Keeping the view of the Howe of Cromar
There is rightly widespread support for the government’s intention to substantially increase Scotland’s generation of renewable energy. Does this mean we should support the proposals for a major wind energy development on Pressendye hill? Not necessarily! These intentions should part of an overall strategic plan indicating how much energy should be generated from which sources of renewable energy in different parts of the UK and what role is foreseen for improved energy conservation. Such a plan is lacking and government should not permit proposals with potentially damaging implications without the justification that only such a plan could supply.
The Pressendye proposal is perhaps a classic in the way it raises a full suit of landscape issues from three major perspectives.
The first of these is the impact on the vista from a classical northeast viewpoint of the Slack. Most residents and tourists in an area experience the landscape from the road. Surveys of tourists repeatedly show the importance of this perspective as central to the experience of car-borne tourists and it is also central to the experience of residents. A key component of this experience is the landscape from classical viewpoints on main roads, especially on significant tourist routes. These are often seen as iconic of an area. They leave an enduring imprint on the experience of visitors and have an important emotional role in forming an attachment to an area by local people. These key views need to be closely safeguarded as major assets.
Northeast Scotland has few of these compared with, for example the northwest Highlands – in fact it has only three. One is on the most southerly side of the Lecht pass looking south over the headwaters of the Don – probably the least dramatic of the three. A second is the view south from the summit of the Cairn o Mount, over the lowlands of Scotland and demonstrating the dramatic impact of the Highland Boundary Fault.
The third is the view over the Howe of Cromar from the Slack. This last is notable for its diversity of typical Scottish landscape features, including a highly characteristic settled and cultivated ‘howe’ sweeping up towards the igneous intrusion that forms world famous Lochnagar with its striking ice-carved corries and the tundra of its high plateau. The eye turns towards Morven with its distinctive shape and colour due to its unique geology, and then to the clean-lined curve of Pressendye Hill stretched against the skyline. The uncluttered diversity of this overall view is one of its most valuable features.
Taking the second important perspective, from within the Howe, the entire skyeline is often visible, and in particular from the stone circle at Tomnaverie, which is now a much visited site. There are few stone circle sites in Scotland from which the surrounding view, and especially towards Tarland and beyond to Pressendye, communicate so strongly a sense of locale and community and shared humanity with our ancient predecessors that caused them to station this religious site here. As in most howes, the skyline is almost continuously visible, a constant part of the daily experience of inhabitants with an important psychological effect. It clearly defines the locale physically and thus strongly enhances the sense of place that is important to communities, but it also has a subtle but profound linked effect in defining the sense of community. A major intrusive element like huge windturbines on a dominating horizon disturbs and damages both these elements.
Lastly, taking the broadest perspective, Pressendye hill is relatively high and widely visible from several directions over a wide area of Aberdeenshire. While it is a relatively low-key component of that landscape it is a consistent and significant part of that broad scene. Windturbines on it would intrude dramatically into the skyline from many directions. Overall, the gains in renewable energy from this project are not worth the less tangible, but important losses.
Drennan Watson
Alford, Aberdeenshire