Path Work - Cairn Lochan path, Fiacaill path, Windy Ridge, Beinn a'Bhúird, & Carn Crom

The start of the first week in July was spent on the Cairn Lochan path, which needs a lot of work done to it due to the level of erosion.  

Before

After

Before

After

On this path we added some double waterbar with additional steps above.  In the before picture I've kept in the stones that are going into the structure so that you can see the size of the size of the stones used to ensure their permeance.

We also added a few more step rises to help with the steepness of the path as well slowing the movement of the path surfacing.  As well as spreading surfacing along the path.

Before

After

The last day that week was spent on the Fiacaill path that takes you to the Fiacaill Ridge.  There was erosion along this path so it was needing step rises and surfacing added along the way.

The second week was spent completely on Windy Ridge on the CairnGorm Estate.  Even though we were low down on the path it still lived up to its name, apart from the Friday when there was hardly any wind and lots of midgies.

This is a very steep path with large steps and one of the most popular routes on this estate, so it needed a number of step rises added to the path a long most of the path to make the path easier to use and reduce the erosion on the path.  I didn't take any before pictures as the after are pretty self explanatory.

For the third week we were back on Mar Lodge Estate on the Beinn a'Bhúird path.

Before

After

After - ditching on the left

On a section that has suffered from particularly bad erosion we turned the waterbar into a double waterbar, added step rises, and a ditch along the side to reduce the amount of water actually hitting the path.

Further down the path step rises were added to a particularly steep section (I've only shown my work here).

Before

After

And more step rises in a section where there has been some signs of water erosion, moving the surfacing off the path.

The last week was spent on Carn Crom.  This path was interesting for me to go to as it is one of the path I did my training on last year.  We were lower down this time and in a section I used to walk by on a regular basis and is were the erosion had meant that the path is down to the base rock on one side and was we into the vegetation on the other.

Before

Before - where ditch will be

After

After - ditch

After - down hill

First was to add a much needed waterbar at the top of the steep section to reduce the amount of water rushing down the path.  We found a lovely but particularly large stone that took a little while to move, but which fitted perfectly and worth the effort of moving.

Further down I added a couple of steps to help with a section that was quite steep and should now help hold any surfacing in that area.  I'm really chuffed about this one as it looks like a very natural feature and you wouldn't necessarily know it's man made.

I also worked on a couple of step rises further down to, again, hold the surfacing in place as it's likely there will be water moving down the path just because of the base rock on one side.  As well as resurfacing the section.

Before

After

Then there was turning a waterbar into a double waterbar to hopefully reduce the amount of surfacing being lost here.  We had noticed that this was a particularly bad waterbar for surface loss and definitely needed some work.

And then more step rises and more surfacing, as always.  Working on this section was an interesting challenge as the stones had to be balanced against the base rock and placed to ensure they didn't slide down (which can be an issue when placing stones on base rock) but I think it worked out quite well all in all.

Unfortunately not a large amount of wildlife to be seen, but the weather was interesting with us back to the usual Scottish weather.  I don't think there was a day when we didn't spend time repeatedly taking off and putting on our waterproof jackets as the weather swung from cold, windy, and raining to hot, sunny and calm.  We also get midges this week, a rarity for us this summer.