Bid for Affric & Loch Ness National Park launched

Bid for Affric & Loch Ness National Park launched - The Affric and Loch Ness National Park partnership via Trees for Life

view across Glen Affris, mature woodland in the foreground looking across a dark loch and river with pweter clouds overhead. — Glen Affric (credit James Shooter)

A bid to nominate Affric and Loch Ness as Scotland’s third national park has been launched, with organisers saying the area’s globally important natural and cultural heritage deserves protection and celebration.
The partnership behind the proposal says the area of the Scottish Highlands is one of the world’s most beautiful places, and national park status would benefit current and future generations. It would empower local communities, and open up economic opportunities including nature-based jobs, allowing people of all ages to keep living and working in the area, they say.
Strathglass Community Council, supported by a range of partners, is leading the national park nomination, which would include part of Loch Ness and Trees for Life’s Dundreggan Rewilding Centre in Glenmoriston to the south, Kintail to the west and Beauly to the east.
The community council, supported by Government appointed consultants, is seeking stakeholder and community engagement and consultation before submitting its full nomination. A series of local events will be held later this month, and local people and visitors to the area can make their views known via a new website, NewNationalPark.org.
The Scottish Government has promised to create at least one new national park by 2026, and the current nomination process closes on 29 February 2024.

The Affric and Loch Ness National Park partnership believes the new national park will promote sustainable tourism and visitor management to an area which includes Glen Affric, a 30-mile nature reserve with ancient Caledonian pine woodland, that is widely regarded as one of the most scenic glens in Scotland. They say a national park designation will also create sustainable employment and housing opportunities in these rural communities, and provide access to funding and infrastructure to protect and enhance the landscape and improve biodiversity.

The nomination has already attracted support from partners and stakeholders including Trees for Life, UHI Inverness, the Institute for Biodiversity & Freshwater Conservation, Highland Councillors, local community councils and community companies, and local business owners.