Kate Forbes urges landowners to help ease tourism pressure in Arisaig and Morar

Kate Forbes MSP has raised serious concerns about the impact of the sudden rise in visitor numbers amidst ongoing complaints from constituents about safety and the environment.

An explosion in traffic has seen tourist parking up in passing places and along the roadway of the B8008 between the Highland villages of Arisaig and Morar.

Campervans and tents have been left on sensitive machair – one of the rarest habitats in Europe – while fires and litter have been left along the Silver Sands of Morar and Camusdarach beach, made famous by the film Local Hero.

While the area’s long been a tourism draw, residents say numbers surged last summer as domestic tourists unable to go abroad due to Covid sought Scottish holiday spots and the seasonal spike is now repeating in line with a boom in motorhome ownership.

One commenter on Facebook said the area has become “like a shantytown” while another said a “stunning beauty spot [is] completely ruined”, while others fear the road may become so impassible that emergency vehicles can’t get through. “We’re in danger of being overrun,” one local told the Sunday National.

The concern continues one month after landscape artist Hope Blamire went public with her experiences of dirty camping and rogue parking in the area.

Local leaders say that while pressures existed prior to the pandemic, the extent of the appetite for breaks to the area took them by surprise. “It just exploded,” one told the Sunday National.

READ MORE: How Brexit is breaking the tourism industry in the Highlands

Steps have been taken to alleviate the problems that have arisen, including the installation of double yellow lines and the ticketing of vehicles to deter rogue parking. Regional transport body HiTrans has also launched the Go-Hi app that links up public transport information to encourage people to car-share, cycle or use buses and taxis.

This week Highland Council and Police Scotland issued safety guidance to all those preparing to visit the region. And there’s been a temporary relaxation of licensing regulations to enable the set-up of French-style motorhome stops, a move leaders hope will make up for a shortfall in commercial facilities. Tourism committee chairman Gordon Adam said a temporary airigh “will offer a safe, off-road location for motorhomes to park for the night and help alleviate parking problems experienced in rural areas” and allow organisers to make a small fee for every vehicle. Information on that was circulated to parties the council hoped might be interested last month.

But it’s feared that progress is too slow and members of local social media groups have called on authorities to do more.

There has been an explosion in traffic 

Independent councillor Allan Henderson, who represents the Caol and Mallaig ward, and chairs HiTrans, says the Go-Hi app “has the potential to make a significant contribution to improve accessibility for residents and visitors” and that local rangers patrolling the region are issuing guidance to people camping and touring.

However, he says the size of the area and its complex roads and geography means rangers and police can’t always deliver the “instant reaction” people want and it’ll take the delivery of more spaces for short-stays to change things. On the airighs, he said: “We need to get landowners to provide more infrastructure, if it means a field that’s turned into a 40 or 50 vehicle airigh even for the summer.”

However, he says authorities are “finding it difficult to negotiate with landowners” worried that “if they give the land they’ll be stuck with the people because they’ll hang around the vehicles”. “They feel the pressure is lumped onto them,” he adds on the provision of basic essential services like waste disposal.

Forbes, MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, also believes land use along the route is key to providing a solution. “I believe that the situation warrants immediate short-term curbs, such as greater restrictions on parking, increased police presence and the banning of campfires on the beach,” she says. “I have had scores of constituents get in touch with me about this and there is a very real concern over environmental damage to one of Scotland’s most beautiful landscapes and also emergency vehicle access arrangements.

“Over the longer-term, it has been well-documented and evidenced that the current roads and general infrastructure are struggling to cope during the peak tourist season.

“I am aware that the council, community groups and others have been proactively exploring the possibility of acquiring land locally for the purpose of making further improvements, and it is unfortunate that further progress has not been made.

“I would encourage local landowners to seriously reflect on what part they could play in helping to mitigate the continued surge in wild camping in this area, and I share the community’s concern that without urgent intervention the situation will only continue to deteriorate.”

Meanwhile, plans are being explored about the potential for bussing people to the famous beaches on a park-and-ride basis.

According to local rangers, nine in ten visitors are responsible, Henderson says. But “the whole crisis crept up on us very, very quickly” and there’s no easy solution. “If there was we would create it,” he says. “We have had so many meetings.”