Winter can be a slow time of year for a path builder, especially those of us who work up in the mountains, as weather and daylight hours can make it difficult to even find the paths in the first place let alone dig into the hardened ground. However, I've been pretty lucky these last few months to be able to find enough work to tie me over and pay my bills (though, to be fair, going on holiday half way through also didn't help).
The year started at the same location that last years ended, the National Trust for Scotland's St Abb's Nature Reserve. This is a very beautiful place to work, whether it's the breathtaking views of the red cliffs along the coast or the gentle scenery around Mire Loch. The weather was also milder then other places in Scotland, which helps, and even though we had less visible hours the time of year made the colours around us muted with pastel sunrises and pale blue skies. Frustratingly difficult to capture on a camera, this had the added bonus of 'forcing' us to literally just enjoy it as it happened.
The first work that I carried out was maintenance work on the steps towards the lighthouse. As these steps stood they were a little bit too large for people who normally use this path, causing them to deviate onto the sides, eroding at the surrounding vegetation. The issue here is that the path goes directly over bedrock with very few sections that could be dug into.
So out came the pinch bar, hammer, and chisel to carve out enough space the fit some more stones in. These needed to be slotted in so that they wouldn't just slide off the bedrock below and then held into place with revetments and landscaping. The angle of the slope meant that carrying or rolling the last of our quarry stones wasn't really an option, so instead they had to be winched up to a higher point and then rolled or slide back down to a section above the work point ready to be used. Winching stones is definitely an all over body work out with added brain work to keep everyone safe, I would recommend it.
Whilst my colleagues worked on a section of the path further along I blocked a braid (an additional path line) which had formed from people choosing an easier route. For this I placed a stone at the starting point and then landscaped away the line so that it would no longer register as a possible route when people looked at it. The changes we made to this section would hopefully mean that people would no longer feel the need to choice an alternate route.
We then moved further around the path to a section just south of the Mire Loch. Erosion of the surfacing had meant that the level of the path below the steps had dropped, increasing their height to an uncomfortable level and walkers were now using the sides of the path instead. As before more steps were needed to make it a more comfortable walk and anchor bars added into the path to hold the surfacing in place, reducing the amount of surfacing lost in the future. There's a fine balance between the number of steps you add to a path. Too few and the general erosion that happens can make them uncomfortable to use in the long run, but too many and walkers are having to just walk up stairs - also an uncomfortable experience after awhile. Each path is unique and each sections needs to be tweaked to fit the needs of the path and the walkers.
Then I went off to visit family and enjoy a cruise along the Norwegian coast, apparently missing some very cold weather.
Once I got back I helped work on the pipe culvert along the all access path which leads from the car park to Stanley Bay. There is a dip in the path and water running off the road regularly pools there, causing a muddy section. So we dug a trench across the path, added the pipe culvert, refilled the trench and then hid the two ends using the remaining stones we had left from our previous work before landscaping around the section. We also raised the path here a little bit with surfacing and it should now hopefully be easier for everyone to use.
Our last work at the reserve was around Mire Loch. This is a lovely little Loch, pretty easy to get around and full of wildlife. It looked like the warm weather had tricked a number of the birds on the water, mainly Coots, into thinking it was spring and watching them get ready for the mating season was both lovely and a little sad. Hopefully we won't get another March storm like last year which would destroy all their hard work so far.
Slightly amusing was the Coots response to some of the hammering we had to do, which made a very similar sound to the calls they normally make. Once they had gotten used to our presence they would call back every time we hammered away which, fortunately, we didn't have to do too often as it was beginning to make me feel a little guilty.
To begin with we worked on a section of the path that was on the north side of the Loch. This section passed through a dip in the landscape, was quite muddy and a little bit difficult to walk through without wellies or sturdy walking boots. There were stepping stones already in place but a more substantial feature was wanted. As we didn't want to stop water flowing in this section it was decided that two cross drains would be put in. Trenches were then dug up to these cross drains with landscaping, cobble and surfacing used to raise the path up producing a dry foot path but not blocking the movement of water through the area.
Path erosion along a section of the east side of the path had meant that some tree roots had been exposed. Damage to these roots could have a negative impact on the trees so we were asked to find some way of covering the roots and protecting them. It was decided that we should raise the path up over the roots using left over wooden planks and stakes on the lower section of the path to hold the surfacing in place. We also added 'steps', buried under the path, to act in a similar manner to the stone anchor bars we normally put in, reducing the amount of surfacing we would normally loss to gravity. Once completed it ensured that the roots were protected and it also made that section of path a little bit easier for those walking on it. Landscaping added to the lower side of the path ensure that the visual enjoyment of visitors wasn't affected by what would have been a very obvious addition to the path otherwise.
Lastly we moved around to the west side of the Loch. A section of the path had a strong up-hill angle rather than a flat surface. Not always an issue, in this case it seemed to be pushing walkers further down the slope towards the gorse bushes. This was a pretty easy fix by cutting into the upper side of the path, using the turfs produced to raise and hold the lower side of the path, and then flattening out the section. Thankfully this section actually produced some hard surfacing in its own right and we didn't have to dig any burrow pits to find additional material. We'd already done a lot of digging over the last few days so it was good to get a bit of a break on that front.
All in all a pretty good start to the year. The one thing that I always noticed during this time was the difference in temperature between St Abb's and where I live. It's only a few hours drive and yet the temperature definitely drops as we drive home (usually at the Firth of Forth mark), but this made it a great place to work during the colder months and it was great to be able to get a proper feel of the place. Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in that area.
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