Hilltracks campaign: can you help?

Tuesday 31st May 2016, 4:22pm

Mountaineering Scotland supports the LINK Hilltracks group which is asking walkers across Scotland for their help in monitoring new tracks in the hills.

Poorly constructed hilltracks which cause landscape and environmental damage have been a concern to environmental groups for decades, especially as no planning permission is required if they are for agricultural or forestry purposes. 

Following a campaign by the LINK Hilltracks group, since December 2014 all landowners must give prior notification to local authorities of their intention to construct new hill tracks or carry out improvements of existing tracks. They still don’t need to apply for full planning permission so tracks can’t be refused permission, but it’s hoped that the need for prior notification will improve construction standards.

The LINK Hilltracks group has been monitoring local authority planning websites looking for new proposals and expressing concerns or giving comments on specific tracks. The group has also participated in a government review of the prior notification process and is awaiting the report of that review.

It is now looking for help in assessing whether the prior notification process has been effective in improving the standard of tracks and their impact on the environment and landscape. The group also wants to know if there are still new tracks appearing which have not gone through any planning process at all.

A track cut deeply into the peat in Glen Dye

How to help

An appeal has gone out to walkers if they come across a new track when out in the hills this summer, to send the group a photo of the track and an indication of its precise location. It will be helpful to include something into the photos to give scale – a person, pack, dog, walking poles etc. If the estate or the landowner is also known, that information would also be helpful.


What to look for:

  • Visual scarring and impact
  • Signs of erosion, poor drainage, blocked culverts, inadequate culverts, peat damage
  • Poor standards of construction – is the track badly rutted? Is there a stable surface? Is the track standing proud of the surrounding ground? Have the sides of the track been built so that there will be no collapse or spreading? Have open borrow pits been left to collapse? Has damaged vegetation been replaced or restored? Has construction litter been removed?

Tracks associated with windfarms and small scale hydro developments have full planning permission, and although their construction often leaves a lot to be desired, these do not come into the current exercise.

Where to send your information

Email photos with your name and contact details to hilltracks@scotlink.org. You can also tweet a photo using the hashtag #hilltracks .

LINK Hilltracks campaign group members are: Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland, Cairngorms Campaign, National Trust for Scotland, North East Mountain Trust, Ramblers Scotland, RSPB Scotland, Scottish Campaign for National Parks, Scottish Wild Land Group.

The campaign is also supported by the John Muir Trust and Mountaineering Council of Scotland.

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