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I hadn’t planned to enjoy any of this. As summer light fell on Stac Pollaidh – the summit’s teeth bared, the views stretching across the surreal emptiness of Assynt – I found myself ankle-deep in blanket bog next to a hiking path, back bent, hacking at the tough terrain with a heavy-duty mattock. Farther up the hillside, another hunched figure was cutting a deep brown scar into the moor grass and, while he worked, I stood back to look at my efforts. At my feet was a cross drain that I’d unblocked and repacked with new stonework to prevent storm damage and aid runoff from the path. A burble began to trickle, slow yet clear across the sparkling bedrock. It felt a little like appreciating a masterwork in a museum.
I’d come to Wester Ross with a bucket and spade, not for a beach break at particularly gorgeous Achmelvich or Clachtoll nearby, but with the notion of giving something back to the hills. The Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland (Oats) is a steward of many of the Highlands’ most famous mountains – developing, building and repairing paths and habitats – and I’d joined a group of volunteers for a two-day stint on the north-west Highlands’ most visited peak. Factoring in a free stay at Ullapool youth hostel and the promise of a home-cooked communal meal in return, plus an acceptable midge-free forecast, I’d driven north from Edinburgh the night before in a buoyant mood.
Oats’s purpose is to promote sustainable public access and these days that’s largely done through voluntourism, with helpers set to work lifting, resurfacing and filling pathways, yielding landscape-scale results. Iconic if traffic-heavy mountains such as An Teallach, Lochnagar and Braeriach are annual priorities, as are a throng of glens and estates from Skye to the Cairngorms. (Due to this summer’s devastating fires, some events in the north Cairngorms may be changed to a different location or postponed.) The trust’s volunteers even regularly get to work on the Lairig Ghru, arguably Britain’s most unforgiving mountain pass.
It might sound like all hard graft, but it’s not. Volunteers learn new practical skills and gain awareness of mountain path design and the causes of erosion – mostly a combination of human misuse and increasing extreme weather conditions – in settings with extraordinary views. No experience is required, but volunteers must be used to spending time outdoors, have good physical fitness and be capable of using hand tools.
We started that first morning from Stac Pollaidh’s car park, a space transformed by Oats two years ago to accommodate four times more vehicles – a result of the mountain’s accessibility from the North Coast 500, which hurtles past (from Kylesku to Ullapool) only five miles east, at the end of the road. But everyone comes with the same motivation. As we climbed the open moorland, Assynt’s surrounding sea of lochans (small lochs) sparkled. Stac Pollaidh’s summit, to the north, appeared even more welcoming with its porcupine ridge under a sky as blue as a newborn’s eye.
From below the hilltop to the lower forest’s edge, we worked the path – unclogging ditches, removing invasive grasses, dredging, stabilising the soil, repacking stone drains, replanting edges – all while the mountain came to life. Trail runners, dog walkers and hikers from across Europe weaved up the slopes, stopping to ask what we were doing. A French school group trooped past, the pupils plastered with blue Braveheart face paint. A Dutch couple stopped to offer biscuits. Everyone swallowed the stunning views of Suilven to the north.
Our group of seven volunteers – including two New Zealanders; three retirees, one from Inverness, one from Stirling and another from Forfar; and an Edinburgh IT worker using his annual corporate volunteer days – appreciated the smiles.
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To a newcomer, the Highlands’ mountain paths may appear to have always been there, as if part of the landscape’s DNA. But as Oats’s volunteer coordinator Eva Kupska said, they are “always evolving and always at risk from erosion, because of the influences of nature and man … and it is our job to conserve them”.
Every volunteer is vital. Post-Brexit, with a lack of EU funding streams, Eva told me there is a drastic need for a public fund for path maintenance and habitat restoration, and the charity simply doesn’t have the manpower to tackle the deteriorating pathways or native tree planting alone. To complicate matters, some of the most popular mountain paths are on privately owned land, with no access to any public funding.
There are a further 12 one-day, plus three- and five-day, maintenance and conservation events scheduled to take place this year, including some dedicated tree-planting trips. It’s a joyful shared experience. That first afternoon, flasks of hot tea were unscrewed and homemade fruit loaf was shared. There was the warm smell of flowering heather and the earthy stink of the bogs, along with the satisfaction of time well spent in the wild.
That evening, back in Ullapool, the harbour abuzz with tourists eating fish suppers and gulls circling above the trawlers, we stood in the sea-view kitchen of Ullapool youth hostel sharing life stories and the day’s experience. There are plenty of excellent dinner options, including The Seafood Shack and The Dipping Lugger, but we settled on a night of each other’s company (delightful), local beers (necessary) and a giant gurgling stockpot of Eva’s courgette and tomato risotto (terrific). And boy, did I sleep well.
The next day brought a gossamer mist to the hills of Wester Ross. We arrived earlier, picked up where we’d left off and, largely, never complained as the sun slowly cracked through the clouds. But best of all was seeing our progress as we worked down the mountain, step by step, always avoiding the fragile vegetation at the path’s edges, creating something better and more sustainable for tomorrow. A staycation with a purpose – and it felt good.
The trip was provided by Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland, with support from VisitScotland. To register as a volunteer and to sign up for events on the annual path maintenance days programme, visit Oats’s volunteering portal. Overnight accommodation in a youth hostel or a bothy, plus evening meals and transport to and from the restoration site, are included
