Latest News from the Ranger Service

December 2008

Jim's off with girlfriend Claire to the Annapurna region of Nepal, where he is working on a guidebook. They've just announced their engagement, so congratulations to them both. While he's been away, we've managed to get a large amount of rubbishto the "mainland" by helicopter (previously collected by Friends of Knoydart and JMT volunteers) - to find out more, check out the beach clean page.

July 2008

Well, we've been busy, and so have all the volunteers! We've had BTCV up rhodi bashing and ragwort pulling, and some Friends of Knoydart visited Doune for a week for some full-on beach cleaning. Then next week we have JMT volunteers who will be beach cleaning, rhodi bashing, and starring in the film being made by Knoydart's young people!

The Access Workshop went well - thanks to all who attended.

April 2008

New wildlife booklet and walks leaflets for sale! See the Sales page for more details.

Well, we've been happily revamping the Long Beach area over the last few months. See below for some fencing pictures of Tommy...to be followed by Jim's tree-planting efforts. Thanks to eforests for donating the trees.

Jan 2008

Happy New Year from all of us on Knoydart. Lots of visitors who enjoyed the entertainment, and we even managed to squeeze in a guided landrover tour on the 31st! We're looking forward to getting our hands dirty over the next couple of months, with works commencing down on Long Beach. Stock fencing,stand-pipe, compost toilet and tree-planting all happening over the next few weeks. Hopefully, by the time the season starts, we'll have a transformed Long Beach and an "official" camptsite with facilities.

Did you spot us on Countryfile in November? Had lots of comments, mostly positive, thank goodness. Ben Fogle liked the place so much he came back for another visit...

Oct 2007

Well, you can tell we've been busy over the summer! Lots of guided walks, and sorting of new walks leaflets (on their way, honest!). We've just returned from the Foundation Ranger Training Course at Kindrogan Field Centre in Perthshire, where we met fellow rangers and picked up lots of ideas workwise...

May 2007

Jim and Tommy have been running around the hills vegetation monitoring and deer counting this month. Both activities are crucial for management of the land. The impact of grazing animals on vegetation, and the numbers of them on the land crucially affect the regeneration of plantlife, including native woodlands. If we can reach a population of browsing animals in certain areas which doesn't negatively affect plant regeneration, we can look towards creating a landscape with an impressive biodiversity.

We've also been doing plenty of guided walks which have proved very popular (give us a ring if you want to come along on one, or why not book us for a tailor-made walk).

As well as plans we are both working on (Jim: Land Management Plan, Tommy: Long Beach Plan, Camping Plan), we are also in the final stages of producing a range of walks leaflets so you can go out and explore Knoydart yourself if we're not available to take you on a walk. Watch this space...

Ranger funding is still fairly sparse, so we have been looking at ways of funding the one position. We have partial SNH funding, but still need to find a way of meeting the rest of the wage costs, plus all the maintenance and equipment requirements the Ranger Service has. We would like to thank Lochaber Enterprise and the JTH Charitable Trust for their recent donations which have helped keep the Ranger position going.

Oh, and we've both recovered from the Sound of Rum festival - took a couple of days....

April 2007

Lots of beach cleaning recently, with the local community coming out in force on the 1st of April (some earlier than others due to a hoaxing tip-off from Tim!). And more cleaning courtesy of a dozen members of a youth group who proved remarkably enthusiastic on 11th April, despite the onset of a wee bit of drizzle...

We've also been looking after an Italian film crew (who seemed keen to portray Knoydart as a place with no roads), and taken visitors on the first guided walks of the season. Lots of very kind donations, which are appreciated!