The Cairngorms Mountain Heritage Project transformed paths in the high mountains at the core of the Cairngorms National Park, one of the most important mountain recreation areas in Scotland, between 2011 and 2014.
The Cairngorm mountains’ importance to us is matched by their fragility, so CMH had to enable access while protecting the landscape. It improved and upgraded eroded routes, and set up the Adopt A Path scheme and a maintenance regime to ensure the paths’ future, while educating and informing people about the project, and, crucially, training the workforce of the future.
With a budget of £2.1m, the scheme run by the Cairngorm Outdoor Access Trust (now the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland), built, rebuilt and secured more than 57km of paths on a 94km network,
Funding came principally from the European Regional Development Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund, totalling £1.42, with the balance from the Cairngorms National Park Authority; Scottish Natural Heritage; Highlands and Islands Enterprise; the RSPB; the Scottish Mountaineering Trust; and COAT itself, which contributed 148,000 from its own resources.
The paths included the main route to Ben Macdui; the famous Lairig Ghru pass; the main path up Braeriach; and other well-known and heavily used routes, many of them accessed from the Cairngorm Mountain ski centre car park.
One major challenge was working in some of the most remote country in the UK, such as around the Loch A’an basin, where walking in daily was impractical. As a result the Trust developed and improved a remote temporary accommodation system that could be helicoptered onto site.
The project built 11km of packed aggregate path, and 3km of stone pitching to protect steeper slopes. Workers installed almost 1,500 anchor bars and 2km of revetment to retain the aggregate, 13km of ditches, 300 cross-drains to keep water off the paths, and 800 water-bars to shed water from path surfaces.
Around 43km of paths were subject to unobtrusive “light touch” work, which despite the name often takes a lot of time and resources, and a high degree of judgement and skill from the workforce.
The training scheme was a ground-breaking step in developing a professional path-building workforce. It taught eight people path work and conservation on an eight-month course leading to the SVQ level 2 qualification in Environmental Conservation. Three of them set up Cairngorm Wilderness Contracts, and tendered for work with us. The organisation now has six staff.
It also formed the template for eight subsequent training schemes, including five in our most recent project, The Mountains and The People, which have trained a total of around 50 people.
The project’s benefits continue in the shape of the Adopt A Path scheme, which lets path users give something practical back.
Adopters in Cairngorm continue to monitor their paths and report back to allow maintenance workers to target their efforts, and the scheme has gone on to become an important part of The Mountains and The People project building paths across both Scotland’s national parks.