Habitat restoration volunteering at the Old Man of Storr

Posted on 6 October 2022

A message from Shona Irvine, Activity Projects Manager, Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland.

I have been given your contact by Mark Crowe the Highland Council Access Officer with whom I have been discussing volunteer opportunities on Skye. He flagged up the Skye and Lochalsh Environment Forum. This looks like a great group involved with some really interesting looking projects! I wondered if you would be able to reach out to group members about a volunteering opportunity doing some conservation work at the Old Man of Storr with, specifically habitat restoration of the delicate species-rich grassland habitat which occurs here.

I work for the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland and although I am not directly involved with Murray and the rest of the Skye Iconic Sites Project team, as volunteer coordinator we thought it would be great to get some local communities involved with the restoration work going on at the very popular sites across the island where OATS is working.
As I am sure you are aware, work is being carried out at the Fairy pools, the Quiraing, and the Old Man of Storr to ensure the high visitor numbers have as little as possible impact on the surrounding environment. The Old Man of Storr is particularly damaged where a combination of high footfall and intense rain have created gullies and pigeon holing across a huge area of the hillside. Not only is this leading to further erosion as visitors take to different lines leading to further erosion it is also particularly important we protect this area as it is an area of species rich grassland, a rare habitat type which should be protected.

Currently contractors are working to improve current paths to encourage people to stick to these lines but they are also carrying out crucial work to restore this habitat. Work involves reseeding, turfing, digging over and blocking gullies, and filling in pigeon holes as well as laying down GeoJute.

But enough of a description of what’s going on- this work is providing an exciting opportunity for volunteers to get involved in habitat restoration- and providing an opportunity for OATS to work with local communities on Skye. It’s really great to hear from Mark that there seems to be an active community of folk willing to get involved, protect the environment and give back.

I was wondering if any members of the group would be interested in attending a volunteer session on the 22nd or 23rd of October at the Old Man of Storr. We would be assisting with the habitat restoration work, ensuring that pigeon holes in the hillside are filled in and preventing further damage to the hillside. It would be a great help to have some extra hands over the weekend but as I said I think it would be a nice way to connect to the local community and allow yourselves to be a part of an exciting project.

The days would run from 10am until 3pm meeting at the Storr Carpark from we would walk up to the damaged areas and start work. No experience is required; just enthusiasm and a little common sense about the autumnal weather and outdoor working! We won’t work you too hard but volunteers must have a good level of physical fitness and be happy lifting tools such as spades and mattocks. The work hopefully will be something you can learn from and something a bit different. OATS will supply tools, gloves and hi vis if required. I hope to work with a few community groups on Skye on this one so apologies if you hear about it from other streams too!

Please do this send this out among your group, and don’t hesitate to get back to me with any questions. For those keen to get involved they can contact me on this email shona@outdooraccesstrustforscotland.org.uk . Spaces will be limited so if there are high numbers I would limit each volunteer to attending only one of the sessions.

Kind regards,
Shona Irvine
Tel: 07957 203028
Email: shona@outdooraccesstrustforscotland.org.uk
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