Culloden: Rejected holiday park plans for historic site revived once again

Plans have been revived to build a holiday park within the historic boundary of Culloden Battlefield.
Plans for a holiday park in the Culloden area have sparked fresh concerns by those working to protect the wider historic battlefield from development. PIC: Herbert Franks/Creative Commons.Plans for a holiday park in the Culloden area have sparked fresh concerns by those working to protect the wider historic battlefield from development. PIC: Herbert Franks/Creative Commons.
Plans for a holiday park in the Culloden area have sparked fresh concerns by those working to protect the wider historic battlefield from development. PIC: Herbert Franks/Creative Commons.

An application to develop the Treetops Stables at Feabuie with 13 wooden cabin and a 100-seat restaurant, plus other leisure attractions, was rejected by planning officers at Highland Council in May May.

It attracted objections around the world given a growing concern over development in the wider Culloden area.

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The site sits around one kilometre north of the section of the battlefield owned by National Trust for Scotland but it falls within the historic boundary of the greater battlefield and the Culloden Muir Conservation Area.

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Owners of the land intend to come back with a new application early next year, it is understood.

Details of any amendments to the original proposal have yet to be made public.

However, a public meeting has been planned at Treetops Stables on Saturday, November 9, discuss the new proposals.

The Group to Stop Culloden Development has urged all its members, and the general public, to attend the meeting, which will include an exhibition of the new plans.

The Treetops proposals follows the approval of a 16-home development at Viewhill Farm, where significant contact between forces was recorded during the battle between the Jacobites and British Army in April 1746.

In September, councillors approved an application to build a t

Plans to build a luxury home within the historic boundary of Culloden Battlefield have been approved.

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Councillors on the South Planning Applications Committee approved the application to convert a steading that overlooks the south west area of the battlefield near Culchunaig.

Of a number of recent applications for the Culloden area, it is the one closest to the NTS property.

Historians opposed to the development earlier criticised it as an "appalling intrusion of a national war grave" with the site likely to have seen significant action during the battle in April 1746.

Historic Environment Scotland and National Trust for Scotland did not oppose the plans on the grounds they redeveloped an existing steading, although both acknowledged the sensitive area of the site.

Those resisting development in the wider Culloden area are concerned that recent planning decisions set a precedent with the historic site left without due protection.

National Trust for Scotland owns only a third of the entire battlefield area with the remainder of the historic site largely open to potential development by private landowners.