This is interesting. It relates to the plan, or should that be incredibly vague idea, to build a space port (whatever that might be) on the A’Mhoine peninsula in Sutherland – ‘a remote boggy stretch of land’.
Have a look at this journey made by a young Golden Eagle in 2014 where it headed off to this area and clearly found a lot of interest there. Now, there is something mildly ironic about a satellite-tagged Golden Eagle going to the proposed future location of a satellite-launching site but that would probably be lost on the eagle.
The eagle was tagged by Roy Dennis and the work was funded by Wildland Limited.
I think this post is a small stretch to what little we know, Mark. We do know that £2.5M has been made available. We do know from the artist’s impression on the BBC website that the size of the site would comfortably fit inside one of the red dots on your image. We do know that the rockets would not need a launching site the size of Canaveral in the US and perhaps Canaveral in Spain is also too large for such a facility. By all means object to the scheme, but lets not say that the whole of the peninsula and any wildlife there will be drastically affected. I did gain that that is what you were suggesting. Perhaps you were not.
“We do know from the artist’s impression on the BBC website that the size of the site would comfortably fit inside one of the red dots on your image”
Possibly so but if a space port is to serve any kind of purpose one has to suppose that it will require a lot of associated infrastructure. Roads for example to deliver the rockets and their payloads to the site. I don’t imagine that these will be your typical highland single-track road. I imagine that the space port will require a work force to operate it and these will need to be housed somewhere and again will require infrastructure to get them and the food and other provisions they require into the site. It all adds up.
We have previously been down the road of the powers that be dismissing the value of the ‘remote boggy stretches of land’ that make up much of Sutherland and Caithness and I personally would want a lot of persuading that A’Mhoine is the right place for this development.
I know the area a bit – a lot depends on quite where the project would be and how much new road construction would be needed to get to it. Right now the area is essentially inaccessible bar the main road (ha ha – its smaller than a lowland B road) along the base of the peninsular and a tiny crofters’ road up the east coast. The north and west sides are sea cliffs, which I suspect draw in the eagles. The interior is undulating, largely featureless bog and moorland with vicious winds and horizontal rain. I tried a walk up the west coast once (on a dryish day) and it was very hard work.
The whole area is pretty much wilderness. It is naturally treeless and the lack of place names suggests that it was never settled – there are not even old shielings (summer grazing camps) on the OS maps. I doubt there’s more than a little low level crofters’ grazing if that.
It’s in a place with very large areas of very similar wilderness – I’d reserve any judgement until we see some plans, but I’m inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt at this stage. It’ll stand or fall on viability – £2.5m isn’t a lot and anyway biggest technical problem for a spaceport here might be the climate…
Jonathan, for a spaceport you presumably need an area of land and sea where if the odd rocket comes down unexpectedly it won’t hit a populated area or busy shipping lane. That narrows the options quite a lot – any alternative site would have to be equally isolated and so probably have similar issues of intrusion. Plus this spot is close to the Cape Wrath military bombing and rocket range so there’s an element of established use (and skillsets) hereabouts – better perhaps than starting somewhere completely new?
There area has chronic un- and under-employment esp now Dounray is winding down. Out-migration of young people is endemic and I doubt there is a housing shortage. I agree with you about concerns about the impact of ancillary roads etc but I’m sure there’s capacity in terms of housing infrastructure already.
But £2.5m? – they must be joking! For now this looks more like pre-Brexit ministerial announcement bluster than a serious proposal. When there’s £25m on the table we can start to pay attention to potential impacts.
My guess is that access would probably be via a new pier on Loch Eriboll. Failing that the road from Scrabster would need rebuilding.
If you try and find a way of using the word “sustainable” in connection with this kite flying exercise, you really struggle.
A few comments:
The 2.5 million is for a developing a proposal I believe.
How much of that will go to SNH for an impact study I don’t know – perhaps none and they will have to manage on their normal budget.
Rockets, like aeroplanes sometimes crash – that doesn’t stop airports being beside cities.
Bog land may be difficult to walk on, it may look featureless to some. It may not have value as grazing land. This does not mean it is not worth protecting. The area has been researched and recognised as of scientific value and accorded various levels of protection (and of course there are other ways we might value wild land).
What surprises me is the rush by the media and Highland Council members to celebrate this – one day they brand the roads north of Inverness as the NC 500, a trip through the wilds, the next they want to trash part of those wilds (the ones not already covered with spruce or turbines (look at the areas south of Strathy to get a sense of what road building does to the bog.) This type of land is not abundant – despite what it might feel to you on a wet day as you walk back to your car. The proposal is being supported by people who do not understand the environmental impact and the loss that this project will bring about. I think there has to be a change in the attitude that says a piece of wild land is empty/featureless/worthless. Bog land is full, complex and priceless.
There are alternatives that do not involve destroying wild land.