September 30, 2014
Scotland

Outlander author’s plea to protect Scottish landscape from wind farms

By: Paul Gilbride | Express | Published: Tue, September 30, 2014 | www.express.co.uk

The creator of TV show Outlander has joined the fight to stop a controversial wind farm.

The £50million fantasy epic is based on US writer Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling time travel novels, set during the Jacobite rising.

Some scenes for the TV adaptation were filmed on Rannoch Moor in Perthshire, where the wind farm is proposed on the Talladh-a-Bheithe Estate.

Mountaineers and conservationists say the 410ft tall turbines between Loch Rannoch and Loch Ericht will spoil a place special to many people.

Gabaldon said: “While I appreciate the need for sustainable energy development, I oppose such a project on Rannoch Moor.

“While I am a novelist and film consultant, I was in my previous career an ecologist, and in all three of those roles, I’d view the potential loss of Rannoch Moor’s unique wilderness ecosystem as a tragedy.”

Outlander is the biggest production of its kind ever in Scotland. The first series has been a hit in the US and a second is planned, meaning a £20million boost to the Scottish economy.

The stories centre on Second World War nurse Claire Randall, who travels back in time to 18th-century Scotland and finds adventure with Highland warrior Jamie Fraser.

MSPs will debate the wind farm application at Holyrood today.

It is opposed by the Scottish Mountaineering Council and Scottish Natural Heritage.

A spokesman for Talladh-a-Bheithe Wind Farm Ltd said: “We are analysing community and statutory consultee feedback.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/09/30/outlander-authors-plea-to-protect-scottish-landscape-from-wind-farms/