Campaigners back right to buy as best way to realise potential of CairnGorm ski area

Welcome to the second in a series of articles looking at the controversial removal of chairlift infrastructure from the CairnGorm Mountain ski resort near Aviemore. As outlined in last week’s scene-setter, during the second half of August workmen employed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), which owns the land on which the ski centre is situated, with the support of current resort operator Natural Retreats, removed the steel towers that used to carry the Ciste and West Wall chairlifts up the Coire na Ciste side of the mountain. According to Natural Retreats, this was simply a clean-up operation to get rid of “historical and redundant infrastructure.” However, although the lifts had been closed since 2005, there has been a long-running campaign – dubbed “Save the Ciste” – to have them renovated and brought back into use, and many of the 3,000-plus skiers who had signed the Save the Ciste petition have reacted angrily to the loss of the lifts.