Scenic Routes viewpoints are on track

Two very special views in the Cairngorms National Park are about to get even better with planning permission granted today (Friday 19 February) for the installation of features to improve the visitor experience at the popular stop-off points.

The famous Devil’s Elbow at Glenshee will see the construction of a viewpoint seat, path and visitor information point at the layby at Creagan Nam Cam, where travellers can take a break and take in the wonderful landscape. Meanwhile at the Craighaulkie Quarry on the outskirts of Tomintoul, an elevated viewpoint feature designed to acknowledge the site’s quarrying history, will be installed where people can enjoy the fantastic views up Glen Avon.

The two planning applications follow on from the installation of cowled seats called ‘The Watchers’ at Corgarff as part of the ‘snow roads’ Scenic Route.

The Scottish Government’s Scenic Routes project takes its inspiration from a similar, successful initiative in Norway and aims to enhance visitors’ experience of Scotland’s landscape by creating innovatively designed viewpoints, as well as harnessing new talent through competitions for recently qualified designers.

At the Cairngorms National Park Authority’s (CNPA) planning committee meeting this morning, members approved the designs for the next two sites on the ‘snow roads’ Scenic Route – an outstanding mountainous road linking Blairgowrie (A93) to Grantown-on-Spey (A939) via Braemar, Ballater and Tomintoul. The route forms the highest public road in Britain and is regularly used by classic car and motor bike enthusiasts and increasingly road cyclists, offering an alternative to the A9, traversing the eastern Cairngorms through remote, wild and breath-taking landscapes.

Planning committee convener Eleanor Mackintosh said: “This road is as famous for the amount of snow it gets as it is the stunning landscapes. We hope by promoting it through the Scenic Routes initiative – with having these attractive and interesting stop-off points – we can encourage more visitors to this area of the Cairngorms National Park.”

You can view the planning papers in full on the CNPA website https://cairngorms.co.uk/meeting/planning-2016-02-19/

Ends.