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Ben Nevis access issues - update 25/8/22

Thursday 25th August 2022, 10:00am


Update 25 August, 2022

Forestry and Land Scotland are continuing with their management work in Leanachan Forest, to the north of Ben Nevis.  They have advised that there will be disruption and potential delays to anyone using forests tracks between the North Face car park and the Nevis Range car park, from the 1st September 2022 through to March 2023 and possibly longer dependent on weather conditions over the Winter.

These operations are centred around Allt na Cailleach (NN155754) and will extend to many hectares.

Foot and bike access from the North Face car park to Ben Nevis or Carn Mor Dearg is still available, although there will be timber haulage on forest roads, with short delays possible. Please follow local advice on signs.

Anyone using the North Face car park should note that they will be clearing vegetation and small trees at key junctions, principally along the Gleann Domhanaidh road at locations leading up to the upper climbers’ car park, and where mountain bike tracks interact with the main forest road haul route.

For more details and updates see the page for Leanachan on the FLS website: https://forestryandland.gov.scot/visit/leanachan

Climbers and walkers accessing Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg from the north will face disruption over this summer and beyond, due to forestry operations in Leanachan Forest.

Forestry and Land Scotland has announced ‘significant’ forestry operations in the forest, starting in May and continuing through to March 2023.

Civil engineering works will be taking place from May to August, in preparation for the main felling and haulage operations which will run from September to January.

After that there will be further civil engineering work to repair and reinstate, lasting from January until March, when redesign work will take place at the North face car park.

Both the civil engineering and the harvesting works will affect access, in the wider Leanachan Forest area and particularly at Torlundy and the North Face car park, where there will be less ‘informal’ parking along the approach road and where capacity will be affected.

Access to the forest tracks will be controlled by bankspersons and delays can be expected. These will mostly be brief, although lengthy delays will be possible and even full or half-day closures. If these are to occur, notice will be given as far in advance as possible.

Details of major closures, delays or diversions will be available on the North Face page of the Forestry & Land website.

A spokesman for FLS said: “We apologise in advance for any inconvenience and will update with further information on exact timings and specifics as our plans formulate. However we would ask visitors to the forest over the summer to follow all safety signage and banksperson instructions should they be present within the forest setting.”

Photo: Ben Nevis from Carn Mor Dearg, by Alan Rowan

Map 1 indicates where felling, thinning works and subsequent haulage will be ongoing between September 2022 and March 2023. There will be disruption to forest access here with temporary closures and controlled timed access inevitable as operations progress.

Map 2 shows in red the roads where civil engineering preperation works (beginning May 2022) will also cause significant disruption to visitors. Again public access will be affected here with further temporary closures and controlled timed access on forest roads inevitable as civils works progress.

Map 3, showing MacKenzie's Road, as per May 12 update.