Shock as brazen vandals create illegal basketball court and mountain bike track on Perthshire estate

It strikes me that much effort went into this, and that at the end of the day although some changes have been made, this is a good thing to keep kids off playstation….

Good effort from the young ‘uns.

Weans should be “up the wids” at every opportunity.

not vandals. chopping down trees – bit close. basketball court? the brazen cheek 🙂
there’s all manner of bits in that article are obviously designed to whip up sentiment. – Union Jack flag? the horror!

.. I’m not alone in thinking I got up to much worse when I was younger …

Man who owns wood and does nothing with it complains when kids use it for recreation 🙄

It’s an impressive hut, but I’m not sure it’d pass building regs.

50/50.
Mostly no real harm done, but then again don’t think i’d be impressed if it was done on my land without permission.
I’d probably just be de-constructing it but not actually going to the effort of trying to track down who did it.

it’s not ideal. but those kids need there energy ‘channelling’ a little not a bloody police investigation.

Fantastic, best news story I’ve read for ages. Comments are a delight too.

Police tape is hilarious.

Reminds me of the movie Kings of Summer – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2179116/

Bloody good effort that hut!

Headline should have been “Kids use woods for base, build tree hut, bell end land owner gets arse on! ”

Fire-lighters were found on a shelf

quite well organised vandals.

And they had a bin!

That’s superb.

Anyone with information about the offence is asked to call Police Scotland on 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

What actual (criminal) offences can they prove here?

Assuming the whippersnappers brought in their own planks, the loss of a few saplings?

I love the courier.

It’s very much treading the line though isn’t it.

to me cutting down trees takes it over the line

What Perchy says, great stuff.

to me cutting down trees takes it over the line

There’s a surprise….

down with industrious kids out to build stuff and enjoy themselves outside.

Well he’s right isn’t he.

Nobeer

Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints?

Or as the land reform act puts it – ” don’t be a dick”

He’s always right Josh, that’s the thing…..

He can’t always be right because I’m always right.

😆

Top work, those kids!

Yes, it is technically vandalism or criminal damage, but it looks like they’ve done very little actual damage, as compared to the theoretical “they might have started a wildfire” type of damage.

ake nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints?

Unless there’s money to be made when you can take half the hill away.

When i was a yoot we got “arrested” and taken home in a Police van for building a camp in Trent Park, we cut down trees, built walls, had a camp fire heating baked beans… the copper thought it was all bow locks, but the Trent Park Ranger Nazis thought it warranted being hung! IIRC we were with our schools unhinged psycho whom upon searching had a huge array of weaponary on him including a full size Rambo survival knife. The forest & us survived!!! Good on the kids for some constructive initiative, shame it can’t be endorsed by the landowner.

Oh – and that ain’t an estate, this is an Estate
:

That’s not an estate, that’s a scheme.

Biggest problem I can see is the “shooting range”, that somewhat escalates things. You are now down the rabbit hole of armed trespess, potentially unlicensed airguns and depending on age their parents could be liable for allowing minors access to said firearms. I’m sure a lovely scoop like this would do wonders for the justifications of the AWC scheme and present clear proof of how it is “working” by apprehending these obviously violent criminals and giving everyone a firearms offence to think about for the rest of their lives.

If only they had a decent purpose build range within a few minutes walk. Oh, thats right, its a flower garden now.

Also, can’t see whole article as its stuck behind a paywall, any chance someone could post it?

Well done the kids 🙂

I struggle to articulate just how much I detest the sort of people who want to own huge chunks of land just to keep everyone else off it.

That git presumably has a big house and a huge garden – surely that’s enough space for anyone to have for private relaxation?
I do wonder what possesses these types to buy land in Scotland with it’s (thankfully) progressive access laws. If they want to buy tracts of land and keep the plebs out they’d be much better doing it somewhere more backward – like Mexico, or England. 😉

Anne Gloag is at it up here the miserable old scroat. She has a gigantic castle holiday home (about 100 odd miles from her other castle) with loads of lovely parkland. Signs and electric gates everywhere. I cycle through it regularly and rarely see a soul. Most people worry they are doing something illegal because of her wretched signs.
I’m tempted to do a jobby in her treehouse, just because.

Half a mile from his farmhouse and he didn’t notice people lighting mahoosive bonfires, firing airguns, possibly revving a quad bike and hammering together the teenage equivalent of the pyramid of Giza?

Where’s the line get drawn then- where does the border lie when it is acceptable /unacceptable to treat land as common land?

It’s difficult for me to visualise large areas of land as ‘belonging’ to somebody, especially when it’s not farmed in the conventional sense, but to the owner the block may be as personal as a small field that I own.

I do wonder what possesses these types to buy land in Scotland with it’s (thankfully) progressive access laws. If they want to buy tracts of land and keep the plebs out they’d be much better doing it somewhere more backward – like Mexico, or England.

Did you read the bit about them having it open and set up for the public to come to a natural space?

It has to be said though is a damn site better than my dens.

Did you read the bit about them having it open and set up for the public to come to a natural space?

The one in the middle of the countryside? how very generous of him.

Did you read the bit about them having it open and set up for the public to come to a natural space?

It can’t have been that open or popular, else someone might have noticed the kids playing basketball…

Christ give in.

Cutting down trees regardless of ownership of the land is a dick move.

I’m all for a subtle and under the radar “enhancement” but that’s practically a grand design.

Or perhaps an amazing space…

Signed

Josh, climber of trees builder of dens and general dicking about in woods that don’t belong to me.

I cut down trees.

Yours,

Dick.

to me cutting down trees takes it over the line

Cutting down trees regardless of ownership of the land is a dick move.

Riiiiiight…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7497162/Council-cuts-down-6000-trees-to-act-as-deterrent-at-dogging-site.html
https://www.fixmystreet.com/report/24950
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/sheffield-residents-in-bitter-row-with-council-over-tree-felling-proposals-a6698471.html
🙄

Hit looks better built than some scout camp site huts I’ve used inc for air rifle shooting..

Nobeerinthefridge – Member
I cut down trees.

Yours,

Dick.

Dick

😀

Can you come and do mine before all my neighbour crucify me for loss of broadband?

Surely a quick word with the kids to say “by all means have a bit of a play area in here, but don’t damage trees or set fires and we can all be fine” would have been best.

But the landowner seems a bit of a twunt. It’s all very much along the lines of ‘enjoy the countryside, but in the manner I tell you to’.

At least the kids are doing something vaguely adventurous and positive with their time. We used to create all sorts of things that were ‘ours’. Dens, bike tracks and jumps, catapult shooting ranges etc.

All part of growing up that is getting more difficult as time goes by.

Can you come and do mine before all my neighbour crucify me for loss of broadband?

I only really cut them down if they’re right in the middle of a trail I’m building!

It seems even STW bods dont bother reading the STW forums. Not even a simple namecheck to Nobeerinthefridge.

Is This The Cheekiest Trail Ever Found?

the diametric opposite of this thread is the ‘kids spend all their time indoors playing computer games… when we were kids we played in the woods..’ well they have done something creative in the fresh air, good on them instead of moaning to their parents that they are ‘bored’

the fire isn’t possibly the best idea but they’ve cleared the edge of the pit around it and it’s not massive, and yes the chopping down of some trees looks bad but we don’t know which ones they’ve chopped, some listing, stunted bits of ash may not be so bad

as someone else pointed out – they made a bin !!