Forestry and Land Scotland has said reopening a path which has been closed for a decade at a Perthshire beauty spot is “not a priority”.
The PA contacted the organisation after receiving a letter from a reader calling for the path to be reopened.
David MacDougall, from Little Dunkeld, said his concerns related to the “neglected tourist trail at the Hermitage, Inver, Dunkeld, which is the footpath leaving the car park near the A9, via the Hermitage Falls, crossing the bridge over the Braan River there - and then nothing”.
The path was closed in 2011 following a number of landslips.
Mr MacDougall has called on work to reopen it to take place by either creating a new bridge or linking path.
He said: “One of the most beautiful, indeed in parts spectacular, country walks in Scotland, let alone Perthshire, is denied to the walking public.”
However, a spokesperson for Forestry and Land Scotland told the Perthshire Advertiser there are no plans in place to reopen the path.
They said: “The path was shut in 2011 after numerous landslips made it unsafe to use. Successive surveys over the next couple of years showed that the only feasible response that would both restore a circular path and ensure visitor safety would be to build a bridge further downstream.
“We have in the past discussed options with NTS, which manages the Hermitage, and with the local community but unfortunately, with a number of challenges competing for our limited resources in the intervening years, pushing forward with this project has not been a priority.”
