h+m were appointed to undertake a landscape feasibility study of a site in rural Aberdeenshire for a proposed small-scale wind cluster.  Based on a detailed evaluation of the landscape and visual character of the site and its surroundings, a design strategy was developed which sought to minimise landscape and visual impacts through selecting a relatively small-scale turbine height and positioning the turbines low down on the site to avoid visibility from a key hilltop viewpoint, and by locating the turbine layout down a clearly defined sloping ridge rather than across the contour to relate more directly to the topographic pattern of the site and to achieve better visual compositions from selected viewpoints.  A range of detailed layout options were tested against a series of criteria to establish the optimum layout and turbine heights.  h+m carried out a detailed LVIA as part of an Environmental Assessment of the proposal