PLANS to build giant pylons as big as tower blocks across the north-west Scottish Highlands are facing a local backlash.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) plan to build a 100-mile stretch of the 180-foot structures from Spittal, in Caithness in the far north, to Beauly, near Inverness.

The proposals come just over a decade after similar plans to take lines from Beauly to Denny in Scotland’s Central Belt, the largest overhead power line project Britain had ever seen, were approved, being a joint venture between Scottish Power and SSEN.

The new project, led by SSEN, is understood to be the next step in ensuring the renewable capabilities in Scotland’s remote north-west can be be fully exploited, with the lines providing a vital link to the more populous Central Belt.

The earlier work and the new proposals remain hugely controversial, however, with campaigners arguing now, as before, that the lines cut through some of Britain’s most picturesque landscape.

Helen Smith of tourism and heritage consultants Rowan Tree Consulting said: “Every moor, strath and glan the pylons will cross has special sites, some dating back as far as 6,000 years, and even if these sites do not end up with huge pylons on top of them, their surrounding landscape will be drastically affected.”

Strathpeffer and Contin Better Cable Route group spokesman Dan Bailey claimed that SSEN had picked the route from a map with no consideration of the realities on the ground.

“This will absolutely destroy the thing that brings people to this area,” he said.

“We are on the edge of the Highlands, we are a scenic, accessible location, we have got campsites, we have got hotels, mountain bike businesses, walking guides, wildlife watching. All of these things are under threat if you plough the line through the wrong part of our area.

“We will do everything we can to trigger a public inquiry if the preferred route is just bulldozed through regardless of local feeling.

“Scottish ministers have a role to play in this and the system they preside over is in danger of steamrollering local people.”

A spokesperson for SSEN transmission said: “Whilst delivering this critical national infrastructure by 2030 requires an acceleration … we remain fully committed to work closely with the local community and wider stakeholders to inform our design.”

The SSEN consultation concludes on April 14.