Carraig Gheal Wind Farm
West Loch Awe Timber Haul Route
It had always been maintained that the maximum benefits would accrue if the access route for Carraig Gheal Wind Farm could be utilised in the long term to support timber extraction in the West Loch Awe forest areas.
The aims of the The West Loch Awe Timber Haul Route are to
- Facilitate environmentally sustainable and economic extraction of timber and help safeguard one of Argyll’s key industries;
- Achieve the above whilst minimising impact on rural roads and communities both in terms of traffic volume and wear and tear.
The WLATHR offers significant social benefit by diverting the majority of timber lorries away from the B840 and C30 single-track roads and associated villages.
The wind farm is key to the WLATHR and shares this as its access route for construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning with Forestry Commission Scotland.
Description
The route stretches from A816 near Salachary, just north of Kilmartin, to B845, just north of Kilchrenan, Argyll and Bute.
Starting at the southern end, the route initially passes through Salachary Wood owned by Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS), crosses open moorland, passes through Inverliever Forest (FCS) and crosses the minor road at the east end of Loch Avich at the existing junction. From there it passes through Inverinan Forest to join the Carraig Gheal Wind Farm track infrastructure where that route is used to cross Fernoch Farm.
At the north end of the wind farm site the route passes through Nant Forest (FCS) before a final section crosses an area of open ground and the B845 is reached.
In total this section of forest road from A to H is 35.75km long.
A map showing the route and the windfarm location can be downloaded here (4MB).