CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
“Search for funding to back eco campsite in Pentland Hills”
(36 posts)-
Posted 4 years ago #
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"Parking charges are going to be introduced at venues including Flotterstone, Bonaly, Harlaw, Threipmuir and Harperrigg and the City of Edinburgh Council officials are speaking to companies to find the best system as there are a number of stakeholders, including anglers, dog walkers, cyclists and campers, some of them overnight."
Posted 4 years ago # -
In Nordic countries people own their own land and use it for leisure hutting;
https://www.lesleyriddoch.com/shop-mobile/huts-a-place-beyond
Campsites would be for tourists.
Posted 4 years ago # -
I looked at huts it would be great but not really a replacement for being able to get different places.
I'm not really convinced that a campsite in the pentlands will help, not with the type of people causing the problem. Not without restricting the ability to camp anywhere else.
Posted 4 years ago # -
I'm not really convinced that a campsite in the pentlands will help, not with the type of people causing the problem.
Agreed, also how much of the camping problem will go away when restrictions lift which will (really hopefully) be long before any of these measures can realistically come in?Posted 4 years ago # -
@steveo
I'll lend you the book mate. Totally different culture.
Posted 4 years ago # -
That would be grand iwrats I nearly bought it a while back
Posted 4 years ago # -
Carbeth Huts were in news recently. Or was that on here? Anyway taken off again and waiting lists closed.
Posted 4 years ago # -
One summer solstice @acsimpson, if we don’t do Ride to the Sun again let’s do cycle then hike to the Covenaters Grave. I would say drive to balerno for that as the cycle home after the hike will be a little weary. All welcome if allowed.
Oops should be in OS Maps thread
Posted 4 years ago # -
I went to a hutting conference in Glesca a few years back. Ms Riddoch was one of the speakers. We clambered aboard a double decker for a trip to visit the Carbeth huts, having seen presentations on their history.
It was lovely to visit, and I was thankful for owners' hospitality in letting us look round. However I came away rather disillusioned with the Scottish/UK version of hutting, or rather the spurious "sustainability" claims made for it. Perhaps that was because the idea of hutting and the history of Carbeth in particular was lionised and romanticised, perhaps a little too much.
In contrast as I visited Carbeth I saw an increasing number of newly built, bespoke designer huts. Some of original older huts had colour TVs, big 4x4s parked up. It may have started off as a valiant collective of working folk with few resources seeking simple pleasures and fresh air, but it has turned into something else. One might say that simply mirrors broader social history and change, but it certainly wasn't the rose-tinted worker's paradise portrayed by some speakers.
We're talking holiday chalets basically. That's what hutting is in Scotland. Your own wee holiday home for those that can't afford an actual cottage or want something different to a static caravan. Which is fine, but it's not really green or sustainable. We went on a chartered bus, but ironically the public bus service to Carbeth was axed some time ago. So the settlement is basically a car journey generator. Granted, that's more sustainable than the stereotypical bourgeois house in France or Tuscany, or even the nouveau riche house in Spain or the Balkans.
You'd have to be really keen on driving to your own wee patch of forest on a regular basis to do the hutting thing.
Posted 4 years ago # -
That was my take away too @crowriver. There was talk of a site in Fife but as far as I could see it was also not particularly accessible by public transport.
At one point a few years ago I was looking at little patches of woodland for myself but again it's just a different holiday home.
Posted 4 years ago # -
The specifics from the consultation suggested that the eco campsite around harlaw would be the only place that people would be allowed to camp in that specific area. In general Harlaw is the site that gets the most antisocial behaviour from those camping as it's incredibly accessible with a short walk from the car park and quite welcoming with a nice reservoir etc. Bonaly gets it's share of idiots but is less welcoming as on a hillside.
My response to the consultation suggested closing the bonaly car park (past the scouts centre) to anyone but blue badge holders and forcing everyone to park at the bottom next to the bypass where there is ample space, improving the access for almost everyone, and reducing the easy accessibility for those who might be looking to lug a disposable tent up the hill.
re: Norwegian huts. My brother lives in Norway now. Debt is incredibly cheap and actively encouraged which allows many to buy the land and hut combo, and a Tesla...
He says that what many Norwegian people strive for for leisure time is to be alone (excepting family), deep in wilderness, and as far away from everyone else as possible. He suggests this is partly why he's found it quite hard to make friends over there.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@steveo, the reason I went to the conference was I saw the potential for something interesting and different to the usual mainstays of Scottish holidaying. I too looked into the whole feasibility of the thing, but ultimately you need a car. The scheme in Fife was mentioned, and is I believe now up and running, but again you need a car. Not only to get to the place regularly but also to build the hut or supervise someone building it for you. I mean, keen cycling enthusiasts might make a solo trip by human power, but the whole family, with food enough for a weekend? Maybe not. Fife buses not what they were either, and try getting back home on a Sunday evening...
All in all, whatever the proud history of a very specific moment in the early C20th, nowadays hutting just seems a slightly more middle class version of taking a static caravan at Seton Sands or the East Neuk. Hence the need to dress this lifestyle extra up in greenwash buzzwords, makes folk feel good about investing their cash in a plot.
Don't get me wrong, it's not for me but huts are nice and I hope folk enjoy them. I just wish they wouldn't try and pretend that they're green or sustainable.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Let's not forget too that the Nordic trio of Norway, Sweden, Finland are all much, much bigger than Scotland. Norway and Finland have roughly the same population as Scotland, but each has five times the land area. Okay quite a lot of that is Arctic tundra or mountains but some of our own landscape is hardly more hospitable.
So I don't think the comparison is quite valid with these countries, there's a reason why the cultures are different - they still have largely deserted wilderness there. We're much more crowded together here, the climate is rather different, it's more like Ireland in many ways.
Posted 4 years ago # -
He says that what many Norwegian people strive for for leisure time is to be alone
After the last year I'm starting to sympathise.
Posted 4 years ago # -
I was out for a walk this morning and while I was out I saw at a very sorry looking Bonaly reservoir.
I got to thinking, why not just drain it for the summer put down some artificial surface and charge a fiver a head for a few camping. At the end of the day/week get a digger to put all the waste in a transit and drive it off the hill.
A small pack of dogs or, if one becomes available, a bear would be required to discourage camping in the woods.
Once October rolls around lift the surface and the reservoir can return to being flood control. No extra land is required, the area is already no good for camping due to the antisocial brigade and with it being in a sheltered area the noise would be fairly contained.
Posted 4 years ago # -
why not just drain it for the summer
The poor fish...
Posted 4 years ago # -
All the more reason to get a hold of a bear for patrolling.
Posted 4 years ago # -
so how much would you pay for this bear
asking for a friend
Posted 4 years ago # -
The guy I get my bike guarding leopard from reckons he can procure one. Problem is making sure rangers don't shoot it or supply it with too many picnic baskets.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Posted 4 years ago # -
“Pentland Hills Regional Park will receive more than £500,000 in grant funding from Visit Scotland to add parking spaces, additional access paths and identify "toilet hotspots" with a need for provision for locals who flock to the green space during warmer weather.”
“Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust” (sic) paying to pave over paradise - you couldn’t make this stuff up…
Posted 4 years ago # -
@murun it is Blue that is fifty this week but
They paved paradise put up a parking lot.
Hotspots are Harlaw, Thriepmuir and Flotterstone
Some other hottiish spots at Bonaly and Hillend? Listonshiels Carlops and Little Vantage during the shops shut times too.
Elsewhere in what is a fairly large area you can pretty much park where you like even at second division hot spots.
How to nudge people to the other places? For instance little vantage has a route from Kirknewton train station.
Posted 4 years ago # -
I'm guessing they'll spend £480,000 on parking and £20,000 on a feasibility study to add an awkward bike rack
Posted 4 years ago # -
It'll be a modern high quality (expensive) bike rack that is about secure as locking your wheels to the frame.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Supply and demand. Without making it more expensive to go to the popular spots by car they will always be popular. More parking will as normal lead to more cars as fewer people will be put off by the parking chaos. The access roads will then become busier and fewer people will travel by other means and so still more cars will arrive.
A couple of ideas are: Charging for parking (inviting donations isn't charging, and £2 a day isn't going to encourage most folk to rethink. Or only provide parking at the main roads and provide a park and ride bus up to the existing car parks.
The park and ride system would also have to be accompanied by closing some of the roads to motor vehicles other than residents.As per usual the convenience and lack of cost of driving is too hard for many people to ignore.
Posted 4 years ago # -
I wonder if it really needs anything. Part of the problem has been local residents being unable to head north to disperse into munros, part of it has been people trying to find something to do whilst the shops are closed.
I'm not been up the pentlands in the car at the weekend in ages but is it as bad as it was at the peak last year are we seeing any drop off in visitor numbers. Could that half mil be better spend repairing the heavily used paths after 18 months of extended use.
Posted 4 years ago # -
£2 a day isn't going to encourage most folk to rethink.
It might make those who're only taking the dog for a wee walk twice a day re-consider though.
Posted 4 years ago # -
“Could that half mil be better spend repairing the heavily used paths after 18 months of extended use.”
The answer is probably in the first word…
Posted 4 years ago # -
"It comes after the area became a battleground for disorder during the spring heatwave, with vehicles choking roads into the park and campsites abandoned by mindless youths leaving park rangers furious.
Officials also warned over the dangers of discarded disposable barbecues sparking wildfires which could severely damage natural habitats."
How exactly is adding 140 new parking spaces going to improve all of that? Aye let's make it even easier to drive to the Pentlands "hotspots", that will discourage the irresponsible visitors.
ELGT must be run by the hard of thinking.
Posted 4 years ago #
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