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Published: 1 Aug 2022

Sustainable Schiehallion: Tender

We are delivering an exciting new project to improve infrastructure and facilities at East Schiehallion. The Trust has carried out initial scoping works and are now looking to move the project to a design options appraisal. 

The John Muir Trust looks after East Schiehallion in Perthshire, which attracts thousands of visitors to climb the hill each year. Visitors mostly arrive by car, and make use of a car park and toilet facilities which are located on land belonging to Forestry and Land Scotland at Braes of Foss. 

However, visitor numbers to the car park have long surpassed its current capacity of 25 spaces. This has led to an additional unofficial 30 spaces (approx.) often being used along the car park’s access track. 

As visitor numbers have escalated in recent years, overflow vehicles parked along verges on the single-track Schiehallion road have obstructed timber wagons, emergency vehicles and farm vehicles from passing through and cause a danger to the public. 

Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) and John Muir Trust wish to resolve the problem by working together and with the local community. 

We also wish to explore what opportunities there may be to use a redevelopment of the car park and toilet facilities to engage in greater depth with the general public about wild places, and developing exemplary land management practices in the context of modern land management and its impact upon landscape and habitats. 

The Trust has carried out initial scoping works and are now looking to move the project to a detailed design options appraisal. We are therefore looking to appoint a team of experienced organisations and/or individuals able to deliver this.

The team should be led by one organisation or individual who will act as project manager. The team should also comprise a lead architect, who may or may not be the same person as the project manager. Community consultation and stakeholder engagement will be an important part of this project and tenders should detail the methods and time committed to this.