Conservation charity blasts plans for overhead cables to be installed near historic battlefield
A conservation charity has slammed plans to build 50 metre high electricity pylons near to Culloden battlefield as damaging and unacceptable.
The National Trust for Scotland said overhead pylons would degrade the landscape and called for them to be re-sited or for cables to be buried underground.
Scottish and Southern Energy Power Distribution (SSE PD) wants to site the pylons as part of its Beauly-Blackhillock-Kintore Reinforcement Project.
This is the second route the energy company had proposed after amendments were made to the route originally consulted upon in 2015.
What disappoints me with this scheme is that SSE seems to be coming up with the cheapest, least imaginative and most damaging options possible
As well as being close to Culloden the pylons would also run near the 4,000 year-old Clava Cairns, as well as Castle Fraser and Leith Hall.
Simon Skinner, National Trust for Scotland chief executive, has written to SSE PD with his concerns.
He said: “Our own research has found that overhead powerlines are identified by both our members and the wider public as one of the most significant factors in degrading valued landscapes.
"It is therefore imperative that the careful siting and, where appropriate, undergrounding of power cables is followed. Without these protections, the enjoyment of our nationally and internationally valued landscapes will be damaged, with all the consequences that follow.
“It is unacceptable, for example, that in the case of Culloden, if this project goes ahead there will be no less than three large overhead lines passing through this glen within a mile or so of each other. This is not something we can support.”
The Trust was one of the original objectors to the Beauly to Denny power line and has since expressed concern about its impact on wild landscapes, in addition to moves to incorporate new infrastructure and to make the access tracks used for its construction permanent.
Skinner added: “I completely understand that the country needs to upgrade its capacity to transmit electricity. What disappoints me with this scheme is that SSE seems to be coming up with the cheapest, least imaginative and most damaging options possible.
“Scotland is a country rich in history and natural heritage and these help define us internationally and sustain a significant part of our economy through tourism. SSE should not be putting forward proposals that jeopardise this.
“SSE made over half a billion pounds of profit last year, much of it coming from levies that have been applied to the energy bills of ordinary Scots. At the very least they have an obligation to minimise the impact of their proposals on the nation’s cherished places.”
