June 2024

Require­ments addressed in this section

Table 1 Inform­a­tion required by the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997, as amended, regard­ing the issue addressed in this section.

Sec­tionRequire­ment
Sec­tion 15(5)The prin­cip­al phys­ic­al, cul­tur­al, eco­nom­ic, social, built her­it­age and envir­on­ment­al char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the district.

Links to evidence

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 2 of 28

Sum­mary of evidence

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 3 of 28

Policy Con­text

Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000)

The Nation­al Park has four dis­tinct aims as set out in The Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000). The first aim is ​‘to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area’. The aims are all to be pur­sued col­lect­ively. How­ever, if there is con­flict between the first aim and any of the oth­ers, great­er weight is giv­en to the first aim (as set out in Sec­tion 9(6) of the 2000 Act).

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 recog­nises Scotland’s rich her­it­age, cul­ture and out­stand­ing envir­on­ment as nation­al assets which sup­port our eco­nomy, iden­tity, health and wellbeing.

The iden­ti­fic­a­tion and pro­tec­tion of nation­ally import­ant land­scape assets are provided in Policy 4 Nat­ur­al Places with the intent to pro­tect, restore and enhance land­scapes and to ensure they are man­aged in a sus­tain­able way. The pro­tec­tion Policy 4 affords applies to both Nation­al Parks and the Nation­al Scen­ic Areas that sit with­in them.

Policy 4 c) as two stages of the policy test for man­aging change from devel­op­ment pro­pos­als and has a high level of pro­tec­tion, where devel­op­ment will only be sup­por­ted where:

  • The object­ives of des­ig­na­tion and the over­all integ­rity of the areas will not be com­prom­ised: or
  • Any sig­ni­fic­ant adverse effects on the qual­it­ies for which the area has been des­ig­nated are clearly out­weighed by social, envir­on­ment­al or eco­nom­ic bene­fits of nation­al importance.

Wild lands Areas (as iden­ti­fied on NatureScot’s 2014 map­ping) are afforded some pro­tec­tion with­in Policy 4. As a pro­tec­ted land­scape and not a des­ig­na­tion in stat­ute, the level of pro­tec­tion is less than the Nation­al Park or Nation­al Scen­ic Areas and applies strictly to the defined bound­ary as indic­ated in Policy 4(g). With­in the Wild Land Area, the level of pro­tec­tion applies only in so far as the assess­ment of renew­able energy devel­op­ments can illus­trate that they sup­port meet­ing defined tar­gets for gen­er­a­tion or small-scale devel­op­ment linked to croft­ing or fra­gile com­munit­ies. Buf­fer zones around wild land will not be applied, and effects of devel­op­ment out with wild land areas will not be a sig­ni­fic­ant con­sid­er­a­tion in the determ­in­a­tion of devel­op­ment proposals.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 4 of 28

Policy 11 Energy requires Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans to real­ise the areas full poten­tial for elec­tri­city and heat from renew­able, low car­bon and zero emis­sion resources by identi­fy­ing a range of oppor­tun­it­ies for energy devel­op­ment. This is to encour­age, pro­mote and facil­it­ate all forms of renew­able devel­op­ment onshore. The excep­tion to the Nation­al Park (and Nation­al Scen­ic Areas in Policy 11b) is that wind farms pro­posed in these des­ig­na­tions will not be supported.

Policy14 Design, qual­ity and place gives a strong steer of the import­ance of a design-led approach to encour­age, pro­mote, and facil­it­ate well designed and suc­cess­ful places. This requires Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans to be place-based and cre­ated in line with the Place Prin­ciple adop­ted by the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment illus­trat­ing com­mit­ment to a col­lab­or­at­ive design and inclus­ive approach with loc­al communities.

Accord­ing to Policy 14 the spa­tial strategy of loc­al devel­op­ment plans should be under­pinned by the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places and provide clear expect­a­tions for design, qual­ity and place tak­ing account of the loc­al con­text, char­ac­ter­ist­ics, and con­nectiv­ity of the areas. The pro­duc­tion of detailed design guid­ance, using formats such as devel­op­ment brief and mas­ter­plans, are expec­ted and encour­aged. Use of the Place Stand­ard Tool is expec­ted in the pre­par­a­tion of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and design guid­ance and to engage with com­munit­ies and oth­er stake­hold­ers. Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 sees the con­nec­tion of this Policy with all oth­er policies in the Frame­work, impart­ing a strong steer on the import­ance of sit­ing and design to deliv­er sus­tain­able growth, even in the con­tact of the glob­al cli­mate crises and just trans­ition to net zero. This would draw on inform­a­tion gathered through approaches includ­ing Place Stand­ard assessments.

Oth­er policies which raise new or par­tic­u­larly sig­ni­fic­ant issues dir­ect­ing change with­in the Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work are:

Sig­ni­fic­ant expan­sion of the exist­ing wood­land resource in the Nation­al Park is pro­posed. Policy 6 Forestry, Wood­land and trees seeks to pro­tect and expand forests, wood­land and trees and ensure their sus­tain­able man­age­ment. This policy requires the pro­duc­tion of an up-to-date Forest and Wood­land Strategy. Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 cites both Policies 4 and 6 as being key con­nec­tions and which should influ­ence the sit­ing and design of the forestry and wood­land pro­pos­als recog­nising and respond­ing to the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park.

Policy 21 Play Recre­ation and Sport place a require­ment in the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan to identi­fy sites for sports, play and out­door recre­ation for people of all ages. This is

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 5 of 28

par­tic­u­larly sali­ent in a Nation­al Park where one of the 4 dis­tinct aims is to pro­mote the under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park, includ­ing enjoy­ment in the form of recre­ation. The exist­ing man­age­ment and devel­op­ment of new facil­it­ies and spaces should be based on an under­stand­ing of the needs and demand in the com­munity and informed by the plan­ning author­it­ies Play Suf­fi­ciency Assess­ment and Open Space Strategy. For the pur­poses of the Open Space Strategy, Nation­al Parks are not con­sidered to be a plan­ning author­ity and there­fore are not required to do this. In any event open space assess­ment inform­a­tion is not required to inform the evid­ence report but is required for the new Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The Nation­al Park are required to pro­duce an audit of play suf­fi­ciency, which will be developed in con­sulta­tion with the rel­ev­ant loc­al authorities.

Linked to this Policy 20 b) con­siders the Open Space Strategy to be an appro­pri­ate means for the design of blue and green infra­struc­ture to take account of exist­ing pro­vi­sion and new require­ments and net­work con­nec­tions for well-designed and integ­rated infra­struc­ture. In the pre­par­a­tion and pub­lish­ing of an Open Space Strategy, Nation­al Parks are not con­sidered to be a plan­ning author­ity and as such are not required to pro­duce one.

There are no spe­cif­ic policies address­ing the devel­op­ment of private roads and ways with­in Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022

The Part­ner­ship Plan sets out the vis­ion and over­arch­ing strategy for man­aging the Nation­al Park and provides the stra­tegic con­text for the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. The Part­ner­ship Plan seeks to strike the right bal­ance to ensure that the Nation­al Park strives for both nature and people in the future. The land­scapes of the Nation­al Park are the fun­da­ment­al way people (com­munit­ies and vis­it­ors alike) exper­i­ence all that the Cairngorms has to offer, its nature, cul­ture and settlements.

The Nation­al Park also has a sig­ni­fic­ant role to play in deliv­er­ing the policy ambi­tions of Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and is pur­su­ing sev­er­al ambi­tious pro­jects like Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030. Across these pro­jects Her­it­age Hori­zons will bring about trans­form­a­tion­al change in the Cairngorms, bene­fit­ing people’s health and well­being, deliv­er­ing on pro­pos­als to tackle cli­mate change and enhan­cing nature across the Nation­al Park. Whilst all the pro­jects are rel­ev­ant to the appre­ci­ation of the land­scapes in the Nation­al Park, in par­tic­u­lar two pro­jects have dir­ect or sig­ni­fic­ant implications:

  • Land­scape and Communities
  • Effect­ive Com­munity engage­ment and outreach

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 6 of 28

With­in the Part­ner­ship Plan, Policy A4 seeks to con­serve and enhance the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park. With­in this the Part­ner­ship Plan places a par­tic­u­lar emphas­is on the con­ser­va­tion and enhance­ment of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of wild­ness and dark skies. Wood­land expan­sion is sup­por­ted where it max­im­ises oppor­tun­it­ies for long-term enhance­ment of the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies through good design. Policy A4 also seeks to enhance the oppor­tun­it­ies for com­munit­ies and vis­it­ors alike to enjoy and exper­i­ence the land­scapes of the Nation­al Park. In open moor­land, Policy A4 applies a pre­sump­tion against new con­struc­ted tracks. Where there is agree­ment for their pro­vi­sion, new tracks are to be con­struc­ted to a high standard.

Wild Land Areas with­in the Nation­al Park are iden­ti­fied as a spe­cial land­scape qual­ity of the Nation­al Park and as such have a high­er level of pro­tec­tion than that afforded by Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4Policy 4(g). Areas bey­ond the wild land bound­ary, but still with­in the Nation­al Park and which still retain high scores of wild­ness and con­trib­ute sig­ni­fic­antly to the exper­i­ence of the wild­ness spe­cial land­scape qual­ity will also be giv­en a high­er level of pro­tec­tion than that afforded by Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4Policy 4(g).

Pro­pos­als for con­struc­ted private roads and ways in the upland land­scapes of the Nation­al Park are cur­rently con­sidered against Part­ner­ship Plan Policy A4 (f) and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan Policy 5.2. The inclu­sion of a policy to man­age the num­bers and improve the sit­ing and design of all tracks reflec­ted that this is a sig­ni­fic­ant devel­op­ment issue for the Nation­al Park. The Nation­al Park remains of the opin­ion that the policy on tracks should remain in place.

Com­munity action plans

There are cur­rently 18 com­munity action plans in place across the Nation­al Park. Whilst there is some vari­ation in con­tent and style, all the action plans included some level of com­munity engage­ment, through a sur­vey and / or work­shop days (‘Big Con­ver­sa­tions’). Most of the action plans used the approach out­lined in the Place Stand­ard and the Nation­al Stand­ards for Com­munity Engage­ment to assist in involving the com­munity and shap­ing the action plan. This improved inclus­iv­ity and rep­res­ent­a­tion of views and helped to gen­er­ate a dia­logue about what is import­ant in their com­munity and what actions to take.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 7 of 28

The major­ity of the action plans recog­nised the import­ance of their loc­al land­scapes and val­ued them as such. Key factors that are rel­ev­ant to many of the com­munit­ies out­lined in the action plans are:

  • The loc­a­tion of the com­munit­ies with­in the moun­tain­ous set­ting and with­in the scen­ic Cairngorms Nation­al Park.
  • Spec­tac­u­lar views and scenery.
  • The rur­al set­ting and nat­ur­al envir­on­ment, typ­ic­ally sur­roun­ded by hills and often situ­ated in a strath beside a river or con­flu­ence of rivers – many nat­ur­al fea­tures are import­ant to set­ting and sense of place (includ­ing Cre­ag Choin­nich (Kenneth’s Crag) to Brae­mar, Ben Alder to Dal­whin­nie, Roche Mou­ton­ness at Dul­nain Bridge, the Anagach Woods at Grant­own-on-Spey, Aber­nethy Cale­do­ni­an Pine Forest to Nethy Bridge, New­ton­more on the con­flu­ence of rivers Spey, Calder and Allt Laraidh, Ben Newe at Strathdon.
  • Icon­ic land­mark build­ings and struc­tures (includ­ing Blair Castle, old pack­horse bridge at Car­rbridge, Glen­buchat and Cor­garff Castles along Strath­don, Castle Roy and the Telford Bridges at Nethy Bridge, Dal­whin­nie Dis­til­lery, Brae­mar Castle).
  • Char­ac­ter­ful his­tor­ic centres of tra­di­tion­al stone-built houses, many from the Vic­tori­an era.
  • Quiet and peace­ful char­ac­ter of many settlements.
  • Remote­ness and sur­round­ing wild land, sur­roun­ded by ​‘unspoilt and unpop­u­lated coun­tryside, with dark skies.
  • Imme­di­ate access to the sur­round­ing land­scape of wood­land, heath­er moor­land, moun­tains, rivers – strong emphas­is on the high qual­ity of out­door life and links to Long Dis­tance Routes – the Deeside Way, the East High­land Way, Badenoch Way. Annu­al High­land Games and Gath­er­ings (includ­ing the Lon­ach Gath­er­ing at Strath­don, Brae­mar gathering).
  • Coun­tryside that sup­ports a rich and diverse flora and fauna.
  • Inspir­ing land­scape influ­en­cing poetry, songs, storey telling and art and lat­terly tele­vi­sion and film.

Baseline of land­scape matters

At 4,528 square kilo­metres, and com­pris­ing 6% of Scotland’s land area, the Cairngorms Nation­al Park is the UK’s largest pro­tec­ted land­scape. It is one of only two Nation­al Parks in Scot­land. It is without doubt one of the UK’s finest mont­ane envir­on­ments and pos­sess a range of spe­cial qual­it­ies, often unique to the area impart­ing a strong nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al iden­tity. Fur­ther­more, nearly half of the Nation­al Park’s land area is clas­si­fied as being ​‘wild land’.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 8 of 28

Cairngorms Spe­cial Land­scape Qualities

In 2010 work was con­duc­ted to identi­fy the Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park land­scape, car­ried out by NatureScot and the Park Author­ity. The spe­cial qual­it­ies iden­ti­fied drawn on the dis­tinct land­scape and visu­al char­ac­ter of the Nation­al Park, but it is how these qual­it­ies are exper­i­enced and val­ued by com­munit­ies with­in, and vis­it­ors to, the Nation­al Park that make them import­ant to our under­stand­ing of the Nation­al Park’s place and iden­tity. While most land­scape qual­it­ies are appre­ci­ated in day­light, dark skies are an import­ant char­ac­ter­ist­ic for many areas of the Nation­al Park that con­trib­ute to a sense of wildness.

The cur­rent Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 policy 5.1 states that ​‘There will be a pre­sump­tion against any devel­op­ment that does not con­serve or enhance the land­scape char­ac­ter and spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park includ­ing wild­ness and the set­ting of the pro­posed devel­op­ment’. Table 1 provides a sum­mary of the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies iden­ti­fied. Full details can be found in the Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park via:

Table 1 Sum­mary of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Gen­er­al Qualities
i.Mag­ni­fi­cent moun­tains tower­ing over moor­land, forest, and strath
ii.Vast­ness of space, scale, and height
iii.Strong jux­ta­pos­i­tion of con­trast­ing landscapes
iv.A land­scape of lay­ers, from inhab­ited strath to remote, unin­hab­ited upland
v.‘The har­mony of com­plic­ated curves’
vi.Land­scapes both cul­tur­al and natural
The Moun­tains and PlateauxTrees, Woods and Forests
vii.The uni­fy­ing pres­ence of the cent­ral mountainsxiv.Dark and ven­er­able pine forest
viii.An impos­ing mas­sif of strong dra­mat­ic characterxv.Light and airy birch woods
ix.The unique plat­eaux of vast scale, dis­tinct­ive land­forms andxvi.Park­land and policy woodlands
xvii.Long asso­ci­ation with forestry

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 9 of 28

exposed, boulder strewn high ground
x.The sur­round­ing hills
xi.The drama of deep corries
xii.Excep­tion­al gla­cial landforms
xiii.Snowscapes
Moor­landsWild­life and Nature
xviii.Extens­ive moor­land, link­ing the farm­land, wood­land and the high topsxx.Dom­in­ance of nat­ur­al landforms
xix.A patch­work of muirburnxxi.Extens­ive tracts of nat­ur­al vegetation
xxii.Asso­ci­ation with icon­ic animals
xxiii.Wild land
xxiv.Wild­ness
Glens and StrathsVisu­al and Sens­ory Qualities
xxv.Steep glens and high passesxxix.Lay­ers of reced­ing ridge lines
xxvi.Broad, farmed strathsxxx.Grand pan­or­a­mas and framed views
xxvii.Renowned riversxxxi.A land­scape of many colours
xxviii.Beau­ti­ful lochsxxxii.Dark skies
xxxiii.Attract­ive and con­trast­ing textures
xxxiv.The dom­in­ance of nat­ur­al sounds
Cul­ture and HistoryRecre­ation
xxxv.Dis­tinct­ive planned townsxli.A land­scape of opportunities
xxxvi.Ver­nacu­lar stone buildingsxlii.Spir­itu­al­ity
xxxvii.Dra­mat­ic, his­tor­ic­al routes
xxxviii.The wist­ful­ness of aban­doned settlements
xxxix.Focal cul­tur­al land­marks of castles, dis­til­ler­ies and bridges
xl.The Roy­al connection

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Cairngorms 2030 – Land­scape and com­munit­ies project Page 10 of 28

This pro­ject explores how com­munit­ies of place and interest per­ceive, exper­i­ence and value the land­scapes of the Nation­al Park, and estab­lishes these com­munity pref­er­ences for land­scape change. The cur­rent suite of spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies was devised through the applic­a­tion of a tech­nic­al meth­od­o­logy by pro­fes­sion­al con­sult­ants. Com­munity engage­ment on this work was not under­taken at that time. How­ever, this Pro­ject seeks to engage com­munit­ies dir­ectly into the devel­op­ment of an updated suite of spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies (that may draw on the exist­ing work) with a pro­gramme of engage­ment extend­ing over the next 5 years.

This innov­at­ive work has sig­ni­fic­ant implic­a­tions for how the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies are presen­ted going for­ward. Work has already began con­sid­er­ing how to spa­tially map some of the spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies, provid­ing a more rig­or­ous and trans­par­ent evid­ence base on which to draw from and in turn to inform the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan. This think­ing will be developed through­out the next 5 years of the deliv­ery phase of this Project.

Draft spa­tially mapped spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies are being tested, which illus­trate where spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies are loc­ated, and where these qual­it­ies are par­tic­u­larly strongly rep­res­en­ted or ​‘enhanced’. The spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies include:

  • Wild­ness and Wild Land– this approach uses the four com­pon­ents of the NatureScot wild­ness map­ping (rug­ged­ness, nat­ur­al­ness, remote­ness, and absence of human arte­facts) but are mapped using a sim­pli­fied meth­od which should be eas­ily repeat­able, but import­antly is tailored in approach spe­cif­ic to the Nation­al Park.
  • Dark Skies and the spa­tial map­ping of levels of light intensity
  • Mag­ni­fi­cent Mountains
  • Jux­ta­pos­i­tion of Settled and Rur­al landscapes
  • Steep Glens and High Passes
  • Her­it­age Paths and Bridges
  • Grand pan­or­a­mas, Elev­ated Views, and Dis­tinct­ive Scenery.

Nation­al Scen­ic Areas

The land­scapes of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park have long been regarded as worthy of pro­tec­tion, with three Nation­al Scen­ic Areas being des­ig­nated in 1980 / 1981 (). Two, namely the Cairngorm Moun­tains and Deeside and Loch­nagar, are loc­ated entirely with­in the Nation­al Park bound­ary. These Nation­al Scen­ic Areas are largely centred on the highest moun­tain plat­eau at its core (Fig­ure 1), but also include lower hills and areas of moor­land, wood­land, and inhab­ited strath (NatureScot and Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 11 of 28

Author­ity, 2010). Com­bined, the two Nation­al Scen­ic Areas cov­er an area of around 1,072 square kilo­metres, which equates to just under 25% of the Nation­al Park’s land area. The third des­ig­na­tion is the Loch Tum­mel Nation­al Scen­ic Area which very slightly over­laps the Nation­al Park’s bound­ary at Kil­liecrankie, near Blair Atholl. The area of this Nation­al Scen­ic Area with­in the Nation­al Park is insig­ni­fic­ant when con­sid­er­ing its full dimensions.

Fig­ure 1 Nation­al Scen­ic Areas with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Repro­duced by per­mis­sion of Ord­nance Sur­vey on behalf of His Majesty’s Sta­tion­ery Office. © Crown copy­right and data­base right 2024. All rights reserved. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber AC0000821810, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

Nation­al Scen­ic Areas are des­ig­nated under Sec­tion 263A of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997 and are defined as ​‘of out­stand­ing scen­ic value in a nation­al con­text’. The legis­la­tion also states that with­in a Nation­al Scen­ic Areas ​‘spe­cial atten­tion is to be paid to the desirab­il­ity of safe­guard­ing or enhan­cing its char­ac­ter or appear­ance’. Most new devel­op­ments with­in Nation­al Scen­ic Areas need to be accom­pan­ied by a design state­ment, and there are restric­tions on cer­tain per­mit­ted devel­op­ment rights.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 12 of 28

The ori­gin­al descrip­tions giv­en in the 1978 report Scotland’s Scen­ic Her­it­age, which lead to the des­ig­na­tion of Nation­al Scen­ic Areas, may be found in the appen­dices of The Spe­cial Land­scape Qual­it­ies of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park (NatureScot and Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity, 2010):

https://www.nature.scot/naturescot-commissioned-report-375-special-landscape-qualities-cairngorms-national-park.

Cairngorms land­scape char­ac­ter assessment

The key char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the whole of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park have been iden­ti­fied and described with­in dis­crete land­scape char­ac­ter areas and can be cat­egor­ised as belong­ing to either its Uplands or Glens and Straths (Fig­ure 2). This assess­ment of land­scape char­ac­ter areas provides the build­ing blocks to our under­stand­ing of the extent, nature, and vari­ety of char­ac­ter across the Nation­al Park, and under­pins the iden­ti­fic­a­tion of the spe­cial land­scape qualities.

These areas are all dif­fer­ent and dis­tinct from each oth­er reflect­ing loc­al con­text. How­ever, with­in each area there is a con­sist­ency of char­ac­ter influ­enced by dif­fer­ent factors such as the topo­graphy, land use, veget­a­tion pat­terns, set­tle­ment, and the way the land­scape is exper­i­enced. With­in the glens and straths there tends to be more diversity of land­scapes in a smal­ler area, where­as in the uplands the land­scape tends to be sim­il­ar over much lar­ger areas.

The char­ac­ter areas provide a spa­tial frame­work for the deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park’s respons­ib­il­it­ies, duties and policies. A descrip­tion of their key char­ac­ter­ist­ics, the way these are exper­i­enced and the key sens­it­iv­it­ies of each area, along with a suc­cinct sum­mary of what makes the areas dis­tinct­ive from else­where in the Nation­al Park, is provided on the Park Authority’s website:

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 13 of 28

Land­scape char­ac­ter area catagor­ies Glens and straths Uplands Settlements

Fig­ure 2 Cairngorms land­scape char­ac­ter areas. Repro­duced by per­mis­sion of Ord­nance Sur­vey on behalf of His Majesty’s Sta­tion­ery Office. © Crown copy­right and data­base right 2024. All rights reserved. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber AC0000821810, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

Wild land

Based on the work car­ried out to meas­ure rel­at­ive wild­ness, NatureScot pub­lished a map of Wild Land Areas, which rep­res­ent the most extens­ive areas of high rel­at­ive wild­ness in Scot­land. This is a nation­al data­set and the areas defined and adjus­ted based on ensur­ing nation­al cov­er­age in the scale and loc­a­tion of Wild Land Areas includ­ing some of Scotland’s island landscapes.

Fol­low­ing this meth­od­o­logy, NatureScot’s nation­al map­ping of rel­at­ive wild­ness (cov­er­ing the Cairngorms Nation­al Park) is provided on their web­site. This includes map­ping of the four attrib­utes which com­bine to give an over­all score of rel­at­ive wildness.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 14 of 28

Around 2,100 km², or 46%, of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park has been iden­ti­fied as ​‘wild land’ as defined by its per­ceived nat­ur­al­ness, rugged or chal­len­ging ter­rain, remote­ness from pub­lic mech­an­ised access and lack of built mod­ern artefacts.

Five areas (and their descrip­tions) have been iden­ti­fied with­in the Nation­al Park (Fig­ure 3) namely:

  • Ran­noch – Nevis – Mamores — Alder (WLA 14)
  • Cairngorms (WLA 15)
  • Loch­nagar – Mount Keen (WLA 16)
  • Braeroy – Glen­shirra – Cre­ag Mea­gaidh (WLA 19)
  • Mon­adh­liath (WLA 20)

Of these areas 15 and 16 are almost entirely loc­ated with­in the Nation­al Park, while the oth­er three only just over­lap its boundary.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 15 of 28

Fig­ure 3 Wild land areas with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Repro­duced by per­mis­sion of Ord­nance Sur­vey on behalf of His Majesty’s Sta­tion­ery Office. © Crown copy­right and data­base right 2024. All rights reserved. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber AC0000821810, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

These wild and remote areas have a dis­tinct and spe­cial char­ac­ter, which is highly val­ued and increas­ingly rare to find. A key com­pon­ent of Scotland’s iden­tity, they bring sig­ni­fic­ant eco­nom­ic bene­fits, attract­ing vis­it­ors and tour­ists. Many people derive psy­cho­lo­gic­al and spir­itu­al bene­fit from their exist­ence, and they provide increas­ingly import­ant havens for Scotland’s wild­life. The import­ance of these Wild Land Areas is reflec­ted in the wild land spe­cial land­scape qual­ity (see Table 1).

Rel­at­ive wildness

Wild­ness is a qual­ity exper­i­enced by people when vis­it­ing places of a cer­tain char­ac­ter and is typ­ic­ally (but not exclus­ively) asso­ci­ated with a reduc­tion in or lack of built devel­op­ment. Meas­ur­ing wild­ness is inher­ently dif­fi­cult, as people respond dif­fer­ently accord­ing to their per­son­al exper­i­ence and their expect­a­tions of a place. How­ever, work car­ried out by NatureScot con­sidered wild­ness through four phys­ic­al attrib­utes being

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 16 of 28

present, which they meas­ured and mapped (using the meth­od­o­logy included above). These attrib­utes were:

  • The per­ceived nat­ur­al­ness of the land cov­er (Fig­ure 4).
  • The rug­ged­ness of the ter­rain which is there­fore chal­len­ging to cross (Fig­ure 5).
  • Remote­ness from pub­lic roads, fer­ries or rail­way sta­tions (Fig­ure 6).
  • The vis­ible lack of build­ings, roads, pylons and oth­er mod­ern arte­facts (Fig­ure 7).

Per­cieved naturalness

High

Low

Fig­ure 4 The per­ceived nat­ur­al­ness of the land cov­er with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Repro­duced by per­mis­sion of Ord­nance Sur­vey on behalf of His Majesty’s Sta­tion­ery Office. © Crown copy­right and data­base right 2024. All rights reserved. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber AC0000821810, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 17 of 28

Rugged or chal­len­ging terrain

High

Low

Fig­ure 5 The rug­ged­ness of the ter­rain with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Repro­duced by per­mis­sion of Ord­nance Sur­vey on behalf of His Majesty’s Sta­tion­ery Office. © Crown copy­right and data­base right 2024. All rights reserved. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber AC0000821810, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 18 of 28

Remote­ness from roads

High

Low

Fig­ure 6 Remote­ness of land from pub­lic roads, fer­ries or rail­way sta­tions with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Repro­duced by per­mis­sion of Ord­nance Sur­vey on behalf of His Majesty’s Sta­tion­ery Office. © Crown copy­right and data­base right 2024. All rights reserved. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber AC0000821810, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 19 of 28

Lack of built artifacts

High

Low

Fig­ure 7 The vis­ible lack of build­ings, roads, pylons and oth­er mod­ern arte­facts with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Repro­duced by per­mis­sion of Ord­nance Sur­vey on behalf of His Majesty’s Sta­tion­ery Office. © Crown copy­right and data­base right 2024. All rights reserved. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber AC0000821810, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

These four attrib­utes were then com­bined to pro­duce a com­pos­ite or com­bined map of rel­at­ive wild­ness of the whole of Scot­land (Fig­ure 8). This work illus­trates that high­er rel­at­ive wild­ness scores extend bey­ond the Wild Land Areas, reflect­ing that the exper­i­ence of ​‘wild­ness’ is in many places pre­val­ent as a defined spe­cial land­scape qual­ity of the Nation­al Park.

This map­ping work under­pins the ini­tial defin­i­tion of the Wild Land Areas (see page 13).

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 20 of 28

Rel­at­ive wildness

High

Low

Fig­ure 8 Rel­at­ive wild­ness of land with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Repro­duced by per­mis­sion of Ord­nance Sur­vey on behalf of His Majesty’s Sta­tion­ery Office. © Crown copy­right and data­base right 2024. All rights reserved. Ord­nance Sur­vey Licence num­ber AC0000821810, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

Dark skies

Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Dark Sky Park (Fig­ure 9) is cer­ti­fied as part of the Inter­na­tion­al Dark Sky Places Pro­gram by the Inter­na­tion­al Dark-Sky Asso­ci­ation. With­in the pro­tec­ted land­scape of the Nation­al Park, the cer­ti­fic­a­tion encour­ages the imple­ment­a­tion of good out­door light­ing and the pro­vi­sion of dark sky pro­grams for vis­it­ors. Status updates are required reg­u­larly to ensure com­mit­ment to dark sky pre­ser­va­tion. In the con­text of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, the Dark Sky Park cer­ti­fic­a­tion rein­forces the more wide­spread, but not spa­tially defined Dark Skies spe­cial land­scape quality.

Both these cri­ter­ia reflect the rel­at­ive low devel­op­ment levels across the Nation­al Park and cur­rent atten­tion giv­en to the man­age­ment of arti­fi­cial light­ing. In turn these con­trib­ute to the numer­ous pos­it­ive bene­fits of man­aging light pol­lu­tion, includ­ing but

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Page 21 of 28

not

×

We want your feedback

Thank you for visiting our new website. We'd appreciate any feedback using our quick feedback form. Your thoughts make a big difference.

Thank you!

Give feedback