A 1970s visitor centre described as a "hideous beast" has been torn down, the Scotsman newspaper has reported.

The centre was at Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve, which has officially re-opened without the visitor centre.

The National Trust for Scotland, which took over the Perthshire site in 1950, has built fences around tall flowering mountain plants on Ben Lawers to stop sheep grazing on them, and new paths have been built to link a new car park to the traditional route up the mountain.

The changes cost £195,000 but did not include toilets or the facility to buy refreshments.


A spokeswoman said the trust's remit was "access and conservation".

She said problems with water supply and altitude had ruled out compostable toilets, and said a café would be an inappropriate "sideline".

She explained: "The decision is to concentrate our limited funds on what we consider the important conservation work on the hill."

The previous car park was built 1,400ft up, in the 1950s, during the construction of a hydro-electric power scheme on the adjacent hillside. The visitor centre followed 20 years later but many labelled it obtrusive.

David Gibson, the chief officer of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS) said the removal of the visitor centre would "ultimately enhance the visitor experience".

He said: "This legacy serves to remind us that we should at all costs avoid use of the bulldozer in the mountains - be it for renewable energy developments or hill tracks, nature takes a long time to heal, if it ever heals at all."

(NE)