18 Nov Glen Tanar Volunteer Task

Great Volunteer Day Out at Glen Tanar

On Wednesday 16th November a group of 8 volunteers came out to help fix a popular walking route through the Torphantrick Woods on the Glen Tanar Estate. We repaired 3 seperate sections of path each with difference issues.

The first task of the day was to sort out a section of path where a tree had fallen down right next to it causing the roots to stick out over the path. This had meant people had started diverting to the side making the path wider. As the tree had fallen it had left a hole which needed filling up, we did this by digging a “borrow pit” which is a hole in the ground away from the path where we can get soil to fill the hole. We then landscaped the filled hole using turfs we had scraped from the edges of the rest of the path.

Before lunch we tackled the biggest job of the day, a 15m section of path that had been washed out. The surfacing material had completely been removed and the subsurface had been washed into a pile at the side of the path. The first job was to dig out the subsurfacing and put it back on the path. We then needed to find some surfacing. Luckily there were a number of fallen trees in the area and the holes created had perfect surfacing material, so it was just a case of transfering this to the path.

Before and After

After a spot of lunch we split into to two groups to fix a boggy section of path and re-instate a ditch along the edge of a steep section of path. Michael and Craig, two of our Cairngorms trainees, showed us the tricks of the path work trade so that we managed to do the work without it looking like we had been there.

A massive thank you to all the volunteers who joined us for the day, without the volunteer task this path would not have been worked on and would have suffered more damage over the winter months.

This volunteer task was part of out regular volunteer opportunties which take place each month. To find out how to get involved with future activities, check out our volunteering page. www.themountainsandthepeople.org.uk/volunteering/

Thanks to James Brownhill for sending through some extra photos of the day.