Someone is upsetting the locals on Barra...

mistericeman

mistericeman

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I think it's more to do with the fact that they are not on the car park but on the Machair which is grassland.

There is a carpark nearby with an access track down to the beach. I can understand their anger.
 
Two photos to illustrate a point, one from 1953 showing the scene at Achmelvich some 3 miles from my home with exposed sand right up to and around the cottage which is in fact the Youth Hostel. The second photo shows what has been achieved in terms of conserving the area by encouraging the development of the Machair (common grazing land) to stabilise the sand. The Machair has a very fragile root system; some years back a visiting golfer hacked a few divots out and the next storm ripped out a hole 4ft across. A vehicle running over this fragile environment could rupture the root matrix and result in 70 years of conservation to be undone.

Which might go some way to explaining why the locals on Barra got so shirty.

Mike ... in Lochinver, Sutherland.

Achmelvich circa 1953 (Small).jpg Achmelvich hostel5913 (Small).JPG click to enlarge
 
mikeroch said:
Two photos to illustrate a point, one from 1953 showing the scene at Achmelvich some 3 miles from my home with exposed sand right up to and around the cottage which is in fact the Youth Hostel. The second photo shows what has been achieved in terms of conserving the area by encouraging the development of the Machair (common grazing land) to stabilise the sand. The Machair has a very fragile root system; some years back a visiting golfer hacked a few divots out and the next storm ripped out a hole 4ft across. A vehicle running over this fragile environment could rupture the root matrix and result in 70 years of conservation to be undone.

Which might go some way to explaining why the locals on Barra got so shirty.

Mike ... in Lochinver, Sutherland.

View attachment 86420 View attachment 86421 click to enlarge
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Sadly so many folks just don't realise how delicate our coastal eco systems are....

Dunes/machair etc etc are such important pieces of not only eco systems BUT also social history etc.
 
When I toured the Outer Hebrides in 2014. I spoke to every Landowner for permission to park up. I had offers from books to read, to testing out the wifes cooking. All very friendly people. The Machair is a very rare ecosystem and I was allowed to park on it in North Uist. With instructions on how not to cause damage.
One of the biggest gripes was against French tourists driving all over the stuff, leaving tyre tracks.
Having the wisdom of the above post of mikeroch, then, I would have declined the offer to park on it.
 
sparrks said:
Ignorance no doubt, maybe someone will do what Christine Godley suggests. I wouldn't have known how delicate or even what Maachair is.
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Hopefully as otherwise if parking there is due to ignorance then the driver will repeat the mistake again and again until someone with Christines attitude comes along.
 
Barra is a very small island and the locals are very twitchy about changes and strangers very polite and hospitable but you can here them whispering in Gaelic when you turn away. Can be a bit like a time warp all you have to do to get round this is go into castle bay hotel and buy the two old guys Sitting at the bar a dram and you can park where you want they would let you camp on top of the castle if you bought a double. and if you happen to have a bottle then you’ll wake up in the morning with mohrag a very nice girl 😜
 
I took the mickey in my first post but in truth even it you didnt know the extent of damage you could cause it is still not a good choice of location
 
The one occasion it isn’t acceptable to leave only tyre tracks. A mantra oftenchanted by wild campers .

Fragile bio diversity exists where few of us think Fylde council only this week after years of conservation have re introduced sand lizards in the dunes near st Anne’s. In due course the re introduction will benefit the bio diversity of the area

I for one it does make me think,
 
Maybe a lot to do with folk nowadays expecting to be able to park within 6 inches of exactly where they want to be?

Private vehicle ownership has a lot to answer for. What's wrong with parking in a less delicate place - the nearby car park as someone mentioned earlier - and walking from there down to the beach? Don't even bother quoting 'disability' to me on this one, either! But in this case it's probably ignorance of exactly what they're parking on.

I have never travelled much around Scotland and not heard of the machair until now, but I wholly agree with not parking on it.
However, the locals also need to take a big leaf out of Christine Godley's book. Hats off to her for that.

Reminds me of some of the posts on here where folk have posted pics of a campervan inappropriately parked, or doing something they shouldn't.
Christine Godley needs to offer advice on those too, imho ... ;) :p
 
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