https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/outdoors/wild-landscapes-under-threat-as-tourism-soars-1-4934650
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Sport
The North Coast 500
(238 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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Perth & Kinross Council look set to ruin some of the remaining quite roads in Scotland with the launch of the 'Heart 200' this summer.
Cycle touring is going to get grimmer and grimmer anywhere north of Fife...
Posted 5 years ago # -
@fimm: I don't know about bouldering in D&G but I know people climb on the sea cliffs.
The UK Climbing web site lists 9 "crags" in Dumfries and Galloway which have bouldering problems recorded, so people do do it. Not too bad compared to the 14 listed as trad climbing venues, although most of the bouldering venues are also trad crags.
The NC500 saga is pretty depressing. The whole idea of selling roads to motorists for recreation seems badly flawed if you take a step back and think about it. And the 'Heart 200' idea seems like little more than poorly-thought-out bandwagon jumping. Disappointing to see that they've included Braco-Comrie on the route but at least Amulree-Kenmore isn't part of it, likely because there's bits of that road that would send your average motorised tourist screaming to the hills - or in to the nearest ditch. Some of the more remote roads are sketchy at best in terms of maintenance: have they costed the increased spend to keep them up to scratch under what they presumably hope will be significantly increased volumes of traffic?
Posted 5 years ago # -
They're all at it. They have to be.
I suppose in the end the various campaigns will cancel each other out and the salaries and advertising spend will have been entirely futile or entirely justified depending on your point of view.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Not forgetting “FIFE 191”
Though it didn’t actually happen this “Easter”...
http://www.welcometofife.com/highlight/five-reasons-to-visit-the-kingdom-of-fife-in-2019
Posted 5 years ago # -
Disnae ging past ma hoose. Nae eese at a.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Coming soon: the Stoneybridge 3. Dot com.
Given that Oor Nicola has declared a climate emergency, should these non-essential road travel promotion schemes be banned by the Scottish government?
Or was that declaration just a canny electioneering soundbite to keep potential Green voters in the SNP camp for the Euros?
Posted 5 years ago # -
Disnae ging past ma hoose
Call me a cynic but it also doesn't go over the Mounth road from Glen Muick to Glen Clova as the stunning images suggest it does.
Posted 5 years ago # -
The 'Heart 200' at Kenmore is routed past a stables on a singleish track road. I'm sure they're delighted...
Posted 5 years ago # -
@crowriver - Yes, of course it was. You would think the Greens wouldn't be green enough not to rumble it.
Oh dear, I hope they leave Dumfries & Galloway out of their Hidden Gems of Scotland you can drive around list. It's so nice for cycling - beaches, glens, rivers, historic stuff on quietish, rolling roads. (Finds herself writing the visitscotland blurb for the Right Hip of Scotland, if Perth & Kinross is its heart.)
Posted 5 years ago # -
Sadly down here we've already got our driving route (Southwest 300) being heavily promoted at the moment, much to the annoyance of the motorcyclists who first drew it up. There are moves to do a cycling version - at least we've got the advantage of a mixture of A roads for the cars and lots of tiny back roads for the cyclists, farmers and the terminally lost. My fear is the campervans will deviate from their set routes and start to clog up the back roads because they really aren't built for any levels of traffic. Fortunately the coonsil's cunning plan of letting the road surfaces deteriorate to lunar landscape levels of potholes may put them off
Posted 5 years ago # -
@chdot, dunno about the Fife 191 but I like the look of the Fife Pilgrim Way walking route.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Seems to be better thought out.
http://fifecoastandcountrysidetrust.co.uk/Fife-Pilgrim-Way_68.html
191 is virtually invisible.
I asked a relevant Fife Council official about it.
“launch might be a bit away”
Posted 5 years ago # -
@sallyhinch - oh that's annoying. It's not a well-kent part of Scotland - I remember being quite impressed by a hippyish German couple who had spent their time in Scotland there instead of the usual Highlands. They asked me the name of those purple flowers that were all over the place.
Posted 5 years ago # -
for a long time it seemed like local tourism slogan was 'Shhh! Nobody knows we're here". Now it's 'Dumfries and Galloway: come for a drive"
Posted 5 years ago # -
Posted 5 years ago #
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@sallyhinch - aaargh. I do remember cycling there in the early 90s. I barely saw one other cyclist and people stared at me as if they'd never seen a touring cyclist before.
Posted 5 years ago # -
When did they pass a law requiring every scenic driving route to contain its rough geographical area and its length in miles? I mean, I guess it's helpful for setting expectations but it's not exactly imaginative is it?
Posted 5 years ago # -
@newtoit - to be fair, one of our MSPs wants to brand a 'Gallovidian Trail' promoting active travel.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Rosie - it may be they were just staring at you because they hadn't seen another person for a while ...
Posted 5 years ago # -
@sallyhinch that viddo makes for grim viewing. Sure they get out of their car to experience stuff, but although they hire bikes we don't see them riding at all. Most of the time they are stuck in the car. The scene of the car-bound nature spotting in the forest is laughable.
Okay folk have been seeing countryside largely from their car windows for decades but to actually advertise that as an "experience" - unbearably depressing.
Posted 5 years ago # -
That forehead-wiping scene is the campest bit of film since La cage aux folles.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Rosie, Greens didn't fall for it in the slightest. Alas green-tinged SNP voters (and maybe a few ex-Labour) seem to have swallowed the line. It made them feel like they were helping to save the planet, before they happily jumped into their gas-guzzling 4x4s to drive round the corner to the polling place...
Posted 5 years ago # -
@crowriver - charitably, I'm guessing it was cheaper and easier to film them in a car than actually doing stuff but it does verge on the parodic.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Given all the money being spent on it shouldn't the A9 be renamed the North-South 432.1?
And perhaps while were at it perhaps the new bridge should be the Queensferry 2700. 1.67 doesn't have the same feeling of grandeur that advertising agencies like.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Tourism moves around
“
“The police used to have to control the traffic through the main street, it was so busy,” says Taylor, who has lived her whole life in the Stirlingshire village. “You could barely move for visitors. But then it went quiet.”
...
Soon the bosses of the Oak Tree Inn in Balmaha will arrive to set up a new café in a move seen by locals as the seal of approval for the new-look Aberfoyle, while thoughts are turning to the Dukes Weekender, a major cycling festival launched last year and which is expected to add to the area’s reputation as a cycling hub.
...
Hopes are high that this rebirth is just the start. There are plans for festivals and to further tap into the area’s popularity with cyclists and hikers, plus a vision for the village to become a “green tourism” destination and hopes that a new Heart 200 route, which will guide visitors on a 200-mile trail through Perth, Stirling and the Trossachs, will receive the same enthusiasm as the North Coast 500.
“
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17724326.how-the-trossachs-village-has-turned-its-fate-around/
Posted 5 years ago # -
"New Heart 200 route paved with good intentions"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-48794142
Define 'good'
Posted 5 years ago #
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