Friends of Calgary Bay have been busy raising funds to fence of a section of the machair so that sheep grazing can be managed for a period of up to 4 months annually. This will allow the machair to flower and set seed. With great thanks to all those whom contributed to the funding pot, we have enough funds to pay for and erect a fence, but still need to continue fund raising so we can install some signs to explain why the machair  and Calgary Bay are so special. It is a sand deposit based habitat unique to the west coast of Scotland and Ireland and therefor internationally very rare.

 

We had a very well supported beach clean at Calgary a couple of weeks ago and maybe due to the continual lifting of rubbish as people walked the beach there was not so much waste about, but an enjoyable day was had anyway.

 

 

I have had several groups of off island volunteers looking for jobs to do and we have got them involved in helping protect the machair by transplanting marram grass in the blown out areas of the sand dunes and also reshaping the edges of the sand dunes so they are not so sensitive to damage by wind.

 

 

The Lighthouse Path, Tobermory.

As many of you know, the condition of the path has been deteriorating for a number of years and following a landslip in 2014 the Council erected “road closed’ signs along the path. Although people continue to use the footpath, its condition makes the route difficult in parts, and muddy and slippery for the majority of the route.

After exploring many avenues to find a way to repair the footpath, Mull and Iona Community Trust has recently secured a grant from the European Improving Public Access scheme, which is administered by Scottish Natural Heritage. The funding will enable us to purchase materials and start the path improvements this summer.

We have formed a Steering Group to oversee the work and the core members are; Alexa Kershaw, Moray Finch, Jan Dunlop, James Henderson, John MacDonald, and Charlie MacDonald of the Northern Lighthouse Board.

We are in the process of appointing local contractors to work on the path improvements and will be asking for help from anyone who is keen to be involved in the near future, so watch this space and if you have any queries please do not hesitate to get in touch with me on jan.dunlop@forestry.gsi.gov.uk or 07765898600.

 

 

The Walled Garden, Aros Park.

The Forestry Commission has bought back the Walled Garden in Aros Park and has cleared all the fallen timber and rhododendron so now it is an open and viable space. The Forestry Commission and are looking to encouraging a community project to get involved in utilizing this wonderful space. If you have any great ideas the Ranger Service or Mull and Iona Community Trust would be very interested in hearing them.

Fun Packed Events Programme. We would like you to come and join us on one of our events and hopefully we have something for everyone so keep an eye out for posters, article in Round and About and posts both here and on our Facebook Page: Mull and Iona Ranger service. If you do attend one of our vents we would love to hear what you think and if you have any new events you would like to see us running please get in touch.