Rangers rise to the challenge in Glencoe

Since March this year, our ranger team have engaged with around 600 people on their evening tours of the glen’s camping and overnighting hotspots. During these patrols, they provide help and advice to visitors on how to follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code when camping in highly protected natural landscapes. They are working closely with the Highland Council Access Rangers and Forestry and Land Scotland rangers, who look after other popular sites neighbouring Glencoe. This work is made possible through the generosity of our members and supporters, as well as by income generated at the Glencoe Visitor Centre. The activity is also supported by NatureScot, through the Better Places Fund.

Scott McCombie, Senior Ranger for Glencoe NNR, explains: ‘All of us at the National Trust for Scotland want to share our special places, ensuring they’re as accessible as possible in a way that is truly sustainable. We thoroughly enjoy meeting people from all walks of life when out and about in Glen Coe and Glen Etive. We engage with thousands of people each year to ensure they get maximum enjoyment out of their time with us as well as go away inspired to take extra care of their natural environment, leaving it as they found it ... or even better.’

Building on our work to protect, care for and share Glencoe NNR, the ranger team is also keen to raise awareness of the ways in which everyone can ensure their behaviour doesn’t cause lasting damage to the special places they have come to visit nor to the local community.

This includes calling for no campfires on the ground in the reserve after the team saw a rise in the number of fire sites compared with last year. Several wildfires were caused by careless campers earlier in the spring, and there have been numerous examples of trees being damaged to provide a source of firewood. As well as spotting campfires and preventing them escalating during this year’s dry spring and early summer, the team is working to educate the public on the impacts of campfires on Glencoe’s spectacular landscape.

Scott says: ‘Campfires have a negative impact on both the peat-rich low-level soils in the glens and the thinner, fragile upland soils. This is not just at times of high wildfire risk, although it is even more unacceptable at these times. We ask that campers bring only camping stoves, or at least portable metal fire bowls with a stand, to keep fires off the bare earth. Please do not light naked flames during dry spells.’

In the famous Hidden Valley of Coire Gabhail, the team has been saddened to see woodland – renowned internationally for its rich mosses and lichens – damaged by campers who have cut branches off trees in an attempt to fuel their campfires. ‘This is not only bad for these precious habitats but it’s also pointless, as live greenwood will not burn’, comments Scott McCombie.

We are also helping to educate visitors to Glencoe on the rules around cars and camper vans driving off-road onto soft verges, peat-rich moorland and even river beaches. Having observed a growing trend for 4x4s with roof-top tents driving off-road, our rangers in Glen Coe and Glen Etive have been engaging actively with drivers to explain that the Scottish Outdoor Access Code does not grant a right of access for camping to motorised vehicles.

Scott says: ‘Every weekend we encounter vehicles that have been driven off hard-surface laybys and car parks, so that their occupants can get a better view or camp beside or on top of their vehicles – often unaware that they’re breaching the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. Off-road driving requires the permission of the landowner. While an individual driver might not think they are causing a problem, the cumulative effect at busy locations is very damaging. We are seeing disturbance of vegetation and wildlife, soil erosion or compaction, worsening drainage, and wetter ground conditions. Educating the public has become an important aspect of our conservation activity here.’

Another critical element in our mission to protect and share Glencoe National Nature Reserve is the ranger team’s ongoing work to clear up what visitors leave behind. Top of their list of finds is food packaging, disposable BBQs, used tissues, wet wipes and toilet sites.

Scott says: ‘One of the least pleasant tasks our team faces – and this is certainly one that diverts us from conservation and habitat restoration – is clearing up toilet sites. There is no easy answer to toileting in the outdoors. The advice in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code is to bury it. However, at popular sites with thin soils and repeated use, this is not the best option. Many people choose the same spots at the edge of car parks and beside paths, and these areas can become a biohazard. We ask visitors to consider our team members and the other visitors and dogs who may encounter the remnants of their toileting activities.’

Scott added: ‘Thanks to the generosity of the National Trust for Scotland’s members and supporters, our ranger team are on the ground working relentlessly to protect, care for and share these stunning glens. We’re grateful to them, as well as to the local community, volunteers and responsible visitors who help us do that.’