The site lies next to a hill field at the top of Glenurquhart. Although close to grazing land and managed forestry it cannot be viewed from any major settlement and is only visible at 6-7km from a few houses and 2 isolated points on the local road network.
The layout has been chosen to reflect the landscape, namely the existing boundaries of the site and the ridgeline appearance of Sliabh an Ruighe Dhuibh, a minor hill at the head of River Enrick. By ensuring a balanced alignment and equal spacing between turbines, visually overlapping rotors are largely avoided and the view of the site appears balanced from all viewpoints. The hills surrounding the site are very effective barriers, and there are very few locations where the project can be seen. There is no impact whatsoever on Loch Ness and the Great Glen.
Analysis of BGS maps indicate that there are very few peat deposits at Corrimony, mainly around Loch ma Stac, 4km to the south of the turbines. There is very little risk of peat slide at Corrimony, and although there is little evidence of peat deposits northwards from Loch ma Stac, the access track will nevertheless be constructed to ensure that water cannot drain into the interface between superficial layers and the bedrock. The access track to the site will also be aligned to ensure the track does not cut across the slope, and the construction process will ensure that water does not drain into the peat/rock interface, again to minimise the potential risk of peat slide.
The individual turbine noise level is around 12 dB(A), giving a combined noise level of 20 dB(A), well within the limit of 35 dB LA90 at residential locations. The nearest neighbours are over 4km from the site, accordingly measurement of background noise levels is not required and a simplified assessment is sufficient
Planning advice note PAN45 recommends 10 rotor diameter separation between the wind turbines and the nearby dwellings to avoid shadow nuisance. The Glenurquhart & Strathglass project achieves this recommendation by a large margin; 10 rotor diameters is 700m and all properties are over 4300m from any wind turbine. No further assessment will be required.
The potential for interference to television and radio systems cannot be predicted, but there is the possibility of interference to analogue services if reception in an area is generally poor. Should this interference occur the switchover to digital transmission will alleviate any interference difficulties.
There is little known archaeology at the Glenurquhart & Strathglass site. An assessment of the potential impacts upon the setting of known archaeology in the area will be undertaken, however there is no reason, based on existing archaeology in the area, to prevent the project being implemented; the current project design will not tangibly affect the known archaeology of the area.
CO2 emissions have been identified as the primary cause of climate change, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions are a cause of acid rain. A five turbine development at Corrimony producing 27,500 MWh per annum will avoid the annual production of the following emissions (Boyle 1996):
Over a twenty year lifetime the project will avoid the production of 200,000 Tonnes of CO2
The lower reaches of the Corrimony estate is an RSPB reserve, and represents an upland plantation and moorland habitat with fragments of Caledonian forest. Corrimony has open moorland, conifer plantations and native woodland. Visitors are encouraged to walk to Loch Comhnard. Black grouse are often seen in the birch woods and spotted flycatchers, bullfinches and wood warblers nest in the pinewoods.
It is envisaged that the wind turbines at the end of the track will be an added attraction for visitors and the upgraded road will help to attract more visitors to the area.
The access track for the turbine development travels through the reserve before following the Enrick river to the hilltop. The RSPB have been consulted and the route has been the subject of a vegetation survey. Felling of trees will not be required along the route of the site access and minimal work will be required to upgrade the road to a standard sufficient to carry the heavy loads required to transport turbines. At all times care will be taken to work only at times that will not disturb the breeding birds.