I live in a tourist town and work with a lot of accommodation and tourism providers in my job so I know how important tourism can be to a community. I also know that unmanaged and irresponsible tourism can be very damaging to both the people who live there and also to the landscape.

We are lucky in Oban because, apart from the road infrastructure, we are well prepared for the numbers of people who come here. In fact it became a worry that people were taking the strapline 'Gateway to the Isles' too seriously and not stopping here at all, just driving to the ferry terminal and getting on a ferry to one of the islands. The strapline has now been changed to 'Seafood Capital of Scotland' which is maybe more positive but doesn't in any way sum up what Oban has to offer.

Young me in 1988  (aged 20) on a Calmac Ferry in the Outer Hebrides

However there are many places which have been relatively quiet for years and have suddenly and recently become the 'must see' place to go in Scotland; Skye is one of these places. I went to Skye and the Outer Hebrides first in 1988 when I was 20 - we took the train from Penzance to Mallaig then got the ferry across to Armadale before hitching up to Portree and Uig. There was no bridge in those days. My friends at college thought I was mad to be going to Scotland when they were all off to warm countries for their holidays. We didn't go to any of the hotspots, I don't even think I knew they existed. I just remember the rain, the midges, and the feeling that, unlike Cornwall where I lived, tourism was just seen as something incidental. I also remember the absolute beauty of the place, unlike anything I had ever seen before.

Old Man of Storr

How that has now changed, even since I started going regularly in 2016. There are all sorts of reasons for this but the growth of social media and smartphones has undoubtedly been an massive factor. Instagram in particular is seen as being a big part of the problem. Any Instagram influencer worth their salt will have a photo of the Quiraing and The Old Man of Storr on their page - it is almost like a pilgrimage. These photos have become clichés. Large portal sites such as Visit Scotland feature these photos showing epic, sweeping and unique landscapes that they know they will be popular. Lots of people then see these places and want to visit them. And Skye is interesting because it takes very little effort to get a good photo - the composition is already there for you. Paths made by many thousands of photographers show you exactly where to stand and many of these famous spots are right by the road.

I myself am aware that I can be part of this problem. When I go to places like Skye or Glencoe I know that any photo I post from there will do well. People like to see awe inspiring places. The way landscapes are digested has not really changed - in the past this need would have been fulfilled by painters such as Turner or Constable, or using words by poets like Wordsworth - they were the influencers of their time. Of course the big difference now is that cameras take a fraction of the time to create the image, and social media means that it can be fed to a very large number of people very quickly and can sometimes 'go viral'.

I don't think social media is going to go away, now there is TikTok as well as Instagram and before long there will be something else. Communities that have been affected by this strange and incredibly powerful new form of advertising need to embrace it rather than simply ignore it or look aghast at the constant stream of new visitors. After all tourism can, if managed correctly, bring money to a community which means people do not have to leave it to find work.

In the north east of Skye the community have set up the Skye Ecomuseum,  Druim nan Linntean, which is a based in Staffin. This area boasts famous landmarks such as The Old Man of Storr, The Quiraing and Kilt Rock.  Increased numbers of visitors have caused problems with parking, and also have eroded much of the landscape with many boots tramping over the same areas causing muddy and unattractive paths.

Photo of me walking up to The Quiraing by Michael MacDonald

In 2018 Angus from Druim nan Linntean embraced the situation by inviting a group of popular Instagrammers to the North East of Skye (and yes I was included in this!).  We were asked partly because we were already seen as being passionate about the need for responsible and sustainable tourism, and we would write positive captions about the work the Skye Ecomuseum was doing after seeing it and experiencing it for ourselves. We stayed in a hostel in Flodigarry and went coasteering, walked up the The Needle, saw dinosaur footprints at Brother's Point and generally chatted about ways which the community could improve the visitor experience without destroying the natural wild beauty of the place. It was such an uplifting and memorable weekend! You can read more about it in Michael MacDonald's blog »

Then this year Angus asked me to go back to look at the work that had been done since then by the Ecomuseum and also by the council. My friend Beady and I spent a weekend there in September being shown around by Angus and Janet. We went up The Storr - my first time!  It was incredible to see the large new car parks and facilities there and at the Quiraing, quite incongruous but much needed.

All the people spilling out of cars to go and look at these places can be a bit off putting if you are seeking a peaceful experience, but on a positive note it’s great that so many people have easy access to these world class views.

The bits you don't see in photographs! Paths will soon be installed here.

Angus was showing us where new proposed paths would go to stop the erosion of the ground.  New signage, viewpoints and printed information encourages people to visit other places in Skye, not just the honeypot destinations. The Skye Ecomuseum is very much a community project, weaving together mass tourism with history and sustainability. The whole weekend was a bit mind blowing because it is actually really easy to escape the crowds and have the most beautiful places all to yourself…

We parked at the Quiraing car park and after a brief visit to the famous viewpoint we walked right instead of left, and within a few minutes we were completely on our own, looking down on all the cars, and soon we had lost them altogether. We found a quiet spot and sat on the grass and looked at a landscape both familiar yet not - recognisable as Skye but one I had never seen photographed before.

Quiet spot near the Quiraing car park

The next day Angus and Janet took us to Rigg beach to go fossil hunting. We would never have found it without their local knowledge, and we were entranced by the quality and quantity of fossils entombed in the rocks, they were everywhere! And yet we were the only people on the beach.

We had stayed in a wonderful  B&B just outside Staffin (Glenview), a type of holiday accommodation which is very sustainable and doesn't remove the housing stock from people who actually live in the area. We ate at the B&B the first night and the second night we got a drive in fish and chips from Staffin community centre - The Hungry Gull - and it was good to support a local enterprise which as well as being good for tourists is an asset for the local people. And the fish and chips were utterly delicious.

There is a thriving community in Staffin who are very invested in improving the experience for people who come to visit the place and who also want to keep their culture alive, and grow the community in a sustainable way. This must be possible but it needs money, infrastructure and also awareness by visitors or the impact they have!

Oban Sunsets

Responsible Tourism

A list of Do's

(I thought carefully before adding the apostrophe here but realise it helps readability!)

• Obvious things like do take litter away with you, INCLUDING toilet roll. It is quite possible to go for a wee without using loo roll but if you must then please take it away.
• Do look at a nice area of grass and think I won't make a fire on that and burn it. Do look at trees and think I won't remove your branches so I can have 15 minutes of warmth (live wood doesn't burn well anyway).
• Do stay in accommodation which is not removing housing stock from local people. This includes B&Bs, hotels, hostels, accommodation built in people's gardens.
• Do leave your LARGE motorhome at home if you are travelling to places with poor infrasctructure such as Skye or the North Coast 500. They look unsightly, clog up the roads, use far too much fuel and bring very little to the local economy especially if shopping is done beforehand. I heard a tale of someone in a motorhome who was boasting that they had only spent £9 on Skye.
• Do park in car parks and not on verges or passing places
• Do keep to the paths if they are there. I know the temptation as a photographer to try to find a better composition but in Skye much thought has been given to placing of paths (it wasn't hard to work out where to put the paths looking at the ones that had already been made).
• Do be flexible - if there are already lots of people at a place maybe give it a miss and go elsewhere. There's always more to explore than the honeypot spots.

And only one don't! Harsh maybe but these are my thoughts!

• And lastly (for now) please do not fly your drone over places where people are gathered. Ideally do not fly your drone at all (haha) but if you must please realise that a lot of people find them very irksome - the sound of them actually makes my skin crawl worse than if a wasp was flying round my head. I also think they are incredibly intrusive; you reach the summit of a quiet mountain, you are taking in the views and feeling at one with nature then suddenly you hear a buzz and there is is; a spider like contraption over your head, filming you without your permission, and generally spoiling the atmosphere! When I pointed this out to a drone operator on top of Beinn Dorain one winter's day (he had been there for ages) he got abusive and flew the drone over my head as I descended. In my (humble) opinion they should be banned for everyone apart from Danny MacAskill and professional filmmakers!! Or at least much stricter legislation should be put in place.