A helicopter will be used to transport stone to the higher reaches of Suilven. Photo: Chris Puddephatt
Major works will begin next week on improvements to a footpath on Suilven.
Hundreds of tons of stone and gravel will be airlifted on to the mountain by helicopter over four days.
The airlift is part of the second phase of work on the Sutherland peak, which will continue through the summer. The £200,000 project is expected to be complete by August.
The restoration work is being carried out by the John Muir Trust and the Assynt Foundation under the umbrella of the Coigach & Assynt Living Landscape Partnership. The first phase of the project was completed last summer and involved two path contractors and 10 workers.
The mountain is bracing itself for an upsurge in visitors following the release later this month of the film Edie, starring Sheila Hancock as an octogenarian who makes a life-changing decision to climb its steep, remote slopes.
Footpath officer for the John Muir Trust Chris Goodman, who is overseeing the work, said: “When we began the work last year, the main approach route was boggy and waterlogged and had begun to widen into an unsightly scar on the landscape.
“After four months of intensive work, we managed to transform it into a robust path that looks natural and blends in with its surroundings.
“This second phase will focus on a higher stretch of the route leading up to the famous summit. I’m confident that our great team of highly skilled path workers from contractors ACT Heritage and Arran Footpaths will do an equally outstanding job in the months to come, making Suilven a mountain of which the community can be even more proud.
Aggregate bags await transport to Suilven. Photo: Chris Goodman
“With the film Edie about to be released in cinemas across Britain, we expect to welcome a lot of visitors onto Suilven this summer, so the work is taking place at a fortuitous time.
“Last year’s repairs and the work we’re starting now will help minimise trampling damage to the vegetation and peat that runs alongside the path.”
The fundraising appeal to support the work was backed by celebrated mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington who said last year: “The most magical walk I have ever known was on Suilven in 1952.
“I was still at school and I was climbing with a young undergraduate, staying in bothies, and we did this walk and climb humping all our gear with us. I will never forget that view looking south over Loch Sionascaig.”
Suilven’s name is part Norse and part Gaelic. Sula is the Norse word for pillar or column, which is what Suilven resembles from the seaward side. Since a buy-out of the Glencanisp estate in 2005 by the Assynt Foundation, Suilven has been a community-owned mountain.
