Off-piste: Lack of public access to Scottish ski resorts reinforces divides

Scot­land’s ski resorts offer breath­tak­ing scenery and exhil­ar­at­ing out­door exper­i­ences. How­ever, they are dif­fi­cult to access for many Scots. Alastair Naughton, a con­cerned cit­izen and avid ski­er, believes that Vis­itScot­land should advoc­ate for invest­ment in access­ible, afford­able, and low-emis­sion pub­lic trans­port infrastructure. 

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. (You too can write a “GT” Insight.)

I love ski­ing, although I have not been able to get up to the slopes for some time. 

And, as a proud Scot, I love our ski resorts!

I was inspired to write this “Good Tour­ism” Insight after sig­ni­fic­ant snow falls. 

While those con­di­tions may sound cold to read­ers used to warm­er climes, all I really wanted to do was go ski­ing … But it was impossible.

I live in Aber­deen in the north­east of Scot­land. Aber­deen is approx­im­ately a two-hour drive from the nearest Scot­tish ski resort. 

Scot­land has five ski resorts that attract tour­ists from all over the world. There are three in the east, and two in the west­ern Highlands. 

The breath­tak­ing scenery at all five is really some­thing to behold. 

Scot­land’s ski resorts are as fol­lows: Glen­shee; The Lecht; The Cairngorms; Glen­coe; and The Nevis Resort. All five offer the com­pre­hens­ive range of qual­ity ser­vices that any­one would expect from a Scot­tish ski resort, including:

• A full range of slopes rated from green to black (some­thing for everybody);
• Ski and snow­board­ing equip­ment hire;
• Oppor­tun­it­ies to learn how to ski or snow­board; and
• Excel­lent cater­ing facilities.

They also each have their unique attrac­tions. (See my “experts only” sum­mary below.)

How­ever, there is one major prob­lem with Scot­tish ski resorts: A lack of accessibility. 

Scottish ski resorts’ accessibility problem

With the excep­tion of the Cairngorms, which is well served by Aviemore, and pos­sibly Glen­coe, which is on a reg­u­lar bus route, it is almost impossible to gain access to Scot­tish ski resorts without own­ing (or hir­ing) a car. 

Let’s look at the resorts in the east first, before mov­ing to the west. 

Glen­shee is situ­ated 10 miles (~16 km) bey­ond Brae­mar, which is the final stop on the Roy­al Deeside tour. There is noth­ing bey­ond that. 

If you are depend­ent on pub­lic trans­port, Glen­shee is com­pletely out of the ques­tion, as the only way there is to hire a taxi from Brae­mar, which would add GBP26 (~USD32) each way, i.e. GBP52 (~USD65) for each day of skiing. 

There is a private hire bus laid on by a ski club in Glas­gow, but if you are not in that area, and pre­sum­ably not a mem­ber of the club, this is out of the question. 

Don’t miss oth­er “Good Tour­ism” con­tent tagged
“Access­ible tourism”

The Lecht is even fur­ther off the beaten track, as the resort is more than 16 miles (~26 km) from Bal­later on the B976, one of the highest roads in the country.

There is no pub­lic trans­port across the pass at all. A taxi from Bal­later would cost at least GBP40 (~USD50) each way, or over GBP80 (~USD100) per day of ski­ing. This would render it com­pletely out of the ques­tion for many. 

There is no rail access to either the Glen­shee or The Lecht resorts at all. 

The nearest rail­way sta­tion is in Aber­deen, approx­im­ately 53 miles (~85 km) away from the near­er of the two. 

Glen­coe fares slightly bet­ter. Being on the A82, it is on the route of the Glas­gow to Fort Wil­li­am bus, which stops right out­side the door. 

How­ever the nearest rail­way sta­tion (Bridge of Orchy) is 13 miles (~21 km) away. 

Don’t miss oth­er “Good Tour­ism” con­tent tagged
“Tour­ism infra­struc­ture and development”

The Nevis Resort is sev­en miles (~11 km) from Fort Wil­li­am, which is served by rail. 

Nevis is the adven­ture sports cap­it­al of the UK, and one could reas­on­ably expect good trans­port links right to the door, but this is not the case. 

Des­pite the fact it is also situ­ated along the route of the A82, there is no bus con­nec­tion to it, as it is sev­en miles (~11 km) off the arter­i­al road. 

There is a fam­ily-owned bus com­pany that con­nects the town to the resort. How­ever, for a resort of this repu­ta­tion, at the epi­centre of adven­ture sports in the UK, this offers a very poor service. 

It all goes to rein­force the belief that access to one’s own means of trans­port is a pre­requis­ite to enga­ging in these sports; that ski­ing is an elit­ist activ­ity for the haves, not the have-nots.

Scottish ski resorts for Scots

While Scot­land has amaz­ing ski­ing and winter sports facil­it­ies that are enjoyed by tour­ists from all over the world, there are ser­i­ous issues with access­ib­il­ity for Scots. 

The assump­tion that we all own our own vehicles is a ser­i­ous hindrance to those of us who, for whatever reas­on, don’t. The reas­on could be as simple as the lack of fin­an­cial means to run a car or even to hire one. Or it could be for med­ic­al reas­ons, such as epi­lepsy; an entirely ‘invis­ible’ con­di­tion that car­ries with it an auto­mat­ic ban on hold­ing a driv­ing licence unless it is 100% con­trolled by medication. 

Also read Chris Green­wood’s “Good Tour­ism” Insight
“Why Vis­itScot­land declared a cli­mate emergency …”

The reas­on might even be because some Scots think Vis­itScot­land and the Scot­tish gov­ern­ment are cor­rect in declar­ing a ‘cli­mate emer­gency’; that afford­able, effi­cient, low-emis­sions pub­lic trans­port for every­one is a worthy goal.

Scot­tish ski resorts’ access­ib­il­ity is some­thing that Vis­itScot­land, the resorts them­selves, and the body in charge of winter sports in Scot­land (Snowsports Scot­land) need to address. Improv­ing access would go a long way to open­ing up Scot­tish ski resorts to the wider Scot­tish pub­lic, redu­cing the resorts’ depend­ence on jet-set­ting ski­ers and winter sports enthu­si­asts, and redu­cing Scot­land’s depend­ence on cars.

What do you think? Share your own thoughts in a com­ment below. Or write a deep­er “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

“GT” is where free thought travels.

Fea­tured pic (top of post): A ski­er makes a jump from the Lem­ming Ridge into Coire Dubh. Off-piste at The Nevis Range Ski Centre. Photo by Alastair Naughton.

About the author

Alastair Naughton is a trans­lat­or (Ger­man to Eng­lish) and copy­writer at Naughton Trans­la­tions, Scot­land.

Experts only: Each Scottish ski resort has its unique attractions

Here is my sum­mary of the unique attrac­tions of each Scot­tish ski resort destination:

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Glen­shee is the largest Scot­tish ski resort, offer­ing 36 runs. It is also in the vicin­ity of Brae­mar, the end point of the Roy­al Deeside, one of the most fam­ous tour­ist des­tin­a­tions in the world, thanks in no small part due to pat­ron­age by mem­bers of the Brit­ish Roy­al Fam­ily, in par­tic­u­lar the recently depar­ted Queen Elizabeth.

The Lecht is a smal­ler, less well-known resort which opened in the 1970s. How­ever, like Glen­shee, it also offers snow-mak­ing facil­it­ies to extend the sea­son. In com­mon with the oth­er resorts, it offers moun­tain bik­ing in the sum­mer months.

The Cairngorms offers the 1.6‑mile funicu­lar rail­way that takes pas­sen­gers to the sum­mit in less than eight minutes. At the top they can enjoy breath­tak­ing pan­or­amic views, vis­it a learn­ing centre, and pat­ron­ise a shop, res­taur­ant, and bar. 

Cairngorms also offers tubing, an adven­ture play­park, and even a guided walk to a moun­tain garden that offers dra­mat­ic views over Loch Mor­lich, which opens up oppor­tun­it­ies for an entire range of water sports. 

The Cairngorms is also near the highly fash­ion­able hol­i­day resort of Aviemore, which offers an amaz­ing after-ski experience. 

Glen­coe is unique in that it offers a choice of accom­mod­a­tion on site; camp­ing, micro­lodges, or hook-up facil­it­ies for motorhomes and cara­vans. Glen­coe also offers sledging and a whole range of fun activ­it­ies for the family. 

Per­haps most import­antly, Glen­coe plays host to pres­ti­gi­ous winter sports events, such as The Coe Cup and The Mighty Coe.

The Nevis Resort offers 10 runs, includ­ing the UK’s only moun­tain gon­dola, which leads to the Snow­goose Res­taur­ant at the top. 

The star attrac­tion of this resort is the off-piste back­coun­try — the Back Cor­ries, Coire Dubh, Coire an Lochan, Sum­mit Coire, and the West Face — con­sidered by many as the ‘gem’ of Scot­tish ski­ing. These are loc­ated bey­ond the patrolled ski areas and are recom­men­ded exclus­ively for expert ski­ers and snowboarders!

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