Scotland's First National Park Opens

Scotland yesterday officially gained its first national park, Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park at a ceremony carried out by Princess Anne.

The park covers some 720 square miles and spreads from Crianlarich in the north to Balloch in the south. It includes 21 mountains and 33 hills as well as Loch Lomond itself. It's the first of its kind in Scotland despite the long established principle of protected national parks elsewhere in the UK.

The opening took place at the £3 million Gateway Centre near Balloch, which will eventually form part of a £60 million development includign an Imax cinema and a hotel complex.

Cairngorm Dismay

The opening was welcomed by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, but the organisation took the opportunity to highlight the widespread dismay over the second Scottish national park in the Cairngorms due to open in 2003.

The Council has attacked the decision to leave planning powers in the hand of local authorities, who it fears will not protect mountains from development due to economic pressures and has also expressed unrest at what it calls 'the illogical southern boundary of the Park'.

Briefly the southern boundary has been moved north from the original and logical border for what the Council says are political reasons halving the size of the park and leaving the southern boundary deep in the mountain massif and with no logical southern gateway to the Park.

"We thought we were going to get the biggest National Park in Europe, instead it now looks like we're going to get the most political." says MCofS Access and Conservation Officer, Mike Dales.

To read the full extent of the the MCofS objections click here where you'll also find links to a map showing the proposed boundaries.