During one of our winter storms a section of one of our most well used paths at Huisinis was washed away. This path has a long history being the main route that the inhabitants of Scarp took to reach Traigh Meilein beach where they took a boat across the sound to reach Scarp. The path is now a popular route for people visiting the remote beach or venturing further afield into Glen Cravadail.
The path follows a steep rocky coastline and is very well engineered, having been built-up to traverse the hillside. The section that had collapsed was on a particularly steep section and required some skilled stonework and fancy footwork to avoid falling down the gully below. Fortunately my father in law is a stone mason and was able to spend a couple of days Building up the path with me labouring.
We used an A-frame and block and tackle to lift some of the larger rocks into place each weighing up to 400kg. Many of the larger rocks had to be dragged up the gully from where they had landed and each rock was bedded into place with lots of smaller stones. It was very satisfying to see the hole in the path gradually being replaced. The work involved restoring this small collapse made me realise just how much work had gone into constructing the path in the first place.
Unfortunately I couldn’t keep up with the pace of my father in law and my shoulder is still suffering the consequences!