Wednesday October 28th 2026
Angel of the North
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Paul Kelly
A French renewable energy company has launched an appeal after Scottish Borders Council refused an application for a wind farm with turbines nine times the height of the Angel of the North.
The Qair Group, which has headquarters in Paris, is proposing three industrial wind turbines on farmland at Drakemyre, near Grantshouse.
The turbines would stand up to 180 metres (591 ft) to blade tip — nine times the height of Gateshead’s famous Angel of the North art installation, and as tall as the Gherkin in London.
Together they would have an installed capacity of up to 20 Megawatts across a site covering roughly 155 hectares (383 acres).
The site sits between Grantshouse and Duns, east of the A6112 — on the eastern edge of the Lammermuir plateau, where the land falls away toward the Berwickshire Merse.
Opponents say that because of this exposed plateau-edge position, the turbines would be highly visible across the Merse — from Duns, Chirnside, Paxton and far beyond.
They say the proposed development would “permanently alter one of Scotland’s most beautiful and unspoilt rural landscapes”.
SBC refused the application, stating that the development “would represent a significant and unacceptable adverse change to the existing landscape character of the area”.
Now the applicants have submitted an appeal to Scottish Government, stating: “It has clearly been demonstrated that the landscape and visual effects of the proposed development do not amount to greater than localised and that there are no other matters arising such that the development would be considered to be contrary to the development plan, and there are other material considerations in the form of national legislation, policy and guidance and the contributions arising to climate change targets and carbon emissions reduction that further support approval.”
There are approximately 616 significant operational wind turbines across 23 major schemes in the Scottish Borders.
These projects generate enough electricity to meet over 20 per cent of Scotland’s total energy requirements.
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