Herald Scotland

Having been skiing at Cairngorm in early January I can report that access to the summit from the railway is neither restricted to walkers or skiers. Having spent the morning skiing I decided that I was fed up with painfully numb feet (is that an oxymoron?) so decided to use the last few hours of sun to walk to the summit of Cairngorm. I went up in the railway without skis and was not challenged when I set off for the summit on foot. On the way up and down I passed a number of skiers and snow boarders walking up. I think they were heading for Corrie Cas. At the summit itself I met two or three parties of people ski touring on moleskins. Which I have to say looked much more fun than being dragged up the mountain by a ski tow.

Buy building an access road and railway the best part of the way to the top of Cairngorm we’ve created the route cause of an environmental issue. It seems very hypocritical that after creating the means of access we try to restrict peoples’ right to access. Can we really claim the area to be sacrosanct when we’ve scarred the mountain side with ski lifts and pistes.

Possible solutions could be to close the railway in the summer months and rangers patrolling the top station in the winter. Or fencing in the Ptarmigan restaurant and restricting access to a veranda. Or accept that people will try to access the summit if Cairngorm, so build a nature trail style walk to allow people to visit and circumnavigate the summit in relatively safety. None of which sound particularly palatable, but we did allow a railway to be built there in the first place.

Mark

The restrictions came about originally because Scottish Natural Heritage objected to the planning application to build a railway line up Cairn Gorm, arguing that a train would greatly increase the footfall to the summit of Cairn Gorm and beyond, possibly damaging various plants etc. The only way the railway company could get over that objection was by promising that walkers, climbers couldn't access the summit slopes from the top station. This was eventually agreed with the proviso, which came from Europe, that if walkers etc were allowed out at the top the company would have to repay the grant it got from Europe, some £2.6M.
That's the gist of the origins of what appears to be a crazy situation. Whether one agrees with it or not is a different matter. Personally I'd like to see the train removed, but that's unlikely to happen.

Cairn Gorm