Holiday homes being planned for Balmaha will be virtually invisible say developers.
Tom Fitzsimmons, of Border Reivers Ltd, has submitted an application to Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park planners for the four houses, paths and car park areas at Lomond Bank, off the Main Road.
In their submission, agents for the applicants say reflective materials will negate any visual impact.
They added: “The three woodland lodges are located at the edges of an existing semi-natural beech woodland and are positioned within existing clearings in the forest. They are orientated in such a way to enjoy privacy between one another and to enjoy filtered views through the trees to the landscape beyond.
“The lodges themselves are small (35 square metres) and raised off the forest floor on short screwpile foundations that penetrate the ground very lightly.
“They are clad in a mirror polished stainless steel that reflects the surroundings in such a way as to almost make the lodges invisible.
“The mirror polished cladding is distorted slightly on application and this forms a pronounced visual distortion that discourages birds from colliding with the facades (as) birds are deterred by shiny objects and usually injured by buildings that include high levels of transparency (front and rear glazing that allows light to filter through) and the proposed lodges actively avoid this feature.
“The lodges are therefore as good as invisible until you are extremely close to them and as such we feel their visual impact is negligible.
“Both building types have been very carefully designed to be almost visually imperceptible from any public vantage point.”
The application also includes a new ‘outlaw lodge’ adjacent to the existing Border’s Reivers garage at Lomond Bank. Developers believe the topography of this location allows most of the building to be set into the landscape on all northerly facing sides while still enjoying south west views over the loch.
