I walked through a 'wind farm alley' in Scotland and this is what I found

Opinion over the chain of wind farm applications in the area is divided

For about 14 miles along a single track road through a valley in Dumfries and Galloway, you are accompanied by the swooshing of blades and distant clanging of steel.

Everywhere you look you can see wind turbines. Some are white flickers in the distance, while others loom uncomfortably close. The valley, which is roughly a diamond shape between Newton Stewart, Glen Luce, Cairnryan and Barrhill, is known locally as ‘wind farm alley’. 

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It spans across part of the south of Scotland, which is home to more than a fifth of Scotland’s existing onshore wind capacity, a South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) study found.

There are nine active wind farms in and bordering wind farm alley, which covers roughly a nine-mile radius around New Luce. Four new wind farms have been approved, and three wind farms are having extensions done. Another six separate sites in the area, including one near Galloway Forest Park, are being scoped to build more wind farms, one of which includes turbines that could be 250m - almost the size of the Eiffel Tower, which is 300m, and will be the largest Scotland has seen onshore.

A model made my a Hands off Our Hills campaigner showing turbines in and around wind farm alley A model made my a Hands off Our Hills campaigner showing turbines in and around wind farm alley
A model made my a Hands off Our Hills campaigner showing turbines in and around wind farm alley | Katharine Hay

Campaign group Hands Off Our Hills (HOOH), based in Newton Stewart, is fiercely pushing back against several of the proposed wind farms, including Blair Hill, which has plans for 22 250m turbines. The group has raised questions over the impact on the natural environment, and the affect the towering turbines could have on local tourism to the area.

But nestled at the foot of the valley in the villages of Glen Luce and New Luce, I was surprised to hear the residents were largely positive.

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Ken Chynoweth-Tidy, 63, who volunteers maintaining the Southern Upland Way, a walk that takes you through wind farm alley, said community funding from surrounding wind farms has enabled the villages “to fund projects they wouldn’t have otherwise been able to fund”. Each village and town has its own community group that handles money funded by the wind farms.

Ken Chynoweth-Tidy, 63, at the village shop in Glen LuceKen Chynoweth-Tidy, 63, at the village shop in Glen Luce
Ken Chynoweth-Tidy, 63, at the village shop in Glen Luce | Katharine Hay

In the time the Old Luce Development Trust has been receiving wind farm money, a new square for Glen Luce has been built. Residents in the half of the town nearest the surrounding turbines are given £200 off their energy bills a year. The other half, however, aren’t, which Mr Chynoweth-Tidy said was “a bone of contention in the village”.

“But the next wind farm coming here said we all get the discount,” he added.

Walking a few miles up towards New Luce, I met farmer Ramsay Donnan. He doesn’t have turbines on his land, but they are in full view of his home and livestock.

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From left to right farmer Ramsay Donnan, agriculture engineer Bob Downie and retired farmer Jim RankinFrom left to right farmer Ramsay Donnan, agriculture engineer Bob Downie and retired farmer Jim Rankin
From left to right farmer Ramsay Donnan, agriculture engineer Bob Downie and retired farmer Jim Rankin | Katharine Hay

“It’s where the wind farms should be,” he said, unfazed by their visual impact. “There’s no population up there. And it’s bringing money into the area.”

One community success story from the money spared by some of the developers has been the Kenmuir Arms in New Luce.

Kenmuir Arms Hotel, in New Luce, which was bought and refurbished by the community using money from surrounding wind farmsKenmuir Arms Hotel, in New Luce, which was bought and refurbished by the community using money from surrounding wind farms
Kenmuir Arms Hotel, in New Luce, which was bought and refurbished by the community using money from surrounding wind farms | Katharine Hay

The building lay derelict for about five years before the New Luce Community Trust, with money from ScottishPower Renewables, one of the developers, was able to purchase the building. Including renovation works, the process cost just over £1 million.

The attractive country pub with award-winning chef Chris Dougan at the helm “is a tremendous asset that will last for the next few hundred years”, said Alistair Hannay, a director for the local trust.

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Alistair Hannay, one of the directors of the New Luce Community TrustAlistair Hannay, one of the directors of the New Luce Community Trust
Alistair Hannay, one of the directors of the New Luce Community Trust | Katharine Hay

Funding also supports the local post office to stay open. The money also helps knock about £200 off electricity bills each year and residents receive a £150 taxi voucher.

Resident Stuart Wilson, however, said the donated funds were “more of a bribe to keep the community at bay” rather than proportionate compensation.

While these villages are in the valley, the turbines couldn’t really be heard or seen from residents’ dwellings. I walked up tracks into the hills to the doors of homes just metres from the swooshing blades. Several of the houses were either derelict, up for sale or were mid-renovation works. I wondered if some of the abandoned properties had something to do with the swathes of turbines encircling them. After several failed attempts to find anyone at home, I came across Frank MacGregor and Karen Stewart at Miltonise Farm.

Ms Stewart is on the board of the Kilgallioch Community Fund - Kilgallioch being one of the larger wind farms in the area with about 100 turbines. She said the benefits of the community funding outweighed the disadvantages of the wind farms, and the compensation the landowner had been given had improved farm facilities.

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“The thing I don’t like is the shadow flicker, and they can be quite noisy,” she said. “But we’re sparsely populated here, so as for people negatively affected, there’s not too many.”

Farm manager Frank MacGregor and Karen Stewart Farm manager Frank MacGregor and Karen Stewart
Farm manager Frank MacGregor and Karen Stewart | Katharine Hay

Mr MacGregor, who manages the farm, said he preferred turbines to forestry. “There’s a lot of farms similar to this one getting planted for trees,” he said. “About two thirds of the farm is surrounded by forestry and we are losing anything between 20 and 40 lambs a year to predators. And there’s not the same wildlife about like red grouse, lapwing, curlew as there was before when we didn’t have blanket forestry. The forestry is doing away with some of the wildlife. It’s worse than the wind farm.”

Over in Newton Stewart, spirits were low among the HOOH group after the latest wind farm in the area to be proposed came in just last week for Shennanton, about five miles from the town, and which will be visible to residents.

The group’s chairman Kenny Campbell said: “It's a worry as it would mean Newton Stewart truly would be the hole in the doughnut. All it takes is for another plan further down the Machars to be resurrected, which was rejected in 2012, and the ring of steel here would be complete.”

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While some of the turbines in wind farm alley have been around for two decades, campaigners said they are concerned there has been a rush to get applications in before Dumfries and Galloway is potentially selected as Scotland’s next national park, which will be revealed in a matter of weeks. The Scottish Government’s current legislation on developments in national parks reads: “Development proposals for wind farms in National Parks and National Scenic Areas will not be supported.”

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