Description of local environment

Air quality

The scheme does not lie within 10km of an Air Quality Management Area (Scottish Air Quality) or within 10km of any Air Quality Monitoring Stations (Scottish Air Quality).

There are no records on the Scottish Pollutant Release Inventory (SPRI) within 10km of the scheme.

Baseline air quality for this scheme is likely primarily influenced by traffic along the A830 trunk road. Secondary releases are likely delivered by agricultural activities within the surrounding area.

Cultural heritage

A search of the PastMap online cultural heritage mapping tool revealed that there are several Historic Environment Records (HERs) and National Historic Environment Records (NRHEs) within 300m of the scheme. The closest record is both a HER and NRHE, and lies within the scheme extent:

  • Kinlocheil Township
  • HER Reference: MHG35026
  • NRHE Reference: 145130

Additionally, there are three Listed buildings within 300m of the scheme:

  • Kinlochiel Mission Church (Reference: LB7073, Category B), located 5m north of the A830.
  • Snowburn Steading, Kinlocheil (Ref: LB7074, Category B), located 10 north of the A830.
  • Druim Na Saille Bridge over Fionn Lighe River, Kinlochiel (Ref: LB7072, Category B), located 70m north of the A830 at the western scheme extent.

No Scheduled Monuments, Garden & Designed Landscapes, Conservation Areas, Battlefields or World Heritage sites are recorded within 300m of the scheme.

Landscape and visual effects

The scheme does not lie within any National Parks (NP) or National Scenic Areas (NSA) or any other site designated for its landscape and visual character (SiteLink).

The scheme lies within the ‘Lochs with Settled Edges’ Landscape Character Type’ (LCT 234).

‘Lochs with Settled Edges’ has the following key characteristics:

  • Flat landscape contained between steep loch sides and open water.
  • Extensive agriculture and settlement confined within a narrow lochside fringe, whose foreshore is subject to tidal influence.
  • Loch heads and river mouths that permit more extensive farming and built development, including housing and small industrial estates.
  • Communications confined to narrow loch edges where shingly beaches, rocky headlands, wooded banks and marshy platforms form a diverse water's edge.
  • Extensive tracts of oak-birch woodland climbing from the lochside up into the foothills, often engulfing the settled edge and providing an enclosed microlandscape.
  • Dense commercial forests descend to loch shore in some locations.
  • Occasional policy grounds of big houses along the loch edge give rise to a proliferation of rhododendron and other ornamentals in some places, providing a lush and sheltered character.
  • Linearly arranged crofting communities with vivid green croft fields contrast with the more subdued duller colours of surrounding hills.

Land use surrounding the scheme is comprised of multiple land uses, as follows (HLA map):

  • Managed woodland
    • Much managed woodland is 'ancient', generally consisting of broad-leaved species or native pine woods, characterised by space between the trees. The wood used to be taken by coppicing or other traditional means.
  • Crofting township
    • Crofting townships of the later 18th and 19th centuries consist of strips of land, each with a dwelling, usually arranged along a road. They are typical of the north and west highlands and islands.
  • Rectilinear Fields and Farms
    • Rectilinear field boundaries and associated farm steadings and other buildings are typical of agricultural improvements since the 1700s. Recent amalgamation of these fields is common.
  • Urban area
    • Cities, towns and large villages with their housing, individual shops and places of education or worship, as well as prisons and hospitals, municipal buildings and hotels are noted as urban areas. Very small clusters of houses in the countryside are also included

The majority of the scheme is made up of Managed Woodland.

The A830 Trunk Road connects Fort William with Mallaig. It commences at the A828 / A82 junction in Fort William leading generally westwards for a distance of 70 kilometres to (and including) the B8008 Station Road Roundabout in Mallaig. The A830 is a single carriageway along its length. The scheme lies approximately 15km west of Fort William on the A830 trunk road.

Biodiversity

Moidart and Ardgour Special Protection Area (SPA) (Site code: 10115) lies approximately 1.24km south of the scheme.

No other designated biodiversity sites lie within 2km of, or share wider connectivity with, the scheme (SiteLink).

The National Biodiversity Network Atlas (NBN Atlas) records no protected mammal species within 2km of the scheme during the past ten years. Only records with open-use attributions (OGL, CC0, CC-BY) were included in the search criteria:

Numerous bird species were also recorded on NBN Atlas within the same search criteria. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (as amended), all wild birds and their active nests are protected.

The NBN Atlas holds the following records of injurious weeds (as listed in the Network Management Contract (NMC)) under the same search criteria:

  • Broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius)
  • Common ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris)
  • Creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense)
  • Curled dock (Rumex crispus)

Transport Scotland’s Asset Management Performance System (AMPS) also records the following Invasive Non-Native Species (INNS) and injurious weeds within the scheme extents:

  • Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica) *
  • Common ragwort
  • Rosebay willowherb (Chamaenerion angustifolium)

The INNS are denoted by a *

Habitat surrounding the scheme is dominated by woodland, agricultural areas, few urban areas and Loch Eil just south of the scheme.

There are no areas that are recorded on the Ancient Woodland Inventory (AWI) within 300m of the scheme.

Highland Council do not have any records of any Tree Preservation Orders (TPO) within 300m of the scheme.

A site visit was undertaken on the 7th of October 2025 by the BEAR NW Environment team to assess ecological constraints out to a 30m buffer from the works area.

Geology and soils

The entire scheme lies within the Geological Conservation Review Site (GCRS) Fassfern to Loch Ailort Road Cuttings (Site code: 9581).

Bedrock geology within the scheme extent is recorded as (BGS):

  • Druim Na Saille Pelite Formation
  • Tarvie Psammite Formation
  • Upper Garry Psammite Formation 

Superficial deposits within the scheme extent are recorded as (BGS):

  • Peat
  • Hummocky (moundy) Glacial Deposits
  • Alluvial Fan Deposits - Gravel, sand, silt and clay.
  • Raised Marine Beach Deposits Of Holocene Age - Sand and gravel

Component soils within the scheme extent are classed as peaty gleyed podzols with dystrophic semi-confined peat, and peaty gleys and humus-iron podzols (Scotland’s Soils).

The surrounding area lies within a combination of the following Carbon and Peatland types (Scotland's Soils):

  • Class 0 – mineral soils with no peatland vegetation
  • Class 3 – predominantly peaty soil with some peat soil, peatland with some heath
  • Class 5 – peat soil with no peatland vegetation

Material assets and waste

The proposed works will not require any new materials, however secondary materials such as fuel will be required for plant. The primary waste material will be vegetation.

Vegetation waste generated will be removed from site to a licenced waste facility or will be chipped on site where possible. No waste exemption code is required for this scheme. Additionally, there is also no requirement for a site compound or Site Waste Management Plan (SWMP).

Noise and vibration

For residential, community and commercial receptors, refer to the ‘Population and Human Health’ section below.

Works are not located within a Candidate Noise Management Area (CNMA) or Candidate Quiet Area (CQA) (Transport Scotland).

LDEN or ‘day, evening, night average noise levels’ are modelled within the scheme extent. Noise levels are recorded as being between 65-70dB on the A830 carriageway (Noise map | Scotland's Noise).

Given the semi-rural nature of the area, it is considered likely that the baseline noise will be low, with noise mainly influenced by the traffic travelling along the A830 carriageway. Secondary noise influences are likely to arise from local agricultural activities and nearby railway movements.

Population and human health

Approximately 18 residential properties lie within 300m of the scheme with the closest residential properties lying approximately 10m south and north of the scheme. These properties have minimal/no visual and acoustic screening. However, for the majority of the properties, there is an element of visual and acoustic screening as provided by intervening vegetation.

A railway line runs parallel to the A830 for the entirety of the scheme, at a distance of 10m away at its closest point. Additionally, Locheilside Train Station lies approximately 10m south of the scheme.

Two laybys are located within the scheme extent, as well as multiple junctions and access ways into agricultural land and residential homes.

There are no public footways, bus stops or street lighting along the A830.

There are no National Cycle Network routes (OS Maps) or core paths located within 300m of the scheme (Highland Council). 

The Gulvain, near Kinlocheil WalkHighlands route meets the A830 carriageway at the western scheme extent. No other routes lie within 300m of the scheme.

The most up to date vehicle traffic counter recording the Average Daily traffic (ADT) count on the A830 nearest to the scheme lies approximately 4.5km west of the scheme (Site ID: 0000JTC08341) and counted an ADT of 845 vehicles in 2016 with 10.2% of these being Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs).

TM will involve TTLs and verge working where possible.

Road drainage and the water environment

The scheme is underpinned by the Fort William groundwater body (ID: 150696), in the Scotland river basin district. It is 2274.7 square kilometres in area and was given an overall status of ‘Good’ in 2023 by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) under the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC (WFD).

Loch Eil is a transitional water body (ID: 200090) that runs along the entirety of the scheme, approximately 65m south at the nearest point. It is 11.2 square kilometres in area and was given an overall status of ‘Good’ in 2023 by SEPA.

There are numerous watercourses (unclassified by SEPA) that are culverted below the A830 within the scheme extent which discharge into Loch Eil.

Throughout the scheme there are numerous areas that have a high likelihood (10% chance) of flooding due to river flooding and surface water and small watercourses (SEPA Flood Maps).

Climate

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 (‘The Act’), and its subsequent amendment under the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Act 2019, sets the framework for the Scottish Government to address climate change. The Act has an ambitious target to reach Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, with any residual emissions balanced by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This is five years earlier than the rest of the UK due to the greater potential for carbon sequestration in Scotland.

The Act was amended to replace interim targets with carbon budgets. Carbon budgets are legally binding caps on greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland over five-year periods. In line with the Act, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) published advice on the level of Scotland’s four carbon budgets, covering the period 2026 to 2045, recommending what the Scottish Government sets its carbon budgets at for annual average levels of emissions. These recommendations are based on an ambitious but credible route to Net Zero for Scotland by 2045.

Emissions reductions from surface transport are the largest contribution to meeting the first two carbon budgets. The pathway for surface transport emission reduction is primarily driven by the uptake of electric vehicles, in addition to measures to enable a shift from car use to public transport and active travel, which all play a role in reducing emissions from fossil fuel cars. Ensuring efficiency of existing transport infrastructure and improving/providing new active travel facilities is therefore important to support these carbon reduction budgets.

Transport is the largest contributor to harmful climate emissions in Scotland. In response to the climate emergency, Transport Scotland are committed to reducing their emissions by 75% by 2030 and to the above noted legally binding target of net-zero by 2045. Transport Scotland is committed to reducing carbon across Scotland’s transport network and this commitment is being enacted through the Mission Zero for Transport (Mission Zero for transport | Transport Scotland).