Scotland feels the strain as tourism causes disruption across the Highlands

Scotland welcomes £6m funding boost Highland council reports strain on parking, toilets, phone reception and public transport

“You’d struggle to find anyone in the Highlands who is anti-tourist,” says the SNP MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Kate Forbes, “but some people have been pushed to the brink.” Forbes adds succinctly: “There is perfectly legitimate NIMBYism going on when someone is doing the toilet in your garden!”

Locals and politicians agree that the summer of 2017 saw the exponential growth in tourist numbers reach a tipping point. Across the Highlands, this year’s peak season brought reports of motorhome waste dumped by the roadside in the Western Isles, police advising visitors to Skye not to arrive without booking overnight accommodation, and warnings of an increase in accidents along the newly launched North Coast 500 route as unfamiliar drivers struggled to negotiate narrow single track roads.

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