Feature
Big, Bad, Beautiful Ben
The Work of the Nevis Partnership
By Kevin Howett
(MCofS National Officer and Nevis Partnership Director)
As far as mountaineers are concerned it all started in late 1994 when the Fort William Golf Club decided to close its car park to all but golf club members. MCofS started a campaign to get access rights confirmed and established across the golf course. This activity was a catalyst for a healthy debate on the future of Ben Nevis at the MCofS Annual General Meeting held in 1997 at the Clachaig Inn, Glen Coe.
The general feeling was that there was a lack of understanding locally of how important Ben Nevis was to the climbing community and equally how important that community was to the economy of the area.
One of the invited guests was local councillor Drew McFarlane-Slack who suggested we initiate a dialogue with Highland Council on positive moves to provide secure access. This we did and with the council’s help the North Face Car Park was opened in October 1999 by Highland Councillor William MacLachlan. Guest speaker and author of the SMC Guide to Ben Nevis, Simon Richardson said at the opening ceremony “we now have a facility that does justice to the mountain”.
Following on from this impetus, our then President Nick Kempe and Access Officer Mike Dales met with John Hutchison, the Lochaber Area Manager of the Highland Council who, in parallel, was discussing with the Fort William Community Council how to resurrect the Glen Nevis Working Party that had stopped in the early 1990’s. John realised that the two issues were closely linked and set up a public meeting in October 1998 which led to the Nevis Working Party being created with local and national interests. A number of workshops and consultations through 1999 identified the areas of concern and the Working Party, with Peter Scott as consultant, developed a series of strategy papers and a summary in May 2001 for public consultation (including a Public Meeting). John Donohoe, became our representative during this time, as Nick stood down and John was elected President, and he saw it through to the completion of a ‘Nevis Strategy’ – “A Strategy for Environmental & Visitor Management in the Nevis Area” in October 2001.
In the Chairman’s Preface, Councillor Neil M Clark states, “..the Nevis Working Party adopted the Strategy … as a guide for the future planning and management of the Nevis area”. It is a long-term vision, a 10-year action plan, and contains arrangements for implementation of the many diverse programmes. The strategy won the prestigious ‘Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning 2002’ and the RTPI Planning Awards 2002 ‘Commendation for Planning for the Natural Environment’.
Then came Foot & Mouth in the spring of 2001. Whilst MCofS fought at government level to get the hills re-opened, local action groups were springing up and being very effective in opening their local hills. In Lochaber it saw the formation of the Lochaber Mountain Access Group (LMAG) that was invited on to the Council’s emergency planning team that John Hutchison (also a MCofS member) chaired, in recognition of the value of mountaineering and other outdoor activities to the economy of Fort William. This proved a very successful combination and with Will Boyd-Wallace’s (John Muir Trust) formulation of an F&M risk assessment model saw an early opening of the hills.
The Working Party became the Nevis Partnership, a charitable company limited by guarantee, in 2003, with the Directors selected from the main organisations: myself on behalf of MCofS, Alan Kimber for LMAG, Will Boyd-Wallis for JMT, The Highland Council, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), Fort William Community Council, sportscotland, Glen Nevis Resident’s Association, Inverlochy and Torlundy Community Council, Alcan Estates and Glen Nevis Estate. Forestry Commission Scotland and the Highlands of Scotland Tourist Board are associate members.
What Now?
The Partnership is now in the process of securing funds to act on the proposals contained in the strategy but much work has already been started. A survey(*) carried out between September 2001 and August 2002 covering Glen Nevis and the Ben Nevis Massif, including Carn Mor Dearg, the North-western Mamores and Aonach Beag showed that the Lochaber economy benefits to the tune of £20 million a year generated by outdoor recreation.
There are almost 400,000 recreational visits to the area every year; 55% involving hillwalking, winter climbing or rock climbing as the main activity. Other popular activities are walks in the glens and forest. Significant use of the area is made by local people with 45,000 visits each year made by people living in and around the Nevis Area.
The survey showed that the path that was most in need of repair was the Allt a’Mhuilinn route from the North Face car park at Torlundy to the North Face of Ben Nevis and work started on the first section of path in March 2004. This was aided immensely by LMAG securing £50,000 sponsorship from outdoor clothing company The North Face.
A Nevis Partnership Manager was appointed in 2003. Jonathan Hart, a member of the Lochaber MRT is based at the Glen Nevis visitor centre and will be the driving force behind delivering the Nevis Strategy. He will be working with all the members of the Partnership in order to deliver a cohesive and long-term management plan for this internationally important heritage area.
Landowners Alcan, JMT and Till Hill Forestry have formulated a Woodland Grant Scheme for Glen Nevis, with support across the group including Glen Nevis Estate owner and farmer, Ewan Cameron. Plans are that grazing pressure will be reduced to encourage regeneration of native trees, with only the Nevis flats remaining ‘farmed’. Highland cattle will be used in the upper sections of the glen to aid management, but the hillsides will in time become more forested.
Plans are now underway to re-design the Nevis Visitor Centre car parking and start a re-vamp of the visitor facilities.
The future
The partnership is working on its strategies to better manage the many charity mass events that are attracted to Ben Nevis. There are plans for new paths including a Nevis riverside walk and in time linking paths such as to Leanachan Forest. Memorials are proliferating on the summit area and The Strategy suggested they be removed and sited at a more appropriate venue. This is currently being investigated. Many other programmes have yet to start, including Nevis entrance improvements, archaeological site interpretation, visitor provision, parking improvements, picnic area and viewpoint management, forest recreation enhancement, visitor information, litter management, traffic management and public transport initiatives.
Finally, a newly formed Mountain Management Sub Group comprising MCofS, JMT, LMAG, Northern Constabulary, Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team and Highland Council Ranger Service, will consider the issues concerning Ben Nevis summit and high plateau and advise the partnership. The first of these issues forms the consultation that follows on the next few pages of this magazine concerning the need for waymarking cairns. I hope readers will take this opportunity to make their views known on what was a controversial subject in the past.
*A free summary of the Visitor Survey is on http://www.highland.gov.uk/. The full survey report can be downloaded at http://www.sportscotland.org.uk/contents/nars.htm.