THE Astronomer Royal for Scotland has led new calls for the Scottish Government to prevent the construction of wind farms near the Dark Sky Observatory.

Professor John Brown, the John Muir Trust and the Scottish Wild Land Group have sent an open letter to the Government asking it to update planning policy to protect the dark sky park - the only one of its kind in Europe.

The leading stargazer said that building turbines around the park would be ‘akin to putting a factory in Glen Coe or electricity pylons along the Cuillin Ridge’.

The observatory was opened last year by First Minister Alex Salmond who hailed the world class facility.

But the trustees behind the ambitious project, led by their chairman Mark Gibson, have repeatedly spoken out against a raft of proposed wind farms which they believe will damage the unique visibility in the Galloway Forest Park.

For more check out this week's Chronicle.