The Unna Principles

“No facilities should be introduced for mechanical transport,” wrote Percy Unna in a letter to the National Trust for Scotland in 1937. Environmentalist, philanthropist and climber, he had recently founded the Mountainous Country Fund in a bid to protect and improve access to Scotland’s wild uplands. Frustrated by landowners banning walkers from the hills – this was long before the Land Reform Act of 2003 which granted a right to roam – his aim was to raise money from fellow mountaineers and outdoor enthusiasts for the NTS to buy land, thereby guaranteeing access.

Glen Coe was their first purchase in 1935, and the fund has now bought over 60,000 acres of mountain from Arran to Torridon to the Grey Mare’s Tail. Unna’s letter set out ten ideas for the management and protection of these wild lands, which became known as the Unna Principles. Others include a ban on sporting rights as they compromise access, a suggestion the hills should not be made safer or easier to climb, and a request that “no directional or other signs, whether signposts, paint marks, cairns, or of any other kind whatsoever, should be allowed”.