On one visit to Ardverikie a few years ago, I got into a nice conversation with a hill walker as I puffed and panted my way up the old stalker path on my mountain bike.
After exchanging pleasantries about this beautiful location, the lady said as an aside that she hoped the Adventure Show didn’t come here and tell everybody about this special place.
Loch a’ Bhealaich Leamhain and the stalker path that eventually leads down to the Allt Cam. Picture: John Davidson
Well, the BBC’s Adventure Show is no more, sadly, but there are more significant threats than the feared few extra boot prints that may yet irrevocably damage this not-so-secret spot.
I’ve spent nearly the last two decades encouraging people to responsibly access places like this, exploring the landscapes that provide some sort of glimpse into the past, while “leaving nothing but footprints” behind.
Ardverikie is a special place for me, and I’m sure for countless others who have come here and found some solace in the beauty and peace that this remote location offers. Indeed, it is part of the Mamores-Alder-Rannoch Wild Land Area, designated due to its remoteness, sanctuary, challenge and risk.
There are historical paths and tracks, lochans and hilltops shaped over geological timescales, even the concrete trig points on summits such as Geal Charn that hark back to a time before GPS when making maps was a trigonometry exercise.
These human marks on such remote landscapes fascinate me, in the same way the unusual stone dykes on some hills tell a story of their social past. But these impacts are microscopic when compared to what could happen here at Ardverikie, just metres below the Munro summits that so many hill walkers come to stride over.
Estate tracks lead alongside the glorious Lochan na h-Earba. Picture: John Davidson
A decision – by the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit – is expected soon on a mammoth pumped storage hydro plant with an installed capacity of up to 1800MW in these hills, and I worry that there’s little to stop it going ahead, despite local objections.
The plans are extensive and can’t be described in detail here, but they will essentially involve huge vehicle tracks high up into the mountains to the bealach between Beinn a’ Chlachair and Geal Charn – two of the three Munros, along with Creag Pitridh, that are often climbed as a trio.
As well as tracks up to six metres wide, there will be major changes to the entire landscape. Lochan na h-Earba – after which the Earba scheme is named – would become the lower loch in the system, with the short river system linking the east and west parts of the loch lost to the newly dammed reservoir. Existing wild camping spots would be gone forever.
But it’s higher up the hill that really bothers me, personally. The shore of Loch a’ Bhealaich Leamhain sits at around 640m above sea level in a dramatic corrie below the bealach itself. It’s a wonderful spot high in these remote hills, yet accessible by wonderful old paths that blend into the hillside.
If these plans are approved, this loch will be dammed and used as the upper reservoir to the hydro system, with a variable water level that will leave the inevitable drawdown scars – bare rock exposed when the water level is low, rather than the natural vegetated shoreline that we can see today.
A fogbow seen looking down the old track that climbs from the west edge of Lochan na h-Earba to the bealach.
The raised water level and huge earth dam will also cut across the fantastic old stalker path that drops from the bealach, below Druim an t-Sluic to the Allt Cam, which you can then ford to reach Loch Pattack – linking to the Ben Alder range of mountains as well as the tracks to Dalwhinnie and Inverpattack.
I’ve used some of the routes in this area with Duke of Edinburgh expedition groups as well as climbing the hills myself and mountain biking up to the bealach and down this exhilarating path.
John Fotheringham, the chairman of Spean Bridge, Roy Bridge and Achnacarry Community Council, stated in the group’s objection to the plans: “Should the proposal get planning consent this wild place will be transformed into a construction site, with all the associated noise, construction traffic and dust, artificial light, presence of lorries, machines, and construction compounds that goes with large infrastructure projects.
“In the longer term, the mitigation may soften the appearance of the infrastructure in the landscape, but the area won’t be what it once was; and another piece of wild land will have been lost forever.”
Laggan Community Council has also raised several concerns, stating: “The Earba scheme is a huge construction over a period of five years which will completely change the character of what is currently a wild and largely untouched landscape.
The trig point and summit cairn on Geal Charn.
“In particular, Lochan na Earba will be irrevocably changed, not only by the two lochs being combined with 20m dam walls at east and west ends, but also by the large daily ebb and flow of loch levels. Six-metre-wide access roads will be built which, despite assurances, we fear will be left behind as a permanent blot on the landscape.
“At the east end, Loch a’ Bhealaich Leamhain will see a dam wall in excess of 60m height and which will be widely visible from numerous viewpoints.”
The inevitable defence to such large-scale plans is that they are needed to contribute to net-zero targets and balancing the electricity grid. While I understand this argument, I find it difficult to accept that a scheme that, in my view, appears to be of no benefit to the local community, should be given scope to destroy such a vast area of wild land that benefits so many people.
Such benefits are not quite so tangible as numbers of megawatts – or pounds in the pockets of developers – but they are important to so many of us who enjoy these wild places for what they are.
Looking over the east end of Lochan na h-Earba from the summit of Creag Pitridh. Picture: John Davidson
I’ll be making sure to visit Ardverikie again later this year, before the bulldozers move in – if, as I fear, the Earba plans are approved. I expect my hill walking acquaintance from that mountain bike trip will be equally as despondent at the changes afoot in this place where we shared a special connection to the landscape.
I just hope that I’m wrong and the high hills of Ardverikie can be preserved in their more natural state for future generations to enjoy as we have.
• What do you think? Email your thoughts on this issue to activeoutdoors@hnmedia.co.uk
Binnein Shuas – a popular climbing sport – rises above Lochan na h-Earba, which has mist hanging over it. Picture: John Davidson
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Ardverikie map. ©Crown copyright 2024 Ordnance Survey. Media 034/24.