We Scots are in danger of sleepwalking into a mechanised nightmare 

Tom Smith raises a very valid point when he talks of how powerless small communities are in the face of the relentless progress of windfarms over our precious landscape (Letters, April 1).

The South-west of Scotland has more than its fair share of these, presumably due to the lower cost of connecting to the grid, and it is now not possible to walk on any hill in this area without encountering at least three windfarms.

There seems to be a new one under construction every week I venture out. Just last week, on descending towards beautiful Glen Trool, I was confronted by yet another under construction behind the loch. I note that there is a proposal to build a windfarm on the edge of the Cairngorm National Park and another 140-turbine monster near Loch Ness (“Fury over windfarm proposals”, The Herald, April 1). For how long will the Scottish Government continue to encourage this senseless vandalism? Our tourist industry already employs more people than windfarm construction and operation will ever do. The output from these industrial monsters is pitiful when set against the environmental damage wreaked by these developments. Moir Gair’s April 1 exclusive on midge-fired power stations made more sense (see facing page, below).

This madness must stop before the Scottish people find that they have sleepwalked into an industrial nightmare where we once had a beautiful, world-renowned, landscape.

Andrew Mitchell,

4 Glenpark Avenue, Prestwick.

I AM not convinced that I shall ever be able to understand the determination of WWW Scotland (Letters March 31), and Friends of the Earth Scotland, to destroy Scotland’s unique landscapes. Both organisations refused to support the attempts to get the public inquiry into the Beauly-Denny power line proposals and the Scottish Government to give serious consideration to the reinforced East Coast grid route.

My attempts to obtain a rational explanation from WWW (S), FoE (S), the Scottish Greens, Scottish and Southern Energy and from the politicians for this refusal met with no success.

Add to this all their unbridled and unquestioning enthusiasm for huge commercial onshore wind farm developments and we are already seeing the apparently unstoppable march of pylons and generators advancing across huge swathes of Scotland’s upland and coastal areas. There is something hugely symbolic for humanity and for our planet of this menacing advance of the mechanised culture across areas of natural beauty, a resource of inestimable value for which, sadly, few politicians have any obvious appreciation.

To quote the renowned author and traveller WH Murray (1926-2005; I am confident he would not mind): “The Scottish Highlands have no counterpart on this planet, comparisons failing to survive even brief examination.

“The outstanding beauty of the Highland scene has been haphazardly expended and no account kept. Are Scots so blind that they cannot prize it for its own?”

This was indeed prescient.

John Milne,

9 Ardgowan Drive,

Uddingston.