The “It’s Up to Us” campaign to help fund repairs to Scotland’s mountain paths has raised over £218,000 of its £300,000 target to help repair 3.2km of path on An Teallach. Path contractors have so far completed 340m of path building and maintenance work on the mountain, funded by the campaign and supported by a team of enthusiastic path maintenance volunteers.
The three-year campaign, run by Mountaineering Scotland and the Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland, has so far received generous donations from the Scottish Mountaineering Trust, European Outdoor Conservation Association, and other charitable trusts (£154,858), a major private donor (£25,000), the general public (£24,996), commercial donations (£7,550) and mountaineering and hillwalking clubs (£5,900).
As the campaign enters its second year, Mountaineering Scotland and OATS are issuing a further appeal to all hill path users, outdoor and conservation businesses, organisations, and charities who care deeply about the conservation of the hills they use and love to support the campaign and help them reach the £300,000 required to complete the An Teallach project.
CEO of the Outdoor Access Trust Scotland, Dougie Baird, said: “It has been an encouraging start to the It’s Up To Us fundraising campaign, with a great response from charitable trusts in particular. We are hugely grateful for all our individual public donors and will be encouraging other hill users to follow their fine example in the coming year to help fix the badly eroded path on this iconic mountain.”
Mountaineering Scotland CEO, Stuart Younie, added: “It’s been great to see the progress we have made over the last year since launching It’s Up to Us. Many thanks to all the people and organisations who have either contributed financially, helped us to raise the profile of the campaign or volunteered to repair the path on An Teallach.”
The campaign is also calling on Government to help develop a sustainable funding model for building and maintenance work across Scotland’s upland path network to ensure it is kept fit for purpose for future generations to enjoy. Walking tourism is estimated to be worth around 1.6 billion per year to the Scottish economy. However, there is no government funding for path work on privately owned land [83% of paths in Scotland] that is not in the two national parks or NGO estates. Post-Brexit, EU funding that was previously accessible to private landowners has been lost and not replaced.
Stuart Younie added: “We are very grateful for all the support we have received and are well on our way to reaching our target but there is still a lot more to do to deliver our ambition of establishing a sustainable funding model to support the maintenance and upkeep of our mountain paths. An Teallach is one of many mountains in Scotland that needs our support and it’s up to all of us to do something about it.
The It’s Up to Us campaign aims to raise awareness of the desperate need for sustainable investment in the repair and maintenance of informal upland paths across Scotland, to protect the fragile mountain environment from the combination of increased footfall and the extremes of Scottish weather and ensure it can continue to be enjoyed by future generations.
The campaign has three strands:
- To highlight the need for sustainable investment into the repair and upkeep of Scotland’s upland path network, the valuable contribution paths make to our nation’s health and wellbeing, and the value of walking tourism to the Scottish economy and local communities throughout the country.
- The annual economic impact of walking tourism is £1.6 billion (VisitScotland estimate)
- A recent Upland Paths Audit suggested £30m is required for building and restoring over 400 km of the path network and at least £400,000/annum for maintenance
- To engage with Government, stakeholder agencies and organisations, businesses, individual and commercial users, private landowners, and all path users to develop a long-term, integrated, and sustainable funding model, improving access to investment into Scotland’s upland paths.
- Currently in Scotland, the limited funding for mountain path maintenance and habitat restoration is earmarked for paths on land in the two national parks or NGO estates.
- There is no public investment from the government to support path work on privately owned land not in the national parks or NGO estates
- Since Brexit access to European funding (an estimated £7m in recent years) has been lost with nothing to replace it.
- Fundraising for specific path restoration projects, to encourage all hill users, to give something back and demonstrate what can be achieved with the support of the mountain community. £300,000 is currently being raised for a project to repair 3.2km of badly eroded path on An Teallach, in the North West Highlands, one of Scotland’s most iconic mountains (a Site of Special Scientific Interest) in private ownership with no access to public funding.