Welcome to the Pathways project page.

Robert Macfarlane, The Old Ways, A Journey on foot, ‘Paths are not just means of traversing space, but also of feeling, knowing and thinking’.

Community APP - Survey

The local pathways group has been working on a project to look at the potential benefits of creating a local pathways app. We held a community engagement day in February 25 and got some great feedback then. To find out more information about the work done so far on this project, please follow this link: Community App Idea

The pathways team have put together a short survey to learn more about how you use the local pathways and to see if you would support the idea of developing a local pathways App for a smartphone that could hold details of all the local paths information, along with heritage, nature and local information. The app will also have the capacity to have challenges, games for young people, augmented reality and more. With the idea of encouraging more people to enjoy the local pathways and to have better physical and mental health.

To complete the survey, please click on this link - https://forms.office.com/e/M23fY3uuDY or collect a paper copy from either the Wildside centre, the Foyers shop, BCC hub or the doctor's surgery. Either return to the Wildside Centre, Foyers shop or use one of our new collection boxes at one of the six noticeboards that the Community Trust own. Locations are - Whitebridge bus stop, Gorthleck, Errogie, Torness, Inverfarigaig (turning circle) or Lower Foyers. Closing date for the survey is 25th April 2025.

Community Engagement Event - Saturday 8th February, 1.30 - 5.30pm, The Wildside Centre, Whitebridge

The Pathways group would like to invite you to a community event that explores the potential development of a pathways based app. This is your opportunity to help shape an app which will provide the community with a tool to enhance both the wellbeing and health of those who live in our community and also grow the local economy through more sustainable tourism.

You will receive more information about this event in the upcoming community newsletter, and you can also get regular updates by following the dedicated Event page on Facebook; Pathways Group - Community Engagement Event.  We hope you can join us!

The Pathways group was set up in 2021 on the back of the CAP which identified the importance to the community of maintaining and developing our path network based on the knowledge that our paths are part of our outdoor infrastructure. 

As per the CAP, the first task undertaken was to undertake an audit of the paths and trails in the Stratherrick & Foyers area identifying the main users, level of use, landowners, and general state of/requirement for maintenance. To date 27 have been audited but there are more to be done…    

Two key strands of work emerged from this audit, namely, the maintenance and development of key sections of our path network and the marketing and promotion of our paths. The reasons for the focus on these two areas were as follows:

1. They are a key community asset.
2. There is little or no responsibility for any landowner/other 3rd party to maintain them.
3. Walking as an activity nationally has soared in popularity in the past few years and this is putting increased pressure on our paths resulting in degradation of path quality.
4. The South Loch Ness Trail which is part of the Loch Ness 360 passes through the area. This trail which launched in 2018 has been very successfully marketed worldwide by a number of tourism organisations.
5. To encourage more people, both locals and visitors, to use our paths, enjoy our environment while at the same time gaining health benefits.

Maintenance and Development

Following the award of £20K of funding from Highland Council in 2023 and £20K from the Trust, the group embarked on improvements over two sections of the South Loch Ness Trail. The first section between Inverfarigaig and Foyers was completed in February 2024. A collaborative project with Forestry and Land Scotland, improvements were made to the quality of trail over approximately 320m. This primarily entailed the resurfacing of the trail and improvement of water drainage with the installation of a number of culverts. The work was carried out by Mark Hedderwick, Hitrak, Beauly. Below are two images of the work.

The second section between Whitebridge and Foyers was completed in March. The work entailed improvement of the crossing points of the two streams by the placement of large flat stones in the stream beds. The work was undertaken by Hitrak and project managed by Phil Thompson Ltd, Construction Management Services, Inverness.

Both of these projects came in under budget which enabled the group to award a contract to Chamber Electronics, Inverness, to install people/ bike counters at two key locations on the South Loch Ness Trail, Suidhe and Inverfarigaig. The purpose of these is to measure usage on what we thought would be one well used part of the trail and one lesser used. However, initial usage figures indicate that both areas are  experiencing much heavier usage than anticipated (see below).  This information will be used to guide future investment in this and other trails and paths.

Suidhe: May 25th - August 21st: 386 people and 72 bikes

Inverfarigaig: May 25th - August 21st: 774 people and 34 bikes

These two projects have consumed a lot of time and my thanks here to Sharon for her assistance in keeping track of the budget and liaising with Mark and Phil.   

Marketing & Promotion

Following the initial development of the ‘Walk the Walk’ campaign in early 2023 to encourage more people, both locals and visitors, to get out and explore our paths, this has been consolidated  and further developed by the combined efforts of Fiona and Sian working with the Trust communications and marketing team, Jillian and Calum. There are now 16 walks, all with detailed descriptions listed under Our Local Environment here on the Trust website.  All of these walks can be opened in the Ordnance Survey Maps app which is available to download free of charge. In addition, we have approached accommodation providers in the area and provided a QR code which links to the Walk the Walk page on the Trust website. We hope they will use this code in their promotional materials and better inform their guests of the number and variety of walks in the area.

The second strand of marketing and promotion, namely the development of a path-based app, has been a more challenging project for a number of reasons. However, over the past few months good progress has been made . The services of an app developer were employed to demonstrate  to the Pathways Group and the Trust Board, what the app might look like, what the potential of it could be and the costs involved. The feedback the Group received from the Board was positive and as a result we will take the concept out to the community. This will be at a Community Engagement event on the 8th February 2025.  There will be more information shared about this on this page in due course, but you can read more about it here. Paths: More Than Just Trails – They Shape How We Feel, Know, and Think

In wider publicity, you can also find a link to a recent article in the Inverness Courier featuring Graeme, our Chair, highlighting the work done by the group.  Wider Publicity for the Pathways Group

Further project updates will be posted here as and when they occur. In the meantime, if you wish

to be part of this active group please email sharon@sfctrust.org.uk.

Last updated 23rd January 2025