In support of wilderness

Calton has decided that he likes John Lamont. Faced with whining from Scottish Renewables over planning changes that may limit windfarm construction, the Scottish Conservative Chief Whip is reported as saying "It's no surprise to see Scottish Renewables concerned at the prospect of the wind farm gravy train grinding to a halt." Quite. The man talks a lot of sense. So does Alan McCombes in his article 'For Scottish Wildness' over at Bella Caledonia. The Monadhliath plateau above Newtonmore is a truly spectacular area of wilderness where, on a summer's evening, once all the hillwalkers have headed home, one can be truly alone with birdsong the only sound and cairns the only man-made structures to be seen. We don't have that many places like it, which is why the proposals to build giant wind turbines there are so disturbing and out of place. It's not just that they are large structures which necessitate unsightly access roads and the destruction of large areas of peat to build them. It's the fact that human (and eagle) eyes are designed to be attracted to movement and so moving structures are far more visually intrusive in a landscape than static structures. The eye is drawn to them, whether we will or not. That is why Calton supports the Save the Monadhliath campaign and is against the proposed Stronelairg windfarm. In an age of industrialisation and stress we need somewhere to go to escape it all, if even just for a few hours.