The company had originally proposed taking wind farm traffic, including large turbines and blades, along the A9 through the villages of Golspie and Brora and accessing Gordonbush via the Strath Brora road. But a vehement campaign against transporting such huge and heavy structures through the two villages forced SSE to think again.

They indicated at that time that they were being blocked from using the Drummuie route – which would mean using the road already constructed to Kilbraur wind farm and extending it to Gordonbush – by landlords. However, owners denied they were being obstructive and an agreement was eventually reached.

The Kilbraur proposal includes building a new bridge across the River Brora.

SSE's project manager Chris Marden said this week: "We recognise that the Kilbraur route is the access route favoured by the local communities and, over the past year, we have carried out extensive assessments to establish the feasibility of this route and to develop a suitable design for the bridge.

"We're hopeful that this application will be a major step forward in the delivery of this alternative access route."

A spokeswoman for SSE told the NT: "If we do get permission for this route, I can categorically state that all heavy goods vehicle traffic and abnormal loads will be using it.

"The only traffic using the Strath Brora road would be that coming from the north – it would make sense for us to access the wind farm via the old schoolhouse turn-off and by Clynelish."

Golspie Community Council chairman Iain Miller said: "This is really excellent news. I have to say that we as a local community have always found that SSE management and staff have been very approachable and have endeavoured to listen to and answer our concerns. In the case of preferred access, they have also acted upon those concerns."

The Gordonbush development will comprise a 70-megawatt wind farm of 35 turbines.

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