We’ve just seen a weekend where, rather than reducing travel and staying at home, large numbers of people have flocked to the Highlands, treating it more like a Bank Holiday than a Global Pandemic.

So please, Protect us, Protect yourselves, and go home.

This has led to:

• A vastly increased risk of transmission of Covid-19, placing at greatly increased risk the vulnerable groups who themselves have done nothing wrong. 
• Dangers on the road, as people park outside rightly closed car parks, blocking roads and causing obstructions on blind bends.
• Local shortages – with shops already under pressure, many have been forced to close due to the impossibility of managing the hordes of the thoughtless and selfish. 
• Pressure on emergency services: as at any peak time, there is greater call on our emergency services, who are already heavily engaged in coping with Covid-19. The Mountain Rescue, for example, are also volunteers, with their own families to consider, so please consider them and the other emergency service personnel. 

Look, we love visitors, and not just for what they give to the local economy – we genuinely appreciate that people want to come and enjoy the same landscapes that we get to experience every day. But now is not the time to come here: stay home, stay well and we look forward to welcoming you once we all emerge from the current restrictions. And the better you comply with that advice, the sooner that will be. The first draft of this was a great deal shorter.