Doodlecat.com

There have always been paths and tracks in Scotland - and, whether for trade, social or sporting use, we who enjoy the odd stravaig have benefited greatly from the labours of those who constructed them. The bold 'rover roads' of the forties, the ingeniously engineered victorian stalkers' paths, or the old drovers' routes such as the Minigaig or the Mounth Roads - all have added to the accessibility and the delight of walking in the Highlands.

But you can have too much of a good thing ... and when tracks are bulldozed through virgin land for no good reason other than to save the legs of a few pampered bankers (I chose my words very carefully there!) then someone has to call a halt.

Having run my own business (before the weight of regulation, taxation, and interfering busybodies made me see sense and stop) I am not in favour of people with no investment and exposed to nil risk poking their noses into someone else's affairs. Especially the affairs of hill farmers and the like who have a genuine and pressing need for vehicular access to the hillsides, and without whom many of the areas we love would be much poorer.

However, when someone's business activities are liable to mar or destroy large tracts of fragile land for decades to come, then at the very least they should be called to account to justify the activity before the bulldozers rip in to the hillside.

So please do pop over to the Hill Tracks Campaign where you will be able to find out more - and, most importantly, sign the petition for greater regulation of the construction of vehicular hill tracks.