ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Articulating the voice of the mountain: ecological science, ski developments and contestations over conserving the Cairngorms

• In Event: Searching for Eden in 20th-Century Ecological Thought

English Abstract

The post-war period bore witness to repeated efforts (ranging from short-lived commercial experiment to full-blown development proposal) at transforming parts of Scotland’s Cairngorm Mountains into upland landscapes suited to mass recreational skiing (requiring an infrastructure of access roads, ski-tows and lifts, and high-level amenities). Simultaneously, the mountain range was designated as a sub-Arctic environment unique in Britain for flora, fauna, and scenic quality: status granted by new nature conservation agencies with scientific authority but only limited powers to statutorily afford protection. This paper considers some of the contested episodes when ski-industry expansionism was configured as trouble entering paradise, focusing specifically on how a fusion of environmental values and ecological science was mobilised through the dynamics of opposition. It spotlights the pivotal role of a chief protagonist in these highly public and sharply politicised proceedings: Adam Watson, field scientist, mountain ecologist and celebrated Cairngorm conservationist. Biographical consideration is given to, variously: institutional affiliation (Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, NERC); scientific authority generated by credible data derived from longitudinal field-surveys; strategic deployment of international conservation networks; and a deeply personalised command of regional knowledge and commonplace wisdoms. Notably, emotive appeals from anti-development campaigners to listen to the “voice of the mountain” were spearheaded by Watson’s determined rationalism and career-commitment to a fuller understanding of the biotic effects of human pressure and conditions of functional interdependence in one of the most natural surviving ecosystems in Britain. While the events examined still sit comfortably in living memory, the paper concludes with reflections on snow and winter sport as phenomena of vanishing importance in the Cairngorms.

Author

• Hayden Lorimer, University of Edinburgh