A week today I came back from a cracking week up near Dunkeld in Perthshire where I co-lead a National Trust for Scotland holiday called a Thistle Camp. We were based at the Stanley Nairn Centre in Dalguise which you can see below...
There were 10 of us on the trip, 2 of us 'in charge' and 8 volunteers who had paid to come and volunteer their time for the NTS for the week. Our work was based accross two of the NTS properties near Dalguise, there were The Hermitage just outside of Dunkeld and Killiecrankie just North of Pitlochry. Both properties are fantastic in their own ways. We worked with the two Rangers there Emma and Louise and the Property Manager Ben.
Day 1 - Based at Killiecrankie - a lovely bright and sunny day, cold and bright with a frost on the ground. Our task for the say was levelling off a bank between the visitors centre and cafe which was going to be turned into a childs play area. It was a great task as I had helped to build the tyre bank to the right of the area in 2009. Our work in 2012
The tyre bank we built in 2009 below...
During the first day one of the volunteers decided to 'take the plunge' and do a bungee jump off the relatively new Highland Bungee..!
Day 2 - We worked at The Hermitage today near Dunkeld where there had been considerable storm damage of over 150 of the big trees / Douglas Firs there. The area is known as Big Tree Country with the trees measuring between 40 and 60m in height. In storms in December a large number were felled and have blocked paths and tore up paths, some of which date back hundreds of years. Below are some pictures of the damae. It was interesting to see as I visited The Hermitage back in Oct 2011 before the storms.
Before we started to clear the brash - believe me those logs were heavy!
The afternoon was spent by two of us trying to remove a root system of a massive Douglans Fir near the old path from Ossians Hall down to the pine cone seat...
We managed to move some of the roots with a bit of help from a Ranger with a chainsaw. I spent the last part of the day moving large wheels / slices of the trunk away from a broken fence.
Day 3 - Based at Killiecrankie today. Todays task was completing the child's play area that some of us started on Sunday. This involved finishing levelling off the bank, driving in posts around the perimeter and at the bank to lay logs to reinforce the bank. We then made a fence around the play area, added a kick board to stop the woodchip falling out of the play area. We levelled off the floor, covered it in a permeable membrane with metal pegs and then covered the area on woodchip. A whole trailer of woodchip only cost £40 from a local wood mill, bargain!!!
Day 4 - Day off from work! We went to explore Aberfeldy and Kenmore with a lovely walk up to the waterfalls at Acharn.
Day 5 - Another day at the Hermitage but I love it there. Today was spent with two of us reinstating the footpath which has been damaged by the roots of the fallen tree we had tried to remove on Day 2. It was hard work and took nearly all day to reconstruct the path. It wasnt just a case of stabalising the old stones but we ended up finding new stones for the steps, putting in additional steps and flipping some of the existing steps to create more even surfaces. You can see the before and after below! Morag and I worked really hard on this and Emma the Ranger offered lots of good advice and boulder hauling strength too but must say its one of the best tasks I have done in the 6 years of volunteering with the trust! Below are the before and after shots and is the same site as the photo at the end of day 2 of the roots beside the path by Ossians Hall.
Before Mid Task head scratching! After
Day 6 - Last day of work on camp before heading home. Today was spent at the Hermitage again. I spent the morning burning brash. Embers from the fire were still burning from a fire we had on Monday and it was scary how I didnt need matches to get the fire going. Cleared more brash from below Ossians Hall by the pine cone seat and then spent the rest of the afternoon barrowing gravel from Ossians Hall to the paths the group has been working on. Hard work but great way to finish the week of work.
Douglas Fir at The Hermitage
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