Perth and Kinross Council has been accused of failing to uphold access rights to one of Scotland’s most beautiful glens.
The Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS) is demanding an investigation and that the local authority comes up with plans to secure proper, year-round access to an estate owned by Major Alastair Riddell in Glen Lyon.
For many years, owners of the North Chesthill Estate have been accused of preventing people from walking in the area, which features many top Munros, with allegations of locked gates, misleading signs and intimidation of walkers.
Research by the MCofS in April this year saw the estate branded a repeat offender, with the vast majority of respondents to a questionnaire reporting access problems.
Staff from the council, the Perth and Kinross Local Access Forum, Scottish Natural Heritage, MCofS and Ramblers Scotland have been trying to come to an amicable solution with the owners but the issue has come to a head again with a ban on access to the estate since September 15 to enable stalking to take place.
Estate owners have argued that the requirements of a working estate and the dangers posed to others by shooting mean that the land must be off-limits at times.
A council spokeswoman said yesterdaythat it was “fulfilling its legal obligations” and “committed to utilising the resources available for dealing with obstruction cases as effectively as possible”.
However, in in a letter to council chief executive Bernadette Malone, MCofS chief officer David Gibson said the “unacceptable” closure portrayed the area and the council “in a very bad light among the walking and climbing community”.
Mr Gibson said the council was aware of the landowner’s blanket closures and was failing in its legal duty on access rights.