Joan McAlpine, the SNP MSP for South Scotland, said: "The proposal to locate so many turbines in this area will irreversibly destroy its unique character.”

And although she wanted windfarms in the right place, she shared community fears about contamination.

“I am also concerned that this community’s wishes are being dismissed by a powerful landowner,” she added.

McAlpine argued that Buccleuch’s plan was at odds with community proposals to develop the land.

"I would therefore be concerned that the wind farm development undermines the community’s plans to empower itself through acquisition of the land," she said.

The Conservative MSP for Dumfriesshire, Oliver Mundell, claimed the windfarm had no local support. The application is motivated solely by financial considerations on the part of the landowner and cannot be justified," he said.

It would create “a metal cordon” around local villages which would be "completely engulfed", he argued.

The development could "destroy the local community" and leave Wanlockhead "a ghost town".

Claudia Beamish, Labour MSP for South Scotland, stressed that she was supportive of renewable energy. But she agreed with local concerns about the “cumulative effect” of too many wind farms in the area.

Soil and ponds near Wanlockhead are known to be seriously contaminated with lead and other heavy metals from centuries of mine workings.