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Comment by smcl | Hacker News Reader

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smcl·

Yeah good point, Scotland hasn't got the lease\freehold distinction.

Converting large chunks of the Highlands into national parks would be a great idea IMO.

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A large chunk of the Highlands is already a National Park:

http://cairngorms.co.uk/

Arguably a large part of the Cairngorms national park is not in the Highlands, but you're right. An additional nice thing is that the Cairngorms National Park is rare in the UK in that it is actually something resembling a proper national park.

What part of the national park would you say isn't in the Highlands? It's not all in the Highland Council area but that's not all of the Highlands:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Highlands

Maybe Ballater - I wouldn't put that in the Highlands although Braemar clearly is!

Apart from along the Highland Boundary Fault I think the actual boundary of the Highlands is fairly fuzzy anyway :-)

Maybe my mental image of what is/isn't the highlands is pretty far off the norm :) In my head it's whatever is north\west of the invisible line between Inverness and Fort William (like that upper bar of the old BBC Scotland logo).

Isn't that the Western Highlands - i.e. the bit beyond the Great Glen?

Unfortunately parts are being developed on

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-3380...

National Parks can still get developed on, they aren't kept in aspic. UK National Parks are fairly unique in that they often contain substantial settlements, and as such need to change over time. Covering them completely in concrete is obviously a bad thing but providing the ability for local people to still live there (as any population is liable to grow), offer more facilities for people to enjoy the park etc is surely a good thing.

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