You may have seen the local press but RWE have just submitted their planning application for the Creachan Wind farm which is located at the head of Strathrusdale. Access to the site is proposed along the Struie Road, and then Strathrusdale, and finally along forestry tracks (which will need to be improved and widened) from Inchlumpie onwards.
For all of us that experienced the disruption from the recent Strathrory windfarm construction it is clear that this will be on a far greater scale, and for some of our residents could mean a total change of life.
This is one of three windfarm proposals that received a fundamental ‘NO’ from the community at our recent consultation events. A red line was drawn and as a community council we have your mandate to fight it, which we will to the best of our ability.
However, it is clear that the more objections that are received by the Energy Consents Unit the better. We can’t guarantee success in this but we will put our best case forward.
The revised proposals are now for up to 13 wind turbines – with ground to blade tip heights of up to 180 m and up to 200 m – a battery storage facility, and all associated ancillary infrastructure. (For comparison Strathrory is only 7 turbines with a maximum height of 180m).
There are many areas for consideration including:-
- The view of the wind turbines themselves
- The fact that they are so tall that they will necessitate lighting at night.
- The noise
- The impact on a wild landscape, the wider environment and native wildlife
- The impact of construction traffic on our fragile roads and the potential obstruction of Strathrusdale, a one way in and one way out access.
- No doubt they will need to cut more trees back to accommodate the turbine movement along Strathrusdale, and we saw the impact of that recently along the golf course road from Alness.
There’s probably many more areas of concern, but those are the ones that come readily to my mind.
So, I would encourage as many of you as possible to provide your feedback to ECU through the links below before 16th March 2026 and please also let us have your concerns by emailing me secretary@ardross.org
The Environmental Impact Assessment that makes up the planning application is available to view via the RWE website www.rwe.com/creachan and the full documentation via Scottish Government – Energy Consents Unit – Application Details under application reference ECU00005211 for your responses.
Please note the Community Council also has access to hard copies of the application documentation. Should you wish to read the paper versions please send an email to secretary@ardross.org
Original notification of scoping: Creachan Windfarm & BESS Plant (In Planning) – Ardross Community