What can be done to improve the arrival to the Highlands ?
It isn’t much of a welcome is it to one of the world’s great destinations?
Newly constructed 65 metre-high Beauly-Denny pylons tower over the most popular gateway into the Highlands and Islands.
More than 17,000 objections were made to the development, and now the pylons are there they are as intrusive and unsightly as most feared.
The equally controversial bright yellow A9 average speed cameras which will be switched on at 12.01am this Tuesday (October 28) are another blight just added to the landscape.
With this in mind, we are asking ‘Strathy’ readers what they think can be done to improve the main entrance to the strath and wider Highlands.
Editor Gavin Musgrove said: "At present there is no sense of arrival to the Highlands, a region described in recent years by National Geographic as one of the best 20 destinations in the world.
"One obvious addition could be a piece of public art – Andy Scott’s Kelpies in Falkirk have become a huge hit with the public and ‘Arria’, the 10 metre high ‘Angel of the Nauld’ overlooking the M80 north of Auchenkilns is another very popular landmark.
"Closer to home the fantastic bronze golden eagle created by Boat of Garten sculptor Tom Mackie and perched high over the hydro-electric power scheme at Glendoe, near Fort Augustus, shows that big is not necessarily better.
"Or it might be that most people think there are already enough man-made objects spoiling the gateway at Drumochter Pass.
"We want to see if there is any appetite out there to create an arrival point for the Highlands and if so pick our readers’ brains on what that might be, see if there is any consensus and if so look at helping to make it happen."
The world’s most influential travel magazine, National Geographic, named the Highlands along with the likes of the Caribbean island of Dominica and Alaska’s Kodiak Island as must-see destinations.
• Get in touch with your thoughts by email at editorial@sbherald.co.uk; on Twitter @StrathyHerald; Facebook or by writing to the Strathy, 44, High Street, Grantown, PH26 3EH.
