With the sun shining, everyone is so much more motivated to get out around the estate doing stuff. Now we have the maintenance team in place, the list of jobs is slowly shrinking. One day there’s bench painting going on, the next footpath maintenance, but all interspersed by a bit of Visitor Management.
The volume of cars on the road has jumped, and this puts pressure on the limited carparking at the beach hotspots in Harris. We are routinely informing and educating visitors, especially those that think it OK to restrict access on our narrow roads, by parking half on the verge. Huisinis is one busy spot on a hot summer’s day! We recently added a few more parking places at Huisinis Gateway and spent some time marking them out to get best use of the space. The hydrant has also now been concreted in and since painted for visibility.
On the other side of the estate, work has been continuing on the new path at Lacasdail Lochs. We have been working for a while now on a path down the eastern side of the loch to link via the existing bridge to the Urgha to Maraig path. This will eventually complete a circular route around the loch. Progress ramped up this week with the hire of a Polaris 6×6 ATV. With its extra capacity, 40 ton of stone was shipped 800m down the path in a few days. The bridge is almost in touching distance!
Next week will be back to doing smaller jobs round the estate, whilst shoulders and backs recover!
Funders for this path include Paths for All, Crown Estate and Western Isles Development Trust.