Last updated: 01/05/09

Unwelcome Changes at Lochnagar
1st April 2009

Last Sunday the weather forecast was improved for the SE Highlands, so I went for a trip to Lochnagar.  Unlike a few weeks earlier, when I went with snow-shoes, this time there was barely any snow or ice at all.

BUT I was horrified to see the new signs that have sprung up, in quite unnecessary places.
 

First of all, at the col just below Meikle Pap, a most ridiculous sign indicating the routes in all three directions – as if the well-worn path is not already clear enough for even the most novice map reader. 

I know there is talk of trying to get more folk into the hills, but this is surely totally unnecessary and inappropriate.

This is (was) a peaceful resting point where one can view the loch below, surmounted by the climbing gullies, before taking the final stiff walk up The Ladder

But worse was to come!
 

At the top of Lochnagar, just below the granite summit tor of Cac Carn Beag, yet another of these “public path” signs was a ghastly blot on the landscape. 

I am sure I am not alone in thinking that those who cannot read maps should not be venturing on the hills alone. 

It is totally unreasonable and reprehensible to spoil the sky-line at a location like this, and I think the Cairngorm Club should act to demand that such ugly blights be removed forthwith.

As if this was not enough,
a totally different shock was awaiting.

Up on the granite tor itself, the View Indicator that was erected by the Cairngorm Club in the 1920s had been almost totally removed, only the top plate visible set into the rock surface.  Now I know there is a move towards removing unnecessary cairns, memorials and other “graffiti” from mountain tops, but this view indicator has over the years become a well known and much admired part of the Lochnagar scenery.  The remaining plate is a worthless reminder of the famous sighting column.  The removal is a needless act of vandalism, and we must fight to get the column restored.  The newly sited dial is useless, as it is far too low relative to adjacent rocks, and is impossible to use.
 

In the first instance, please send a message of support to the President of the Club, and also send me an email so that I can coordinate our appeals.  Please send you emails, marked Lochnagar Protest, to me at:
Cairngorm-Haddock@hotmail.co.uk

We shall be contacting Prince Charles / Balmoral and Alex Salmond.

Peter “Whistle-Blower” Fayers
1 April 2009