Power line shock for tycoon

IT WAS supposed to be a Highland retreat from the stresses and strains of modern life.

But transport tycoon Ann Gloag, one of Britain’s richest women, may find it harder in future to unwind in the historic and scenic surroundings of Beaufort Castle.

Plans are well advanced to build gigantic electricity pylons within half a mile of her home on the banks of the River Beauly, Inverness-shire. The 150ft pylons - the biggest to be built in the UK - are needed to carry electricity from renewable energy experiments with wind and waves in the north of Scotland to the Central Belt.

But Gloag is understood to be furious that the pylons and their crackling, high-voltage cables will be unmissable from the ancient ramparts of the castle.

She is probably the richest and most influential of hundreds of people from Beauly to Bannockburn opposed to the 200m pylon plan, arguing it will destroy the beauty of vast swathes of rural Scotland.

Objectors want parts of the 140-mile line - from Beauly, eight miles east of Inverness, to Denny, near Falkirk - buried underground where it crosses new territory. The firm behind the plan, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), says that is far too expensive.

Community councils in Stirlingshire are holding emergency meetings this week - in advance of a Friday deadline for comments - amid fears that the height of the new pylons will blight homes and tourism in the area by destroying classic views from Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument.

The power line will follow the course of an older line for three-quarters of its length, but will cross untouched land for the remainder, bringing it much closer to Gloag’s Beaufort Castle estate.

Giles Foster, who runs the neighbouring Lovat estate, over which the existing and proposed new lines run, said: "We granted wayleave to the electricity company to run the original line over our land 60 years ago because, like everyone else, we appreciate that power lines have to go somewhere. But we take huge exception to the new line being constructed over virgin territory."

The new line will run just 25 metres from the farm houses on Beaufort Castle estate and about 800 metres from the castle itself.

It would also go very close to homes in the surrounding Kiltarlity area.

Foster said: "We think we could live with it, even though the pylons are much bigger, if the new line followed the old route, but the new route is being foisted upon us with little consultation and with indecent haste."

SSE is likely to have a formidable foe in Gloag, 61, who has a reputation for doggedly fighting her corner, has deep pockets to match and is fiercely protective of her property.

Last year, she took former policeman Ian Hamilton to court, claiming he and his wife, Patricia, had extended their garden on to land they had no right to on the Beaufort Castle estate. At Inverness Sheriff Court, Gloag was granted an interim interdict against the tenants, preventing them using the narrow strip and a nearby carport. She was also awarded legal costs amounting to thousands of pounds.

She is also unafraid of speaking out on her favourite causes. Gloag, who has given substantial sums to Third World charities, recently hit out at Unicef, the United Nations’ child aid body, for lavishing funds on pampered officials rather than channelling cash where it was most needed.

But SSE says the new line is vital if Scotland is to exploit the electricity produced by a new generation of wind farms, hydro power stations and wave power generators either under construction or in the planning process in the north of Scotland.

It says the new route for the pylons is needed to take a more efficient, "straighter" course south than the existing 132,000 volt cables do. Six hundred giant pylons, spaced at 300 metre intervals, are needed simply to carry the weight of the massive 400,000 volt power lines. SSE says underground cables would cost around 500m.

Scottish Executive policy is to produce 40% of the country’s electricity from more environmentally friendly energy sources by 2020, but the company says the target will not be reached without a major upgrading of the transmission line connecting Beauly with the Central Belt.

The existing power lines from the north of Scotland converge on the national grid switching station at Beauly, a key hub of the Scottish electricity supply.

From Beauly, the new line will cross the river on to the Lovat estate and then head directly south within sight of Beaufort Castle.

The castle was the ancestral seat of the Fraser clan until it was sold to Gloag - the daughter of a Perth bus conductor who made her estimated 152m family fortune as a founder of the Stagecoach transport empire - to pay off massive debts in 1995.

Opposition is also growing at the southern end of the line, with community councils and residents along the preferred route complaining they have been given little time to react before this week’s deadline.

Peter Pearson, a housing consultant whose home in Blairlogie will be just 200 metres from the line, said it would have a massive impact on "classic views" from local landmarks.

"These pylons will pretty much ruin the views from Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument.

"Tourists will not want to see these massive pylons marching across the countryside and spoiling our magnificent scenery."

An SSE spokesman said a proposed route would be submitted to the Scottish Executive later this year and the company hoped to start work on the three-year construction programme in 2005.