Wild campers have been accused of blighting a Perthshire estate and turning one of the world’s finest fishing beats into a rubbish tip.
Fine weather has brought countless evening visitors to beautiful rural locations all over the area, among them the banks of the River Tay at the Burnmouth Fishings by Stanley.
While most show respect for their surroundings, others have been guilty of anti-social behaviour, and landowner Michael Smith believes their activities are spoiling the area.
He and his staff been faced with huge piles of rubbish left by wild campers at the Burnmouth site. This weekend’s escapades and excesses proved to be the last straw for Mr Smith, who contacted The Courier to launch an angry attack on those responsible for the littering.
More than 30 bags of rubbish have been removed from the Fishings, with the site said to have resembled the aftermath of a music festival in miniature on Monday morning.
Tents, sleeping bags, bed-sheets and discarded clothing were left strewn across the site, together with all the usual bottles, cans, broken glass and food wrappers.
Staff at Burnmouth fear they can expect to see similar groups wild camping every Saturday and Sunday night and Mr Smith has had enough.
“Our beautiful landscape is being blighted by litter louts,” he said. “This is a regular occurrence during the summer months, though this weekend has been particularly bad.’Scum of the earth'”Polite notices asking visitors to take their litter home are just ignored. Lord Wallace’s land reform bill has given the scum of the earth rights without responsibilities and this mess is a direct result of that ill-thought-out act.
“Anyone with a nice bit of property is going to find that it is trashed at one time or another.”
It is understood that police attended the Fishings at the weekend and warned campers about their conduct.
However, promises to remove rubbish were not kept and ghillie Geordie Stewart was among those left to clean up the mess.
He said, “I spoke to the campers on Sunday evening and told them that while we didn’t mind them being there we would like them to take their rubbish with them when they left.
“They said that they would, but when I visited again the following day it looked like a miniature music festival had been taking place.
“There had been perhaps 10 to 12 people camped there and I would say this was perhaps the worst mess I’ve ever seen left behind.
“New laws may have opened up the countryside to the public but far too many people just don’t respect it.”
Many websites advocate wild camping, but the majority also stress a series of informal conventions for the activity. These include camping in small, unobtrusive groups and leaving no trace of your presence when you leave.
Mid-Scotland and Fife MSP Murdo Fraser said the issue had no easy solution.Consequences”This is a long-running issue that affects parts of Perthshire, particularly in highland Perthshire in past experience, such as on the shores of Loch Rannoch and Loch Tummel.
“One of the unfortunate consequences of the recent excellent weather has been an increase in wild camping.
“The majority of people do so in a responsible manner, taking their rubbish with them when they leave.
“Unfortunately there is a minority who cause disturbance, leave litter and damage the natural environment.
“This is not an easy problem to solve. It takes place at night and at weekends when the authorities are not around.
“It needs joined-up thinking between the police and access officers to ensure that the access code is enforced as the behaviour that we are seeing is not permitted.
“The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park is trying to bring in measures that would see camping banned. This has been very controversial, but such is the extent of the problem there, they feel they have to tread this path.
“If it is a solution there, maybe it is elsewhere, too but that would be very much a last resort.”