Knockodhar
Official Objection Deadline: 19th Dec 2025
Please Note: You can still object to this application even though the official deadline has passed.
The proposed Knockodhar Wind Farm is an onshore wind energy development in South Ayrshire, located around 3.5 km south west of Barr, within a landscape that includes commercial forestry and surrounding rural settlements. Consent is being sought through the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit process, and the proposal includes up to 16 wind turbines with a maximum blade tip height of up to 200 metres, alongside an energy storage system, a substation, and associated access and infrastructure.
From an objections perspective, the core concern is the scale and industrial character of what is proposed. Turbines approaching 200 metres, together with a substation, compounds, and new or upgraded access routes, have the potential to transform the character of the receiving landscape and to introduce dominant vertical structures into views from nearby communities and transport routes. The physical footprint is not limited to the turbine bases, since it typically extends across a large construction corridor of tracks, crane pads, borrow pits, cabling, drainage, and ancillary works, with effects that can persist well beyond the construction period.
A further basis for objection is the risk to soils, hydrology, and downstream water environments arising from large scale groundworks, including cut and fill, drainage interventions, and altered run off pathways. Even where forestry is present, development can still involve sensitive watercourses and wet ground conditions, and objectors commonly argue that the precautionary approach should apply where the full consequences for catchments, private supplies, and aquatic ecology are uncertain or contested. These concerns are amplified where the proposal also includes grid connection works, which can extend impacts beyond the turbine array itself.
Knockodhar is also objected to on cumulative grounds, meaning that the assessment should not treat the development in isolation. In areas already experiencing multiple energy and grid proposals, additional large infrastructure can intensify landscape change, increase construction traffic impacts over extended periods, and place disproportionate burdens on small communities. Objections often focus on whether the application material demonstrates, in a clear and auditable way, that cumulative effects have been fully identified and properly weighed in decision making.
In summary, the proposed Knockodhar Wind Farm is opposed on the basis that it would introduce a major industrial development, including turbines of up to 200 metres and associated energy storage and substation infrastructure, into a rural part of South Ayrshire, with potential for significant landscape and amenity impacts, hydrological and ground disturbance risks, and cumulative harm when considered alongside wider infrastructure pressures.
