Anti-tourism protests on the horizon in Scottish Highlands as hotspot towns 'pushed to breaking point'

16 August 2024, 00:01

Mass tourism protests are on the horizon in Scotland as "relentless over-promotion" overwhelms communities, LBC has been warned.

Residents in small towns across the Highlands have told us an "explosion" in the number of visitors since the creation of the North Coast 500 trail in 2015 have seen communities reach "breaking point".

The route - dubbed Britain's most beautiful road - essentially saw a pre-existing network stretching 516 miles through Inverness-shire, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland and Caithness rebranded.

But locals have told us infrastructure and regulations haven't grown to match the demands and changing behaviour of the tens of thousands of tourists travelling to 'Scotland's Route 66' every summer - with a surge in campervan drivers avoiding paying for official sites with facilities.

Instead, campers are choosing to stay overnight in laybys or beside roads, with human waste and litter routinely being dumped in popular beauty spots and properties being turned into Air BnBs en-masse.

Campaigner Robin Pettigrew, who lives on the route in Lochcarron, believes "relentless overpromotion" is pushing the village towards breaking point.

He told LBC that a growing number of "irresponsible" tourists speeding, urinating in and trying to camp in parks and parking overnight outside homes.

He told LBC tensions are at a point where demonstrations - like we've seen held in Spain and Greece - are on the horizon in the Highlands.

"Yes I'm seeing a lot of discussion on social media about taking direct action. There is a lot of talk now about direct action and protests," he says.

"The same problems that are happening in the Canaries and the Balearic islands are happening here with overtourism, houses being snapped up, no jobs for the locals, Air BnBs buying everything up. It's exactly the same problems just in a wider area.

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He continued: "I don't know where it will go. I'm quite worried about it.

"But some of the talk is not nice that we wouldn't want to see - I don't mind protests and reasonable legal direct action - but not some of the stuff that's coming over social media that is nasty and can’t be condoned."

Referencing rumoured plans, including locals "putting nails down" on rural roads in a bid to puncture vehicle tyres, he added that "putting glass in apples" was another "appalling" idea mentioned when it came to damaging vehicles used by tourists.

"And some of that nastier side has already been happening for a number of years. We've had missiles thrown at camper vans, we know that's happened, and it's happening on both sides," Mr Pettigrew added.

"On a small scale yes, but we've had people attacking each other...we’ve had youngsters on motorcycles who've been photographing people illegally camping and they had rocks thrown at them.

"This type of stuff is happening as we speak, so it's not a case of waiting for it to happen. It's escalating slowly and happening more. And it will (continue to escalate) unless something's done."

Eddie in Ormiscaig agreed he could see demonstrations being organised around the Highlands if "people continue not to listen", he said: "It’s not the 'North Coast 500', it's my road to the shop, it's my road to the doctor.

"There’s this promotion of it as some sort of Disneyland and as if the road appeared from nowhere. Well, I wish it had, and that we had got another one we could use. It’s just got so busy. In normal conditions it should take two hours to get to the nearest hospital. But when you’re stuck behind all the campervans that becomes three hours plus.

"The ambulance cover, the fire cover, the police cover, it is based on our resident population which is sparse – but those numbers swell so dramatically now through the summer months that it becomes disproportionate to the needs of the area.

"People are under the false impression that they can simply bring their accommodation with them and park in a layby or private property where there are fire safety risks, no sanitation, no water. We see that every day.

When there was two or three a month, 20 or 30 a year, nobody really minded. But you are literally talking hundreds and hundreds now and the cumulative effect on these places is there to see.

"People dump waste all the time. The dogs roll in it. We’ve stopped going to the well known beaches with the grandchildren because they’ll tread in human waste. People bury barbecues.

And yes, you can wild camp in Scotland, that's a true statement, but nobody wants to read on to the rules that say that doesn't include anyone in a vehicle. It doesn't include anyone driving their car off road and pitching a tent."

Kelsey from Durness told LBC: "There’s camper vans absolutely everywhere now and the infrastructure just isn’t here, these roads are too small to cope. The council can’t keep up to it because of the high volume of traffic. The roads are crumbling.

"And a lot of the tourists we get now are not the same as we used to get ten years ago. The majority of tourists who are staying in campervans in laybys overnight do leave waste.

That includes chemical waste being dumped everywhere and people defecating and littering everywhere. This isn’t all of them, some of them do respect the place and respectful tourists are always welcome, but disrespectful tourists are never welcome."

And while Margaret in Kinlochbervie told LBC she thinks locals are reluctant to organise demonstrations, she thinks strict requirements around tourists having to stay in designated sites could help limit numbers and rangers with enforcement powers being employed could limit damage.

She said: "There’s been this explosion in numbers of people coming to the North Coast 500. They do it as a bucket list, tick off one site, move on, tick off another site.

"There’s more and more camper vans just following this idea that they can book one and head north and wing it without needing to stay in campgrounds because 'that's not freedom'.

"That would be manageable if it was one or two people, but it’s thousands and thousands of people. Our group has studied Visit Scotland stats and it looks like there’s as many as 2000 people a night doing this.

"The number that came last year was something like 40,000 in motor homes. It doesn't take very many of those people to start having a negative impact even though the majority may be sensible.

"And it’s not that nobody supports tourism. There's always been tourism here and people have always been really willing and happy to share their areas with other people, but now? It's just people driving through and there's so many of them and they park all over the place and there’s so much mess.

"If you go to a cemetery to visit your parents’ graves and you find somebody hanging laundry there, it is very off putting. That is something that happens a lot. And the people on the other end say 'well, what's the problem? You know, they're dead. They're not bothered'." they said.

"People don’t even show respect for the cemeteries. It’s awful – they literally walk all over our graves. We used to like going to Ceannabeinne Beach but we stopped years ago.

"It just became this wild camping site with scorch marks everywhere and litter everywhere and human excrement everywhere, and a lot of people locally won't go there because it makes them want to cry. So one problem is the sheer numbers, another problem is the treating of this whole area like some sort of Disney theme park.

"There’s a general feeling that the opinions of people who live here are not being listened to and I know lots and lots of people who have written to the Scottish Government saying 'please do something, we are being invaded, it’s awful".

First Minister John Swinney said: "I think it's important that we all recognise the need for different industries such as tourism to be compatible with the lives of local communities and many communities respond to that challenge with the enhancement of infrastructure.

"Obviously the Government has worked constructively with the Highland Council to try to put in place resources to enhance the public infrastructure that will support visitors coming to the NC500.

"I would certainly encourage the Highland Council to work closely and collaboratively with local communities to address and resolve any practical issues that arise"

The Highland Council's published details of its £2.1 billion twenty-year investment plan here.

And council officials tell LBC North Coast 500 Limited - who we have asked to comment - are entirely responsible for marketing the NC500.