Field Notes: A great team of local helpers

Quinag Conservation Officer Romany Garnett salutes the local residents who are volunteering to help her fix paths and tend the tree nursery

Footpath repair work has started on Quinag with stone pitching being undertaken on the ascent to Sail Gharbh to prevent further erosion and consolidate the path. ACT Heritage will be working on this over the next couple of weeks.

Fortnightly volunteer days have been continuing since Covid-19 restrictions eased in July but are limited to local residents. My regulars are a great team, one of them cycles out from Lochinver each fortnight to help. Another brings his own wheelbarrow - a vintage wedding gift. They have been out helping at the beginning of the footpath filling in boggy sections with gravel and helped hugely with shovelling and transporting gravel.

The tree nursery allows us to bring small numbers to help, so I split my volunteer days into two halves to reduce the amount of people in one place. The morning work is more geared towards helping people who are less-able. Here we move trees, sweep and weed. A morning tea break is always involved too where we sit outside and blether.

Photograph at the top by Chris Puddephatt