Workers have airlifted more than 100 tonnes of rock from a famous Highland mountain as a £200,000 path restoration project reaches a milestone.
The first stage of the repair and upgrade to sections of the path leading to Suilven in Assynt has now been completed.
The project involved four months of intensive work involving two path contractors, about 10 staff and an airlift of more than 100 tonnes of rock from the site.
Some workers have walked more than 450 miles just getting to and from the remote site every day.
The 2,398ft Suilven is one of the most distinctive mountains in Scotland, lying in a remote area in the west of Sutherland, and rising almost vertically from a wilderness landscape of moorland and bogs.
The initiative is being undertaken as part of the Coigach and Assynt Living Landscape Partnership Scheme with the aim of halting the ongoing loss of vegetation and erosion of soil – particularly fragile peat – along the path line.
It is a partnership between the Assynt Foundation, who own and manage Suilven on behalf of the community, and the John Muir Trust, who are project-managing the repair work.
The scheme aims to halt or even reverse the encroachment onto the blanket bog peat, which has led to increasing losses of carbon dioxide, by creating a good path line which will enable walkers to stick to a single route through the landscape.
Chris Goodman, path officer for the John Muir Trust, said: “At the start of the project, I always walked out to the work site in wellies because the ground was so peaty and soft, but now it’s a joy to be able to walk out in boots or a good pair of trainers and not get wet feet.
“Contractors ACT Heritage and Arran Footpaths have done an excellent job of constructing the path and stabilising steep mobile ground.”
Andy Taylor, who set up ACT Heritageafter originally learning his trade through the local Culag Community Woodland Trust training course, said: “It was a big job, but I’m really grateful I got the opportunity to be involved with the work and I’m really proud to have left my mark on Suilven.”
Further work will be carried out on the path next spring.