Work placement on Beinn Dubhchraig

During a week's placement with Ryan Hamilton and his upland pathwork team, I assisted with work on a stretch of path at the very bottom of Beinn Dubhchraig. Ian, another TMTP trainee, and I spent our week digging out, building up, and filling in stretches of path. This ensured the path was built upon ground higher than the peat-bog, with drainage features set in to prevent the bog from swelling and water spilling into the path. The section of path that Ian and I directed most of our efforts was near the end of the boggy area, where we built a causeway to raise the path out of the bog to meet up with the hill ahead. We used a winch to drag large rocks out of the nearby river and used them to build a cross-drain in the middle of this section of path. Though this work site didn't have the views of a mountainside path, we were instead surrounded by Caledonian Pines, enjoying lunch by a beautiful stretch of river with dragonflies occasionally landing on our shoulders. A fair trade I would say. It was certainly a welcome change of scene, and a great week of work.