Why we do what we do!

The image is of a 'cross drain' we built on a new section of path at Ben A'an. It is a neat example of why we do what we do, why upland pathway building is so important. Firstly, a path's number one enemy is water, particularly if it stays on a path, eroding away as it goes. Scotland, the last crazy few months excluded, generally gets a lot of water! So, in order to divert such water away from our path we create features such as this one. This will take water down a drainage ditch, across the path without damaging it and off the other side. Ideal. It has to be solid however, the stones need to be big and solid and tight up to one another, with any gaps in between packed well with smaller stones and material, hammered and chiseled tight. Without this water will find its gaps, it channels, and start to erode and undermine. In essence a path worker's job is to keep water off a path and people on it, so a further considerations is making the 'tread' of the stones, the top section people will put their foot on as they pass through, as comfortable as possible. As flat as possible and big enough to put a good sized foot on. If not, if the tread is jagged, uneven, uncomfortable, or even placed in the ground to high to step on, people are more likely to step off the path and around it. This is just what we don't want. Keeping people to the path not only guides their progress and makes our work worthwhile, it also potentially protects the surrounding vegetation and habitat, which could flourish without people wandering here there and everywhere all over it. Before this course I'd never really considered why such features were there, and why. I'm sure you see them and maybe wonder yourself. I hope the above helps explain the considerations and challenges and aims of upland pathway work and potentially provided a new-found admiration for the efforts of all path workers.