Environmental campaigners claim that building a windfarm on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park would be like putting a Tesco supermarket in the Grand Canyon.
Representatives of the Save the Monadhliath Mountains group made the comments ahead of a public local inquiry into RWE’s plans for 31 turbines near Kincraig.
The Allt Duine windfarm would lie just a few hundred yards from the boundary of the park. The turbines would stand 410ft high.
The inquiry will start at Aviemore on Monday, with Highland Council, the John Muir Trust, the Mountaineering Council of Scotland and the Cairngorms National Park Authority due to take part. They have all lodged objections to the development.
Outdoor author, photographer and former president of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, Chris Townsend, will be giving evidence at the inquiry.
He said: “This scheme is one of 11 windfarms planned for construction near or on the edge of the national park.
“If RWE are granted permission, the repercussions for wild land and the Scottish landscape in general will be devastating.
“Windfarms are not the most attractive of things, so they’re never going to be built without some controversy, but spoiling a landscape like Allt Duine has to be a step too far.
“Once we have a windfarm on the boundary of a national park with 16km (10 miles) of access tracks in the park itself, what next? This is the equivalent of building a Tesco in the Grand Canyon – you just wouldn’t dream of it.”
Renowned mountaineer Cameron McNeish added: “What we hope the inquiry will recognise is that to build this windfarm would be to sacrifice one of the greatest things our country has to offer – our heritage – solely to meet the demands of multi-national firms and land owners.
“We need to prioritise this area and protect the mountains that provide many of its residents’ livelihoods.”