For the last few weeks we have remained in the Glen Luibeg area of Mar Lodge moving up to Lairig Ghru later on. The first week was pretty varied and saw us finishing off the work that we had started on the path to Sròn Riach with the last bag of stones.
As before, this entailed adding a bit of stability to the path by adding step rises to steep sections of the path and doubling up the waterbars (which is adding another row of stones arterthe liners, effectively making it a hybrid between a waterbar and a cross drain) to hold the surfacing in place. We had a good amount of stones for this but finding aggregate for the surface was more of a struggle. It took three burrow pits to get enough, which meant a lot of landscaping to help reduce the visual impact of our work and to help the regeneration of the vegetation along the path.
On Thursday we started the work we would continue the week after on the path to Carn a' Mhaim. There has been work carried out before on the steepest section of the path and we are working on a section just above this where erosion from water and footfall is affecting the path. The results will be shown later on, but we working on this section by adding a stone revetment along the outside of the path and adding step rises through a central section of the widened path. This should make a more comfortable walk for those using this path and also prevent it from widening further, damaging the surrounding habitat.
I'm not going to lie, the walk up the Carn a' Mhaim path was a real heart worker and I had to stop a couple of times, especially as we were carrying all our tools, but it was worth the amazing views we got during our breaks. Anyone who's spent anytime outside in Scotland can tell you that you normally get all the weather in one day and this week was a real example of this. As we were working at around 750m the change of weather was even more extreme, with beautiful blue skies and warm take your jacket (but not fleece) temperatures one moment and a snow blizzard the next.
We work a slightly shorter day on Friday so we tend to work further down the hill. We had noticed on a walk up that a waterbar needed an extra work as it had a similar issue to the previous waterbar with the water moving down the path removing the surfacing from the path. This was a slightly more unusual change due to the angle and size of the waterbar. We started by adding an edging stone to the downhill side of the path, followed by two stones as step rises. Stones were then added in between the waterbar liners and step rises to act as additional steps to increase the ease of getting over this feature. More edging were added to help hold the features into place. In this case finding the aggregate for the surfacing was a breeze, literally the easiest burrow pit we've dug so far. We were also able to save a lot of surfacing from the draining section of the waterbar which had been washed down by the water and replace this back on the path.
The next week was back up the Carn a' Mhaim path to finish off the feature we had started. This was a real struggle this time as the wind was particularly strong and was blowing me all around the place. Unfortunately I didn't get a finished picture of this as we needed to get the work done and then get off the hill with all our tools as quickly as possible.
We moved further down the path back to just above Robbers Coppice and added some more step rises and an extra side to the water bar to help keep the surfacing on the path rather then it heading down the ditch from the waterbar itself.
The last work was on some smaller work needed in Robbers Coppice itself. My colleagues worked on adding some steps whilst I worked on a section where the water was collecting on the path. In one section the water was running onto the path and pooling as the outlay had become blocked. To fix this I unblocked the outlay and then increased its size to reduce the chance of it being blocked again. Right beside this there was a large puddle on the path where the water had collected but had no where to go. Cobbles were added to this section to raise the path up and then surfacing added onto to make it an easier walk on. The week after I added a step rise to help hold the coddles and surfacing in place and prevent the water from washing this away. Even if water does remain on this section again it will no longer affect the path itself.
I also landscaped the areas I collected the surfacing from to give it a more natural feel, make it less construction like, and to help the vegetation grow back in the area.
The last week was mainly spent on Coire Odhar, a path which takes you from Lairig Ghru to The Devil's Point. It's a beautiful path and is just above one of the most used paths in the Cairngorms, but it also a two hour walk in, all very good for your heart and health. 😀
Here was a very similar issue with the water bars. The steepness of the paths meant that the surfacing was being washed off the path by the water running down the path and being washed down the waterbars. Extra sides were added to the waterbars to reduce this from happening.
I realised that I haven't really been showing you the stone work being carried out as the after photos kind of hides the work that has been carried out. I will try and remember to do this in the future, but I did remember to do it once this week and it I'll be finishing this next week.
As usual this job allows you to enjoy the landscape we work in and see some areas most people don't get to see from the usual activities they do in this area. Absolutely gorgeous!
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