The Sore Feet statue at the end of the West Highland Way
Forestry Commission Scotland is urging local people and visitors to respect any signage they encounter during their visit, which as well as advising of diversions, aims to keep people safe and warn them of a significant public safety risk.
Liz Shortall, for the Commission’s team in Cowal & Trossachs, said: “The storms earlier in the year have left us with thousands of cubic meters of timber that needs to be cleared – and we are only part way through the process.
“We’ve managed to clear some of the fallen trees along a diversion route that takes West Highland Way walkers south of the forest and around the danger area within the forest. Over the next few weeks we’ll clear the fallen trees from woodland south of the official route before tackling the storm damage north of the route.
“It’s going to be a long haul – we expect to have the clear up completed by Spring 2013 – but in the meantime we’ll do our utmost to keep access open.”
A map of the diversion can be found on the FCS website with the West Highland Way diversion marked in red. Local users and horse-riders can use the blue route through the forest or, as an alternative, horse riders can also use high Corrie from Old Drymen Road until thinning operations take place in Autumn 2012
Liz warned that visitors should follow the safety signage because ignoring it could potentially be life threatening: “There will be heavy machinery in use on the site and machine operators may not always be able to see or hear people approaching or passing a site. They have even less chance of seeing dogs that are running free.
“Track and road conditions may be hazardous – and some of the storm damaged trees could be unstable, and come down at any minute, and you’d be surprised at how little time there is to get out of the way of tree that is coming down.”
A full route description including free OS mapping of the West Highland Way can be found on Walkhighlands. A note of the diversion is also included in the relevant section.
Recent bad weather has caused some delays to work to replace a culvert in Glen Falloch and the temporary bridge is still in place. Walkers are advised that they may be small delays here if contractors need to use the bridge or remove debris from the site. Walkers are also being warned that the area immediately north of Beinglas Farm has suffered some problems from excessive rainfall and although the route is passable, care is needed in places.