Trust launches appeal as it takes over mountain for #450,000

BEN Nevis is to be sold, two weeks after the Black Cuillins in Skye went on the market for #10m.

Conservation body, the John Muir Trust, will formally announce today it is to buy the Ben, Britain's highest mountain, its two neighbouring mountains, and half of Glen Nevis for #450,000. This is understood to be #50,000 less than valuation.

The seller, Mr Duncan Fairfax-Lucy, lives in Charlecote, near Stratford-upon-Avon. His family has owned the land for almost 150 years.

An appeal for #1m is to be launched by the John Muir Trust towards the purchase of the land and its management.

Trust director Nigel Hawkins said: ''The challenge is going to be managing visitor pressure. It is reckoned that about 70,000 to 80,000 people go up the Ben each year on the tourist route and there are issues about litter, damage, and erosion, which have to be looked at carefully. But we want to keep the rest of the area very wild and beautiful.''

The sale was welcomed by Highland Councillor Neil Clark, who chairs the Nevis Working Party which has been trying to establish a management framework for Ben Nevis and Glen Nevis. He said he was delighted the trust would be the new owner. ''It is an environmentally-responsible and community-sensitive organisation.''

The trust already owns Schiehallion as well as the Strathaird, Sconser and Torran estates on Skye, and Sandwood in north-west Sutherland. It owns land in the north of the Knoydart Peninsula and was also involved in the community led buy-out of the Knoydart Estate.

Comparisons were drawn yesterday between the Nevis sale and the announcement by the MacLeods of Dunvegan that they are selling the Cuillin range and other land on Skye for a sum upwards of #10m, and not a penny less.

Today's sale will involve 75% of Ben Nevis. Aluminium company Alcan owns the slopes below 2500ft on the Fort William side of the mountain.

When asked about the comparatively low price, Mr Fairfax-Lucy told The Herald: ''I didn't want to make a fortune out of the sale, but I want to make sure that the public will benefit. I felt the John Muir Trust were the right people to take it on for the future.''

Mr Hawkins said: ''The owner approached the trust and asked if we would be interested in buying it. He did not want it to go on the open market although his family have owned it for generations.

''Mr Fairfax-Lucy has been a member of the John Muir Trust for several years and liked the way we operated as a conservation body working directly with the local communities. He thought that was exactly what was needed for the Ben, so he approached us and he has agreed a very fair price.

''We are buying Ben Nevis (4406ft), its two neighbouring peaks Carn Mor Dearg and Aonach Beag, which are both over 4000ft, as well, and everything on the Ben Nevis side of the Water of Nevis in Glen Nevis. This is a huge vote of confidence in the trust taking over guardianship of this area. We are very committed to working with people in Fort William and the surrounding area.

Councillor Clark said that the trust's track record of working

with people in areas it owns ''has been very positive, and I am sure that relationship will be replicated in Glen Nevis and Ben Nevis.

''I must emphasise that the Fairfax-Lucy estate management has never been anything other than co-operative in what the Nevis Working Party is trying to achieve in the way of environmental and visitor management strategies. I look forward to that spirit of co-operation continuing in the future with the John Muir Trust.''

Dr Michael Foxley, chairman of the Highland Council's land and environment committee, an outspoken critic of landlordism, also paid tribute to the Fairfax-Lucy family. ''What a pleasant change to see a landlord seeking out a responsible new owner without trying to attract the interest of international land speculators or sucking the last possible penny from the public purse.''

He added: ''It is fairly extraordinary that within the space of two weeks we hear that Scotland's, indeed the UK's, two most famous mountain ranges, the Cuillins and Ben Nevis, are being sold. There can be little doubt that today's announcement will be the better received.''

However, Olwyn MacDonald, a councillor for Caol on the outskirts of Fort William, said: ''I am astounded about this sale.

''They will be selling the ground beneath our feet soon.

''This has been done without any discussion with locals. These are our mountains.

''Are the powers that be just selling Scotland off to the highest bidder?''

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