NC500 beauty spot Gruinard Beach see visitors leave behind ‘selfish’ fire filled with nails
‘SELFISH’ visitors to the NC500 beauty spot of Gruinard Beach left behind an “irresponsible” fire filled with nails — but a local says this was just “one of many” similar incidents seen recently in the area.
On July 26, Laide resident John Braham was walking his dog on Gruinard Beach, when they came across a “dangerous” beach fire.
According to VisitScotland, the main principal of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code is ‘leave-no-trace’.
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Gruinard Bay is also a Geological Conservation Review site and a National Scenic Area, as well being a Special Area of Conservation and a Nature Conservation Marine Protected Area.
Explaining what happened, John said: “The utterly selfish and irresponsible group of five adults were incredibly dangerous, stupid and disrespectful.
“They not only walked away from a smouldering fire, but left behind remains containing nails.
“This is just one of many beach and machair fires we have come across at Gruinard that we’ve had to clear away — it’s becoming much more frequent.
“For every member of that group to be so lazy and selfish not to remove the nails from the pallet before you burnt it, and found it too taxing to collect water from the sea and put the fire out, made our blood boil.
“Our dog ran alongside this fire and was just inches from being burnt or having nails pierce his paws. A child could have easily come across this, [and there were] otter and deer prints in the sand nearby.
“We did our best to put the fire, remove all the nails and prevent a considerable amount of charcoal entering the sea. If only you could have spent ten minutes doing it yourselves!
“Clearing up other people’s mess due to their selfish actions is becoming a regular activity for us on our walks — it certainly won’t be the last fire we have to clean up.
“Is it really too much to ask that people respect the environment and leave no trace? It is sad to witness people’s complete lack of respect and consideration for nature.”
