Campaigners welcome refusal of controversial house plan at Culloden Battlefield
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Campaigners calling for greater protection of Culloden Battlefield have voiced delight after controversial plans to convert a derelict steading into a family home were refused.
They join leading conservation charity, the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), in welcoming rejection of the
proposed development at Culchunaig Steading.
Although Highland Council planning officers had recommended approval of the project – a revised version of a previous plan rejected by Scottish ministers – councillors this week voted to refuse it.
Many shared concerns raised by the NTS that the site of the battle fought between Jacobite and government forces in April 1746 is coming under ever-increasing pressure from cumulative development.
The charity, which is responsible for part of the battlefield area, also believes that ongoing research indicates the area around the steading could have played host to one of two pivotal "pincer movements" in the battle.
After the meeting, Raoul Curtis-Machin, NTS operations manager at Culloden, said: "We are pleased that the council has acted to protect the area’s important heritage with this decision.
"Our charity knows how much the public value this special place and we are all concerned about the impact of encroaching development on one of Scotland’s most significant battle sites.
"We all need to play our part in ensuring it remains for future generations."
Carolyn Seggie, of the Group to Stop Development at Culloden, expressed delight at the decision.
"This is an important part of the entire battlefield - which we know extends much further than was previously thought – being the area where the Irish Piquets engaged in battle both both before and during the retreat of the Jacobite army," she said.
"We feel that our campaign to prevent desecration of the battlefield is having the desired effect."
In recent years, there have been growing concerns about development in the area.
In 2018, Highland councillors approved the designs and layout for a controversial 16-home development at Viewhill, although in December they rejected another plan to convert the nearby Treetop Equestrian Centre into a holiday complex.
Campaigners, meanwhile, have voiced opposition to another proposed home on a greenfield site next to the battlefield site at Muirfield Farm, Westhill.
The conversion proposals for Culchunaig Steading, submitted by architectural technician Mark Hornby, of MRH Design, were considered on Wednesday by the south planning applications committee which voted to reject it on the basis it contravened various planning policies.
Previously, councillors had approved an application for a conversion of the steading but the decision was overturned by Scottish ministers who said the only type of development that could be supported in the location would be the sensitive conversion and adaptation of the existing steading.
Council officers told the committee the revised application represented "an extremely sympathetic and sensitive conversion" which would have little visual impact on the site or its surrounding landscape.
They also warned that without intervention the building would eventually collapse into ruins.
But Inverness South councillor Andrew Jarvie disagreed with their assessment and raised concerns about the amount of glazing proposed.
"Anyone standing on the battlefield will see this development,” he said. “I think they will see it quite clearly for all the glass that is there.”
Inverness Ness-side councillor Ron MacWilliam speculated whether world heritage status would protect the battlefield if parts were owned by companies seeking to develop it.
"While I have every sympathy for this applicant, especially as he has gone to the expense and length of coming back again, I think there is far too much emphasis on the building and not enough emphasis on what the conservation area relates to which is a battlefield,” he said.
"This is not an appropriate place to site a family home."
Culloden and Ardersier councillor Roddy Balfour referred to the site as a tourism icon and national treasure and said there would be public outrage if the proposal went ahead.
"We are destroying the sanctity of the site which is important not only in the history of Scotland but in the history of the UK," he said.
But Inverness South councillor Carolyn Caddick said although it was in a conservation area, that did not mean there would be no development – just that any development had to be sympathetic.
"It is a derelict building that is in danger of collapse and falling down," she said. "It is as sympathetic as it can be."
Mr Hornby did not wish to comment afterwards.
Related story: Controversial plans for luxury home at Culloden battlefield set to be given go-ahead despite objections
