Letter: Cairngorm under threat

Sir: The Cairngorm plateau ("Highland rail plan gets the go-ahead", 8 May) is a fragile sub-Arctic ecosystem. One has to be as trusting as the famously guileless dotterel inhabiting its stony fastness to believe that building a Victorian-style funicular railway capable of delivering 1200 tourists an hour to the summits is not going to have a detrimental effect on the ecology. And yet Scottish National Heritage, led by Magnus Magnusson, will not object to the development. The dotterel is also called the mossfool. Mastermind seems scarcely any wiser.

Dr Colin Wells

North West Wetlands Survey

Lancaster University