Cairngorms National Park designation was tourist 'magnet'

"I think from the tourism point of view, the actual designation has been helpful," added Mr Blackett of Yellow Welly Tours, which takes visitors on luxury, chauffeur-driven trips around Royal Deeside.

"We get a lot more tourists. The overseas people will say 'where is your national park?' rather than Argyll or the Borders."

John Muir, a Dunbar-born American immigrant, was a key player in the world's first national park, created in the US in 1872.

From wolves to geysers, Yellowstone, in Wyoming, offers hidden wonders that are found in few other parts of the world. 

Given the Scottish connection, his home country was a bit slow off the mark to get behind the movement to set aside areas of natural beauty for preservation and pleasure.

The Peak District was designated the first national park in April 1951 under the Clement Attlee-led Labour administration.

It was in 1997, that the then Scottish secretary, Donald Dewar announced the government's commitment to national parks in Scotland. The first in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs was launched in 2002 and a year later the Cairngorms, which covers parts of Aberdeenshire, Moray, Highland, Angus and Perth and Kinross.

There are now plans for a third with Galloway and Lochaber among the areas competing for the cachet of the title and the monetary benefits.

Tourism accounts for 30% of the national park economy and 43% of employment with an average of half a million overnight domestic visitors bringing in £134 million a year.

Ski tourism is a major driver - the park is home to three out of Scotland's five ski resorts: Cairngorm Mountain, the Lecht and Glenshee - and those working in the industry say the number of international travellers is rising.

Visitor surveys on the park are overwhelmingly positive. In the last, 47% said nothing could be improved.

Around 90% arrive by car or campervan. The Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) say there are "big plans" to promote active and public transport but say the responsibility lies with local authorities.

'Magnet for tourism' 

Chris Greenwood, an expert on tourism policy at Glasgow Caledonian University says there is no doubt the "brand" helps attract visitors.

"The evolution of tourism in Scotland is quite interesting," he says.

"Twenty years ago we were talking about a tourism industry that was based around consumption.

"You booked accommodation, you booked travel, you booked attractions.

"As society has evolved and there is a greater awareness of the individual impact of tourism, we now look for more purposeful experiences. The parks I feel personify that.

The scenery that people come to see is there because of and not in spite of - as some would like to believe - crofters and farmers.

"Rewilding and the preservation of species - all of these are iconic for drawing people in.

"There's still room for tourism business but within that context of the environment that the tourist is looking for."

Fiona Campbell, chief executive of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, said the designation had been a "magnet" for tourism.

She said: "Tourism businesses in the Cairngorms National Park have provided outstanding visitor experiences and should be commended for their sterling effort."

While there is almost universal agreement that the designation has helped  boost visitor numbers, there are ongoing tensions with landowners, farmers and conservationists.

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Mr Blackett, whose wife is independent Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside councillor Geva Blackett, says the park has become "a bit of a political football" amid efforts by the Scottish Government to become a net zero-emitting nation by 2045.

One of the biggest projects by multi-landowner enterprise, Cairngorms Connect, aims to restore rivers and reseed ancient Caledonian pine forest over the next 200 years.

Landowner tensions 

Plans to scale-up the reintroduction of beavers in Scotland sparked an angry response from farmers who are concerned about damage to crops and land.

"The government minister of the time will use it [the park] for their own ideas, pet schemes which may not be well thought through," said Mr Blackett.

"You can have a minister in for a short while and the impact can last for a long while.

"At the end of the day the National Park is paid for by the Scottish Government and therefore the park officials have to do as they are told by their paymasters.

"It if works in the national park we will make it work somewhere else, if it doesn't work then tough, you've got it."

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When plans for the park were mooted, the strongest reservations were expressed by those with estate-owning interests. The CNPA does not own any of the land.

"I think the landowners, on the whole, would much prefer that it wasn't a national park," adds Mr Blackett, who managed Invercauld Estate, near Braemar, for 21 years before his retirement.

"We were promised a lot of carrots and not many sticks and actually there has been a lot of sticks and not many carrots."

Ian Wilson, regional manager for the National Farming Union Scotland, said there has been "no derived benefits" for the farming community from the creation of the park.

"The concerns at the time was that the park would be looking to create more opportunities for visitors and tourism and those that were involved in visitor management and the opportunities for them would be to the detriment of the agriculture sector," he says.

"I think that would be the consensus still, that the farmers and crofters that weren't diversifying in tourism have fallen behind and probably for 10-15 years were totally ignored by the park if not longer.

"Back in the early days there was funding to put in holiday homes and people took advantage of that," he says.

He says the potential to maximise the use of local produce used in hospitality hadn't happened to a great extent.

"There is always a suspicion that it's a good story to say that the sausages come from the pig that lived half a mile down the road but if it's costing you twice as much."

"It's only been in the past five years that there has been a change and the park now realised they have to have the land sector involved for them to get some of their goals.

"The scenery that people come to see is there because of and not in spite of - as some would like to believe - crofters and farmers," he added.

"That realisation took a long time to get through but I'd definitely say there's signs of that being the case now."

The Canadian experience

Relationships between the governing bodies and farmers are said to be less strained in Canada, which is home to 38 national parks. 

A spokeswoman for Parks Canada said: "The model is very different than what it seems to be in Scotland and these protected areas cover the varied biospheres that exist within Canada -- many of which do not intersect with farmland, in particular land used for ecotourism.

"Parks Canada takes its mandate to protect ecological integrity very seriously and is among the few national parks systems in the world that have a system-wide ecological integrity monitoring and reporting program."

The Cairngorms National Park is home to a quarter of the UK's rare and endangered species.

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Earlier this year, 22 wildcats were introduced at undisclosed locations and around 60 wildcats will be released over the next three years.

White-tailed eagles are also establishing themselves again.

Experts say Scotland is experiencing a zeitgeist moment for rewilding—in essence, the rebuilding of ecosystems to their natural uncultivated states—with new efforts and a matrix of wild lands and natural corridors spreading across the country.

BrewDog has begun a project to create Scotland's biggest forest at Kinrara, a former sporting estate while the Far Ralia estate, near Newtonmore, was bought for £7.5m by a property investment trust to help it offset its CO2 emissions and in time sell carbon credits.

Abrdn Property Income Trust plans to plant millions of broadleaf trees over 765 hectares (1,890 acres) and restore 200 hectares of damaged peatland; in all, the estate – previously a grouse moor and deer forest – covers 1,462 hectares.

However, the projects by so-called 'green lairds ' have been met with some criticism.

Vested interests 

Dave Morris, who writes for the influential blog Parks Watch Scotland, said the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) had "aspirational plans" but little chance of delivering them because of "vested interests, particularly within the wider forestry industry" which continue to favour planting over natural regeneration.

"Planting is OK in locations where the soil has already been exposed to repeated cultivation and its carbon content is very low as a result," says Mr Morris.

"But on heather moorland like Kinrara it is far better to simply stop burning the moorland for grouse shooting and to control grazing pressure from deer, sheep or cattle. 

"By maintaining low deer numbers the heather will grow more vigorously and trees and shrubs will establish, either from seedlings already present in the heather but suppressed by previous grazing levels or by new seedlings established by seed spread from nearby existing woodland.

"There is a sense of frustration at the slow progress in changing some traditional land use practices regarding grouse, deer and forestry," he added.

"The  CNPA has limited powers to change many of these things.

"There is a continuing failure to persuade King Charles and his Balmoral neighbours to reduce deer numbers down to levels that will permit the ecological recovery of forest and mountain habitats, despite a 2019 Scottish Government report highlighting Balmoral and its neighbours as the worst place in Scotland for deer overgrazing. 

"This sets a very bad example to the rest of Scotland’s landowners."

The CNPA say there has been "remarkable change" over the last 20 years in the Park at a landscape-scale with more than 5000ha of new native woodland established and 1000ha of peatland restored last year alone with deer numbers "reduced significantly".

Andrew Saunders, who runs Great North Lodges and is vice-president of the Scottish Ski Club, says the park designation created more layers of bureaucracy which make it more difficult to progress new developments in the mountains.

"On the skiing front, it's been one big hindrance," he said. "To get any new infrastructure, there is another layer of complication to get it through planning and the development place because the Cairngorm National Park has a say in it.

"I get it, you need to protect the environment [but] I think it's stifled any development on the hill."

He said this had also delayed repairs to the Cairngorm funicular railway, which was closed for four years due to structural problems and is now temporarily shut again for works.

"The funicular took a lot longer to repair than it should have," he said.

Community benefits 

Anouk Kloppert, councillor for Aboyne, Upper Deeside and Donside, says locals are proud of the national park status but would like to see more tangible benefits. The area is home to 18,500 people.

"The access to good, fast and reliable internet in the park is still unavailable for many people even though this was already highlighted years ago after public consultation for the Park’s plans," she said.

"Some people question the park authority’s attitude to green energy," she added.

"It sometimes seems difficult to get permission for the placing of solar panels etc. Surely, the Park should do more to encourage people to invest in green, sustainable energy and the planning department should do its bit in this respect?"

Like most areas of the Highlands and Islands affordable housing is also an issue in the park area - around 20% of properties in Aberdeenshire are second homes.

She said many local people were opposed to heather burning on the grouse moors, which aims to encourage the heather to produce new green shoots to feed red grouse and livestock.

There is also a perception that "shooting opportunities for the privileged rich" was taking precedence over wildlife diversity and green tourism. 

"It is common knowledge that there is a shooting estate not paying taxes but using a tax haven," she said.

Peter Long, chairman of Aviemore Community Council, said it was difficult to separate out the impact of the national park in an area that has always been popular with tourists.

However, he said they were increasingly seeing visitors all year round, helped by more businesses offering outdoor activities including paddle boarding. 

He said: "People have been coming to Loch Morlich and Glen Mor for generations. The national park gives it an identity but I think it's important to point out that it's not all about it being a national park or not." 

Earlier this year, littering visitors were branded ‘very revolting people’ by a Cairngorms National Park Authority member Peter Argyle.

Mr Long said there had been a rise in this along with irresponsible parking and fires over the past few Summers.

"That is a massive concern because we love Aviemore, we love living here and we want to protect the environment," he said. "The fire risk is immense, it's been a big concern this Summer."

Grant Moir,  chief executive of the CNPA, admits that there are big challenges but says they are trying to find solutions to ensure it is "a place where both people and nature thrive".

He said: "There is no doubt a need for more affordable housing in the Park but the Authority has approved over 200 affordable houses in the past five years and is the only area in Scotland where there is a requirement for 45% of new housing to be affordable in Aviemore, Braemar, Blair Atholl & Ballater.

"We are looking to raise that to 75% in the future and working closely with the housing authorities that cover the Park.

"I live in the park and the reality is when I look around there are so many people out enjoying themselves that is great, we have to make sure we deal with the negatives."

"The park authority has got good relationships with land owners. There’s a lot of interaction and lots of discussion.

"Do we always agree on everything, no. That would be impossible but we agree on an awful lot. 

"The Park Authority is working with farmers on a range of issues. However, it has to be acknowledged that most of the farming schemes and regulation in Scotland are set nationally.

"It doesn’t work unless everyone want to make it work. [There are] lots of passionate views but they should be passionate because it’s a special place and we want another 20 years of people being passionate and wanting to be involved."

Biodiversity Minister Lorna Slater added: “As we develop proposals for a third National Park, we will continue to consult extensively with everyone who may be affected to give everyone the opportunity to feed in their views."