Edinburgh's Radical Road: Campaigners call on Historic Environment Scotland to reopen path up Arthur's Seat

Plea from groups including Ramblers Scotland and Cockburn Association for ‘more holistic’ assessment of risks

Campaigners are calling for a popular path up Arthur’s Seat to be reopened after five years of closure.

They claim it is “farcical” that the Radical Road, which runs below Salisbury Crags, is still closed after being shut to the public as a “temporary” measure in 2018 due to concerns about rockfalls. And they marked the fifth anniversary of the historic path’s closure – on September 11 – with an urgent call for Historic Environment Scotland (HES) to “see sense”.

The Radical Road is one of the most popular ways up Arthur’s Seat – Edinburgh’s top attraction on TripAdvisor – but it remains fenced off with warning signs. Groups including Ramblers Scotland, the Cockburn Association, Edinburgh Geological Society, Mountaineering Scotland and rights-of-way society ScotWays argue HES should make a “more holistic” assessment of risks.

The Radical Road has been closed to the public for five years because of concerns about rockfalls, but campaigners are calling for it to be reopened.

They say the “low risk” of rockfall injury should be weighed against the harm the closure causes to the economy, landscape, tourism and people’s health and wellbeing. And they announced they planned to begin running their own consultation among those affected by the closure.

Ramblers Scotland director Brendan Paddy said: “It is farcical that Historic Environment Scotland has failed to reopen the Radical Road, following half a decade of missed deadlines and broken promises. It is a national embarrassment that the body tasked with caring for and promoting Scotland’s historic environment has left this iconic 200-year-old path shut away behind ugly fences for five years, with no end in sight. HES must immediately see sense and stop managing this world-famous geological feature like a crumbling historic building. Residents and tourists should be advised of the risks then allowed to make informed decisions, like everywhere else in Scotland.”

ScotWays chair Katharine Taylor said: “The Radical Road is a recorded right of way. There is a process which should be followed before closing a right of way, but thispath was blocked unilaterally without using formal procedures and there has been little engagement since. We acknowledge that HES has an obligation to ensure public safety, but landowners and managers in Scotland also have a legal duty and responsibility not to obstruct or deny public access unnecessarily.

"It is very disappointing that a national agency has closed a popular right of way in our capital city, right next to our Parliament building. If it can happen here, what protection is there for other, less well-known rights of way?”

The campaigners urging a change of approach by HES include (left to right): Cockburn Association assistant director James Garry, ScotWays chair Katharine Taylor, Ramblers Scotland director Brendan Paddy, Edinburgh Geological Society vice-president Angela Mathis and Mountaineering Scotland president Brian Shackleton.

The campaigners said that during face-to-face meetings in summer 2022, HES committed to publishing a park management plan by autumn 2022 and to keep communicating with stakeholders, but since then, there had been no update to the campaign partners.

Cockburn Association assistant director James Garry said: “The Radical Road is just one issue of many to be considered as part of a much overdue revised management plan for Holyrood Park as a whole.”

The campaigners added that HES’s own risk assessment failed to mention that outdoor recreation is enjoyed at people’s own risk across Scotland every single day, by thousands of people. This includes popular sites where signage is used to advise of potential risks such as cliffs, tides or forestry and farming.

A spokesperson for Historic Environment Scotland: "In line with our statutory obligations we acted to manage the risk identified with the input of our geotechnical engineers and temporarily restricted access to the Radical Road. From 2017-2020, there were at least 82 rock fall incidents, ranging in size, with the majority either small or small to medium rocks. Two incidents have involved large or very large rocks. Since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, we have not actively monitored rock fall incidents at the Radical Road due to the path being closed to the public. However, we are aware of at least two rock falls.

"After temporarily restricting access, we undertook an initial outline options appraisal. We were subsequently requested to review elements of our rock risk management approach by a statutory authority. This took much longer than anticipated and was interrupted by Covid and the need to respond to high-level masonry challenges across our wider estate, which we have been working on at speed.

"We intend to have discussions with a range of stakeholders once we have a proposal to discuss that has been endorsed. Any management intervention taken here will likely require consents under the planning system so there will be a number of opportunities for stakeholders and the public to engage. Our desire is to enable public access if this can be done safely."