Landscape Tourism and Recreation
- Proposed route is only one field away from the central symbol of Scotland’s tourist industry, the Wallace Monument. The views both towards and from the monument would be destroyed.
- The view from Stirling Castle towards the Monument is one of Scotland’s most famous vistas and is featured in tourist promotions of Scotland worldwide. This would be ruined.
- 100 metre swathe through Yellowcraig woods would be a conspicuous scar visible for miles and not just from the Castle and the Monument, but also from most of the approaches to Stirling.
- The historic battlefields of Sheriff Muir and Bannockburn degraded.
- Dumyat, designated area of Great Landscape Value would be devalued. Well in excess of 36,000 people visit the area annually.
- These attractions are the bread and butter of Scotland’s tourist industry. The proposed line would seriously impact the local economy.
- The line would also pass very close to the Western Moss Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Impact of the Power Line
The following text has been taken from the Stirling Before Pylons official response to the application (Section 8 - Impacts of the Power Line on Tourism and the Economy of Stirling):
It would be hard to overstate the importance of the scenery in the Stirling area. The websites of all sorts of bodies recognise it, including:
Stirling University, whose Why Choose Stirling? pages list 10 Good Reasons, of which Number 1 is: “Beautiful campus”
Visit Scotland’s Scottish Heartlands site has, on its home page, a box for Stirling, Falkirk, Clackmannanshire and the Campsies, saying: Explore the city of Stirling. Visit the Old Town and the historic castle, overlooking the site of “Braveheart” Sir William Wallace’s greatest victory. Take in the majestic Ochil Hills …”
Stirling Council, whose Business – Choose Stirling pages have 5 key points, including “… an outstanding quality of life … beautiful scenery…”
What is of the highest importance in the scenery in the Stirling area is the dramatic contrast between the very flat carse land and the abrupt meeting with the scarp slopes of the Ochil Hills. The carse land is very flat, and consists principally of a background of green fields, in which well defined (not sprawling) settlements are located. The City of Stirling is defined by its Castle, in the centre, and the Wallace Monument nearby, both situated on prominent craggy outcrops which reflect, on a smaller scale, the craggy southern slopes of the Ochil Hills which form the backdrop.
The carse land is a generally pleasant landscape, though some miles away, in the middle and far distance, there are industrial and semi-industrial elements: Longannet Power Station, with its accompanying chains of gigantic, ugly electricity pylons marching along the River Forth; the Grangemouth petrochemical complex; the rows and rows of bonded whisky warehousing in the Alloa area. As seen from the Stirling area, however, each of these is of limited size and none of them dominates the landscape.
In direct and massive contrast to the flat, inhabited carse land, the southern slopes of the Ochil Hills are at their most dramatic and attractive at their western end, right behind the City of Stirling. Here, even though the hill tops are (in Scottish terms) quite low at around 1,500 to 2,000 feet high, the southern slopes are varied and dramatically clad with rocky crags and clefts, clothed in places with yellow gorse, in others with lovely broad-leaved woodland. The impression is of beautiful, natural, “wild”, unspoilt high land: such a contrast with the long expanses of the flat and populous central lowlands.
In between the Ochils and the carse, the “Hillfoot Villages” nestle under the hills, in a mellow, attractive and largely farmed landscape. The westernmost of these, Blairlogie, is a Conservation Village of great architectural interest and attraction.
This sudden transition to beautiful and dramatic upland is of the utmost importance to the Stirling area. SSE’s Environmental Statement (ES) recognises that the area is “geographically the centre of Scotland and the meeting of the principal road and rail networks through which tourists and visitors, and the indigenous population, pass on a daily basis from / to Central Scotland and from / to the Highlands, the Trossachs and the north of Scotland” (paragraph 27.4.8.1). This is the point at which people start to feel they are entering the exotic, romantic high lands of Scotland – whose essence is of such incalculable value to our tourism and wider economic strengths. Hundreds of thousands of people must see these views every day, and it is reasonable to assume that most will value them.
This feeling is underscored even further by what is arguably the most iconic view in Scotland: the sight of the Wallace Monument, viewed from the south and west, including all the main road and rail routes, perched romantically on Abbey Craig and viewed against the backdrop of the western Ochil Hills. Since the block-busting film “Braveheart” made the name of William Wallace known to most, in highly emotional and romanticised fashion, the popularity of the Monument has grown enormously. Twenty or so years ago, it was open just 2 or 3 days a week; now, it is Scotland’s third most visited monument, with (according to the ES) some 160,000 visitors a year, surpassed only by Stirling Castle and Edinburgh Castle.
From the top of the Monument, the Ochil Hills’ pristine western slopes comprise the most spectacular part of the view.
The Wallace Monument itself forms part of the most popular view seen from Stirling Castle which, with its 358,000 visitors annually, is one of Scotland’s most visited tourist attractions. All visitors arrive via the Castle Esplanade, and it is the view to the east that catches their eyes. The western view does not compare. Most visitors take time to wander over to the eastern battlements to admire the view. One particularly popular photograph, taken from the eastern esplanade, takes in the memorial to Robert the Bruce in the foreground, with Stirling Bridge (scene of William Wallace’s famous victory) in the middle, and behind it the Wallace Monument, all against the wonderful backdrop of the Ochil Hills.
This image adorns the dust cover of Penguin Books’ “New History of Scotland” (published 2001); it is the picture for August in Visit Scotland’s 2006 calendar for the Loch Lomond, Trossachs and Stirling area; it is the front cover illustration for Stirling Council’s “Festive Brochure 2005”, sent to all households in the council’s area to publicise the Hogmanay 2006 celebrations; it illustrates Forth Valley Enterprise’s opening page on the Geographic Profile pages of its website; and many, many more.
Visitors to the Stirling area may be particularly attracted by the Castle, the Monument and the views, but there is much more the area has to offer. The very popular guide book “Scotland The Best” – described as “making all other guides to Scotland irrelevant” (Sunday Times) and “The only guide to Scotland the Scots use” (Glasgow Evening Times) – lists all sorts of visitor attractions, including where to stay, eat and drink; historical places, and outdoor places. It includes only those places deemed by the author (the acclaimed creator of Edinburgh’s famous Hogmanay celebrations) to merit the label “best”, and also distinguishes those deemed “amongst the very best in Scotland”, “amongst the very best (of its type) in the UK”, and “amongst the very best (of its type) in the world, or simply unique”.
Along the route of the proposed power line, or severely affected it by it, are a distressing number of entries. Stirling Castle naturally gets an “amongst the best in the world” rating, and the Wallace Monument rates “amongst the very best in the UK”. Cromlix House, near Dunblane, is described as a “superlative country house hotel” and rates “amongst the very best in the UK” in the category “Best Hotels and Restaurants”, while the Sheriffmuir Inn rates “amongst the very best in Scotland” in the same category. The site of the Battle of Sheriffmuir (principal battle of the “1715” Jacobite Uprising, and with many more Jacobites participating than later fought at Culloden) is listed. So is the area known as Paradise – described as “ a pool at the foot of an unexpected leafy gorge” - on the Wharry Burn, Sheriffmuir – and one of just 20 places included in the “Summer Picnics and Great Swimming Holes” category. Logie Old Kirk cemetery is one of just 14 listed as “The Most Interesting Graveyards”. More is said about these places in section 10.
“Scotland The Best” says relatively little about hills and walking, but even so, with all of Scotland to choose from, the Ochil Hills are included and the walk up Dumyat hill from the Sheriffmuir road is recommended as offering “great views for little effort”. Both because of and despite its diminutive size, Dumyat is also included in many other walking guides, published in a number of languages, including the second volume of the Scottish Mountaineering Club’s Hillwalkers’ Guide - the serious walkers’ “bible” – describing the “Corbetts and Other Scottish Hills” . This recognises the view from Dumyat as “spectacular”.
Much of the Ochil Hills, including this area, has for decades been designated an Area of Great Landscape Value – a designation recognising that its importance is (at least) regional and not just local. Its importance was further demonstrated by the survey work carried out by the Dumyat Action Group in 2004. This established that some 36,000 visits are made annually to the Dumyat area, from the Sheriffmuir road, for outdoors activities. Many more visits - perhaps some 10,000 per year – are made to the nearby Cocksburn Reservoir from the Bridge of Allan side.
Put in the context of a population numbering around 80,000 people in the whole Stirling Council area, it becomes very clear that the influence of this small area round Dumyat is indeed regional. The Dumyat Action Group survey confirms this, showing that only some 40% of visits are made by people who live in the Stirling Council area, whereas a further 35% are made by people from other parts of central Scotland. The survey further shows, however, that the area has significance for overseas tourists, with 18% of its visitors coming from outwith Scotland.
Over and above the people who use the Dumyat area (in particular) for outdoors activities, even larger numbers use the delightfully scenic unclassified road that crosses Sheriffmuir, for recreational drives.
All the places mentioned in this section would be massively affected by the power line, if it were permitted to follow the proposed route.
Impact on the iconic views
The route would come right down the western slopes of the Ochils, just where they form the backdrop to the iconic views of the Castle and the Wallace Monument. Given SSE’s current indications of where each pylon would be situated, there would be one right on the skyline. There would also be a massive scar cut down through the mature, broadleaved woodland of Yellowcraig Wood, required not only to give clearance to the line itself, but also to allow construction of the necessary access tracks and pylon construction sites. This would draw attention to the massive pylons which would be positioned at several points down the slope.
The new line would be very much more ugly and noticeable than the existing 132 kV line which follows the same route at this point. The designers of the old line paid considerable attention to the “Holford Rules” and, because the pylons were very much smaller, they were able to position them in such a way that from many perspectives, they are either hidden or manage not to stand out too intrusively. Thus, for example, the existing pylon at the top of the scarp slope is positioned on a small dip and, when seen from a distance, appears to be of a comparable height to the trees that cover the slopes of that dip. The new pylon, being twice or more times the height, would stand out far more against the skyline. SSE’s Environmental Statement (ES) itself states that pylons seen against a sky background will be visible for 10 kilometres: this means that the entire City of Stirling area would be able to see the much bigger pylons at the top of the scarp slope.
Similarly, the existing pylons within Yellowcraig Wood stand up to their chests in the woodland greenery: only about half to a third of their total height is seen. With the new pylons being so much higher, the amount visible would be up to 5 times as high. They would also be even more emphasised by the cutting back of all the trees and shrubs round about.
The line would also go across the carse, within a kilometre of the Monument, and a considerable length of it would be very clearly visible from the top, in addition to the highly visible section down the scarp slope of the Ochils. Again, the ES acknowledges that pylons seen against a ground or wood backdrop would still be readily visible from 2 kilometres away.
The views of and from both Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument would be greatly affected, even in the long term. During the dismantling, construction and rehabilitation period, which SSE estimates at this stage as being around 4 years (in total), the damage to the scenery would be very much greater.
It is bewildering that SSE does not properly and consistently acknowledge the extent of the impacts on these iconic views. In Technical Annex 27.1, Table 27.A2.11 identifies Stirling Castle and Old Town as “key visitor facilities and focus of attraction with 385,220 visitors and the top paid attraction in the tourist board area in 2003”. Table 27.A1.1 identifies that the power line “might affect up to 25% of visitors” to Stirling Castle, and describes the line as having a High Negative Effect.
The ES then however attempts to minimise the effects by saying (Table 27.A1.1) that the view “already overlooks industrial land” (contradicted by the photograph they then include as Figure 24.5.21, which clearly doesn’t). Their statement implies that all the view has to offer is industrial, which is the exact opposite of the reality of the classic view from the Castle towards Stirling Bridge, the Monument and the Ochils! In another part of their Environmental Statement, SSE draw attention to the importance of the view of Stirling Castle from the west, but for some reason identify this as a reason for putting the route to the east – just where the views will be most affected for most people. And in yet another part, the Visual Impact Assessment says the magnitude of the visual effect would be “low” and the significance “minor adverse”.
As for the Wallace Monument, the same tables in Technical Annex 27.1 identify this as a “key visitor attraction and second most popular paid attraction in the tourist board area with 123,784 visitors in 2003”. They assess the impact here as being a High Negative Effect, with “major impact on views [that] would spoil the enjoyment of tourists’ experience. Might affect possibly up to 25% of visitors”. But then the Environmental Statement’s Visual Impact Assessment (chapter 24) inexplicably assesses the pylons as having a minimal impact: “Magnitude of Effect – low”; “Significance of Effect – Minor adverse” and “Cumulative Visual Impact – no significant effect”. Given the comments in Technical Annex 27.1, these assessments are simply not credible.
Impact on other important visitor sites
The proposed line would come very close to all the other important visitor sites outlined above:
| Attraction | Power line comes within |
| Cromlix House | 500 metres |
| Sheriffmuir Battle Site | right across the Jacobite army’s battle lines |
| Sheriffmuir Inn | 400 metres |
| Paradise | right through |
| Dumyat | 100 metres of the start of the walk and main car parking area on the Sheriffmuir road, with 3 huge pylons right beside that area |
| Cocksburn Reservoir | 300 metres of the reservoir; with an angle tower right beside the track from the Sheriffmuir road |
| Logie Old Kirk graveyard and Stirling Council cemetery | 50 metres |
It also comes within 100 metres of the Yellowcraig Caravan park, on the A91, and within 300 metres of the Farm Shop and Coffee Bothy at Powis Mains.
The results on all these sites would be devastating, most of all during the construction period. This looks likely to be particularly lengthy for many of the sites, as all but the lightest construction traffic in the Sheriffmuir area would have to use a new, heavy-duty 9 kilometre access track, right across Sheriffmuir. These facilities would be seriously damaged, and in many cases ruined, for visitors during that time. No mitigation measures could be put in place to offset these impacts to any significant extent, despite SSE’s bland assertions to the contrary, e.g. in paragraph 27.6.2.
The long term effects would also be highly significant and negative, even if all parts of the area were restored to the highest possible standards, because the pylons would be so very large and intrusive, massively alien in the environments of these facilities, and some 8-12 times the volume of the existing pylons on the 132kV line.
It is very unacceptable that SSE, in their Environmental Statement, state that apart from a survey of businesses (see comments in section below), “No equivalent quantitative assessment of effects upon the wider tourism and recreation activities and resources has been undertaken” (paragraph 27.5.1.15). This is a highly unsatisfactory state of affairs: not only do they signally fail to recognise many of the important tourist attractions of this area, but they also ignore the economic impacts of the damage to them that would result from their proposed power line.
Stirling Before Pylons believes that much more work needs to be done before it can be said that the impacts on the tourism-related facilities and locations in the Stirling area have been adequately assessed, and can therefore be properly taken into account in deciding SSE’s application. This should include much more work on visual representations of the likely impacts. We recommend that an independent analysis of the methodology of visual impact assessment be commissioned from a competent body such as the Virtual Landscape Centre at the University of Stirling, and that they be asked to analyse the visual impacts using the much more sophisticated techniques that they have developed.
The Environmental Statement goes to some lengths to enquire about the likely impacts of the proposed power line on the tourism-related economy of the areas affected by the line, but then dismisses its own findings in a quite extraordinary fashion.
In chapter 27 of the ES, SSE outline work done to assess the nature and conditions of the tourism and recreational resources within 10 kilometres of the proposed line. As the whole of Stirling, Bannockburn, Bridge of Allan, Dunblane and Blairlogie lie well within 10 km of the proposed line, one assumes that the ES’ investigations included all the tourism-related businesses within the City of Stirling area.
SSE then go on to outline details of a special survey commissioned by them, of a representative sample of all the tourism-related businesses within 10 km of the entire line. Types of business included accommodation providers, catering, food and drink, activities, events, relevant shops, visitor centres, fisheries, estates, outdoor centres, etc.
The results are “considered to represent a robust view of the business community across and along the proposed route” (paragraph 27.3.1.7).
Additional data are quoted: for example, that 40% of people making holiday trips to the Argyll, Loch Lomond, the Isles, Stirling and the Trossachs (AILLST) area, originating in the UK, participate in walks of 2 miles plus; 49% visit castles, monuments, etc, and 24% participate in field and nature study. All of these figures are well above the average for visits to Scotland as a whole, and are similar in magnitude to their importance in the Highlands area (being rather more for visiting castles and monuments, a little less for walking, field and nature study).
The activities quoted emphasise once again the importance to tourism of the views of and from Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument, and the opportunities for short but rewarding hill walks from Sheriffmuir.
The Environmental Statement fails to report on the numbers of tourism-related businesses identified in each section of the route. We imagine this information would be of considerable interest and importance to Stirling Council and Forth Valley Enterprise. It is however realistic to assume that a very substantial proportion of the total businesses identified along the entire line will be located within the Stirling area.
The ES describes the area as having “an extensive and mature business infrastructure of facilities and services in the area centred upon the Stirling, Bridge of Allan, Dunblane and Bannockburn areas, and also the northern approaches to Falkirk District. There are also widely scattered recreational facilities serving the needs of the local population (of approximately 200,000) and visitors alike. This includes all aspects of tourist, visitor and recreation facilities, both indoor and outdoor. Businesses surveyed in these areas include accommodation, tour operators, attractions, fishing, restaurants, wildlife areas, and golf courses” (paragraph 27.4.8.1).
The ES survey included 34 respondents from this area, comprising principally accommodation (18%), attractions and activities (28%), fishing, wildlife areas and golf courses (27%), and restaurants (23%).
It seems that the survey asked businesses what their expectations were of the likely impacts on their businesses, if the power line were to be constructed. Responses included both a brief description of the likely impacts, and an estimate of the impact on their turnover.
The questions only applied to the “residual effects” of the power line – i.e. how much impact the businesses would feel, once the line had been completed. They were not asked how much their business would be affected during construction of the line.
The survey identified that, overall, no fewer than 46% of the tourism-related businesses within 10 km of the proposed power line anticipated that it would have a significant or negative effect upon their business – even in the post-construction stage (paragraph 27.6.3.1).
In the Stirling area, the impact was perceived as even worse, with 57% of businesses in the Braco, Strathallan and Sheriffmuir area, and 48% in the Blairlogie, Stirling and Denny areas, saying there would be a negative effect on their business. This would suggest that overall some 50% of all tourism-related businesses in the City of Stirling would feel a negative impact on their business as a consequence of the power line, even after its construction had been completed.
So not only is the Stirling area the part of the line with the highest number of businesses potentially affected, but also the effect is proportionally worse in this area than for the line as a whole.
None of this is acknowledged in the ES, which makes such laughable statements as “the survey findings showed a positive outlook with more than half the people surveyed stating that the line would have no significant or adverse effect upon their business”! (our emphasis) (paragraph 27.6.3.1)
Even more laughable are the attempts by the ES to minimise the financial impacts on tourism-related businesses. They asked respondents to assess the scale of loss of earnings, and have unsurprisingly failed to report this fully. As stated before, they declined to ask about the impact on business during construction, and concentrated only on the longer term effects. Even so, some businesses reported that they would lose 30% or more of their business, but the ES asserts that such figures are over-estimates, and scales them down. What it fails to do is to look at any businesses which might have been under-estimating the impacts – an essential exercise, if it were to be acceptable to scale down any responses.
Then, with a master stroke, the ES simply defines away the impacts that remain. It decrees – arbitrarily – that only where the impact is estimated as over 15% will it be recognised as “major” - having already declined to accept any such figures as valid (paragraph 27.6.3.12). Impacts of less than 15% are conveniently defined as “not significant” – an extraordinary decision, since the loss of 15% of income would render many if not most businesses loss-making and unable to survive. Impacts of less than 10% are equally conveniently, and equally unconvincingly, defined as “minor”.
The ES however persistently quotes a figure of 10-15% as being the largest long term impact that can be expected (paragraph 27.6.3.15). As this clearly cannot apply to individual businesses – some, such as the Yellow Craig Caravan Park, at the foot of the Ochils, and through which the power line would be likely to run, would lose much more than this, even in the unlikely event of it being able to survive the massive loss of business during the very disruptive construction phase. So it seems that the 10-15% figure quoted could be intended as that of the average impact on businesses that would be affected, although this does seem high and requires further investigation.
Tourism is a very important part of the economy of the City of Stirling, contributing no less than £234 million to the economy in 2004 . Taking then the ES’ survey results of around 50% of businesses likely to be affected in the long term, then if (and we acknowledge this is a big “if”) the figure of 10-15% can be interpreted as being the average effect, this would suggest that the Stirling economy would lose some £11.7 – 17.5 million per annum.
The ES suggests, probably reasonably, that the impact would reduce over time. Again assuming, very tentatively, that the maximum post-construction effect might be 10-15% for the average business affected, then we might assume, perhaps, that it would drop to 5% eventually – say, after 10 years.
The ES also, however, ignores the greater impacts on tourism during the construction period. These would probably most strongly affect businesses in close proximity to the line. Following the same line of reasoning, we might assume that the impacts during the construction phase would be of the order of 15 - 20%.
Considering the impacts of the power line over its expected lifetime of 50 years, with all these assumptions, the cumulative effects would be absolutely enormous: of the order of £400 million over the 50 year life of the power line. These estimates depend entirely on the levels of impact assumed, but do not take into account the Scottish Executive’s aspirations to increase the value of tourism to the Scottish economy by 50% by 2015 .
A great deal more work must be done, before any figures such as these could be considered definitive. But it is clear, from all the data that are included in the ES, that we must expect there to be severe impacts on the tourism-related economy of the Stirling area, and other areas close to the line. We believe it essential that reliable, independent estimates of these impacts must be made, before any decisions can be taken about the outcome of SSE’s application. The stakes may be far too high to allow it to go ahead.
We acknowledge that these impacts would be expected to take place at the same time as all sorts of other factors, also affecting tourism-related business. It is true that world events and swings in the economies of major countries can have a larger impact on tourism. It is also true that the buoyancy and profitability of such businesses can be affected by marketing etc. As a consequence, it is not likely that the impacts of the power line could be picked out by future survey and analytical work.
But that does not in any way reduce the level of impact that it will have, or make it appropriate to ignore it, as the ES attempts to do. It would seem to be the case that, using SSE’s own figures as quoted in their chapter 27, the potential for the Beauly to Denny power line to impact on the economy of the Stirling area is massive. This looks to be a hugely important issue, and one that would seem to provide very strong arguments against the proposals being allowed to go ahead, at least in the Stirling Council area.
We need SSE to make available all relevant details of the work that they describe in chapter 27, including the names and credentials of the consultants that they used. This is necessary, for a more refined assessment of their results, and the significance of them.