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The Nationwide Belief for Scotland Mountain Path Group are at work repairing a path up close to Mullach an Rathain summit, on Liathach in Torridon. The group’s main intention is to forestall irreversible environmental harm to fragile habitats, to not improve entry. The NTS cares for a few of Scotland’s magnificent landscapes and greater than 400 miles of path on Glen Coe, Kintail, West Affric, Mar Lodge Property, Gray Mare’s Tail ,Torridon, Goatfell, Ben Lawers and Ben Lomond.
The Mountain Path Group is dedicated to conserving and sustaining the belief’s community of over 400 miles (643km) of mountain paths for future generations, wherever doable constructing by hand utilizing domestically sourced materials.
With out the Mountain Path Group and the Footpath Fund, erosion would result in irreversible harm on Scotland’s most luxurious landscapes.
![NTS Mountain Path Team at work repairing a path up Mullach an Rathain summit, on Liathach in Torridon](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1f2e20e9e934174c5c5fa1590492517f122f3bd4/0_0_5760_3840/master/5760.jpg?width=880&quality=85&fit=max&s=994e8c514835c4ca2c84e97077c5f509)
Nan Morris | Group member
“What folks don’t realise is that one individual stepping on the vegetation is just not going to make any distinction, however when lots of of persons are stepping on the identical bit time and again, the crops get killed off, the roots are now not holding the soil collectively, after which there’s nothing to cease the subsequent rainfall washing every part down the hill.”
“Finally,” she chuckles, “Scotland will probably be as flat as Holland, if you don’t keep on the footpaths.” Extra severely: “It destroys the setting … some crops aren’t very uncommon nevertheless it all helps insect and animal life, it’s a holistic setting. You’re killing every part actually.”
Nan has been path constructing for 15 years, 13 of these with the NTS after finishing a course in environmental conservation at Lochaber school.
![Nan Morris](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6677f3825368b96213c14df2eff41cdd66862d9c/0_0_5760_3840/master/5760.jpg?width=620&quality=85&fit=max&s=16cdd4f02e4cd72554372ef5345ed7d1)
![Nan Morris](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/638cda93484e5be47ecd05c29b193ab83450c518/0_0_5760_3840/master/5760.jpg?width=445&quality=85&fit=max&s=277513a865fb9f0ed1ded8388644c89c)
![Nan Morris](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/98006d8f9037007a223ffb12a26bb69e260b8e8a/0_0_5760_3840/master/5760.jpg?width=445&quality=85&fit=max&s=eb5e266cd1f89b4756ab5ff86be9b592)
“I used to be a housewife and mom earlier than occurring the course. I simply went into the jobcentre and stated that I wished one thing that was bodily and open air.
“Most path staff work for contractors which is nice however it may be feast or famine. Personally, I just like the continuity – understanding that I’m employed on a long-term foundation by the Nationwide Belief for Scotland of their group.”
![Tools of the trade](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b06ee8ba0607563ff72715a9d277e20229aa1837/0_0_5760_3840/master/5760.jpg?width=620&quality=85&fit=max&s=baa9c30985bbd4f1afde2dd778917dd9)
“I like it. I gained’t fake that I’ve at all times bought an enormous smile on my face when the climate is totally horrendous and it’s bucketing down for hours. I like the truth that I can lose myself in a little bit of constructing work or change my mind off and carry buckets all day, if that’s how I really feel.
![Nan Morris and Ben Farrington](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6b70deaba6653ddd7f64c1d92f2235c877e632c4/0_0_5760_3840/master/5760.jpg?width=620&quality=85&fit=max&s=9c9c40e717a849e3b3c876427d1dd122)
“We usually don’t get rock dropped for us. With huge contract jobs, they’ll usually get a helicopter drop or rock delivered. For us, it’s a case of sourcing the supplies we want on the hill which is a talent in itself. Some rocks we use are a quarter-tonne in weight (250kg). [With] a rock that dimension we may have a few folks on it with pinch bars, generally a small hand winch. You might want to know the right way to sensitively panorama, taking turf from spherical about with out inflicting erosion, taking a bit of bit from numerous spots, then the grass, because it grows in, will maintain every part the place it’s put.”
![Nan Morris (pony tail), Ben Farrington](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/28a26f8fd4a6a12440d1e99c352a50c9140092f3/0_0_5760_3840/master/5760.jpg?width=620&quality=85&fit=max&s=9e3db4cc9c2ddd13382dc2afe7c08f4a)
“A few of the wildlife we now have seen is wonderful. Eagles, foxes, pine martens, hares. We’ve had amphitheatre views of two herds of deer rutting and two stags roaring at one another all day, simply ready for them to begin to battle. We had a raven on Goatfell on Arran, and as quickly as we might cease for lunch it might be there.”
On Ben Lawers, to their alarm, they witnessed a cartwheeling sheep rolling down the steep hill like tumbleweed. Bumping right into a rock it got here to a standstill, stood up and staggered of groggily.
![Nan Morris (pony tail)](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/31102773bcbe510f74f8d0360aede404fb2a8478/0_0_5760_3840/master/5760.jpg?width=880&quality=85&fit=max&s=3806b3eeb46c6fe5a5dc2fc6db7eeb09)
Nan’s take residence message: “Take into consideration the details, when you find yourself out within the hills: there is likely to be a thousand folks following in your footsteps, is it sustainable? It’s not simply you. The numbers have elevated dramatically for years – since Covid they’ve exploded.
“Most individuals say thanks and take heed to us – once we clarify about sticking to the trail – however you do get the odd one which will get a bit indignant about there being paths within the hills. They don’t wish to see a footpath however I believe they’re lacking the purpose: they don’t realise we try to guard the mountain; we aren’t doing this to make life simpler for walkers.
“If you should use strolling poles, truthful sufficient, however put a rubber tip on them. For those who don’t want them don’t use them, they hasten the erosion, you get tiny little holes in all of the surfacing and the verges alongside the edges, which permits the water in. You’re principally widening your individual footprint by a very good foot on both aspect by consistently utilizing these poles.”
![Team leader Ben Farrington](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4b400bb192c1a72b163d632027a2a9c8535ed557/0_754_3840_4854/master/3840.jpg?width=620&quality=85&fit=max&s=b308547f6f14ada967be86cd03324720)
Ben Farrington | Group chief
The mission of the trail group is to not enhance entry however primarily to guard the setting and stop erosion.
Ben says: “It’s about protecting folks on the trail by making it a very good path and blocking locations the place they may come off, as a result of when you don’t, erosion scars kind and harm fragile vegetation such because the uncommon alpine crops of Ben Lawers.
“That is finally to the good thing about the person customer – slightly than being confronted by the scars attributable to cumulative crowds of walkers. For those who get lots of or hundreds of holiday makers every year then that could be a huge situation.
“You can see that in current instances: when everybody was let free from lockdown so many individuals went to the hill, it was overloaded. There was such a quantity they have been avoiding one another, numerous harm was finished in a brief time frame.
“For those who think about that over years, and when you didn’t do any footpath work, there could be numerous scars and the water would then get in; earlier than you realize it there’s gullies. Folks don’t wish to stroll in them, in order that they transfer over and begin anew.”
Ben began with the group in 2004. Requested what qualities are required, he says: “It fits the strong-willed, fiercely unbiased, who look after the outside and don’t thoughts graft.”
The group works all yr spherical, in winter working decrease all the way down to keep away from the snow.
![Ben Farrington at work](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/a17afa8c79ecba77ceb42167c3ee8f0157bd9758/0_0_5760_3840/master/5760.jpg?width=880&quality=85&fit=max&s=5dc7a0f642c146568672b6e50d782226)
Of the Coire Na Tulaich stroll over Buachaille Etive Mòr, Ben says: “They created a line via the scree subject and boulders, with a little bit of tampering with bars and placing steps in, a little bit of revetting and surfacing. That’s a very good instance, because it’s hardly needed to have had any upkeep work finished to it.
“A lot of it’s donkey work however generally you set your concepts collectively and also you make one thing very technical, and it’s like: ‘wow’. You come again in a number of years and it’s nonetheless there.”
![Team member Kieran Fogarty, The NTS Mountain Path Team at work repairing a path up Mullach an Rathain summit, on Liathach in Torridon](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/5671ebe874c649675da78a252d7cd6eb80165110/0_142_5760_3698/master/5760.jpg?width=880&quality=85&fit=max&s=1a5de5e17ecb5fbd2fc885dc276ba7d8)
Kieran Fogarty | Group member
Right here in Torridon we now have some significantly previous stone – Torridonian sandstone – which to my data is 600-800m years previous, and that sits on a layer of Lewisian gneiss which is 2.7bn years previous, in order that’s a few of the oldest nonetheless uncovered stone on this planet, I imagine, with solely older stuff showing in Greenland and Canada.”
“It’s mind-blowing, particularly with the Torridonian sandstone – clearly at one time it was different stone and it’s already been eroded to the purpose the place it’s sand and resettled as sedimentary beds and fashioned as rock. That simply offers you an concept of the geological epochs gone via to create it.
![Nan Morris and Kieran Fogarty](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4ef4c60fe8cb46ea03929db87aa4e3d6fb7b5087/0_0_5472_3648/master/5472.jpg?width=620&quality=85&fit=max&s=ab6ebfd0f5b7824c27e5cc5e6f0db6a2)
“I’m fairly a magpie for locating issues. Probably the most thrilling factor I’ve ever discovered was a 3,500-year-old funerary burial pot, with a cremation inside. I ended up, sadly, placing my mattock pickaxe via it. I discovered all of the bits and items and the Peak District nationwide park archaeology division analysed it.
“Now it’s in Stoke-on-Trent Pottery museum. They discovered that the person who had been cremated was a 35-45-year-old lady and she or he was cremated together with two pigs. They may inform intimate particulars of her life from the bits of bones left – that she will need to have had a tough working life.”
“The three inventory phrases we get requested on a regular basis are: Are you digging for gold? Are you placing an escalator in? Or are you tarmacking it?”
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