The Hillfoots Way
FotO has some positive news to report on future access to the hills!
We reported in the last newsletter that the Friends of the Ochils had been invited to join an advisory group for Clackmannanshire Council's Ochils Landscape Partnership initiative. This is an ambitious project, seeking substantial funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a number of developments, principally in the towns and villages at the foot of the Ochils. It includes bids to spruce up a number of kirkyards, and to open up one or more silver mines and an old ice house in the Alva area. If successful, the Council will use the funds it will get for having given permission for the Burnfoot Hill wind farm — which of course will be situated in the heart of the Ochils, just a mile to the north of the summit of Ben Cleuch — as its contribution to the project. (The irony of using funds from this source for a series of projects aiming to enhance the OchiIs landscape will not, of course, be lost on members.)
The landscape partnership project was given the conditional go-ahead by the Heritage Lottery Fund in November 2008, and they gave funds to Clackmannanshire (PAGE 7) Council to work up the full details of its bid, finally submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund in late April 2010.
As reported in the previous newsletter, in agreeing to some involvement in the project's development, our initial aims were simply to seek to deflect any potentially negative proposals coming forward. (Earlier on, for example, there were ideas about installing interpretation boards in key positions on Dumyat – a move that we were confident would be opposed by our members.) But at the first meeting of the Advisory Group, at the end of September 2009, participants were invited to identify any additional projects that they would like to see included in the bid. The FotO Committee conceived the idea that a footpath could be developed, broadly following the route of the old King's Highway, between Muckhart in the east and Logie in the west and, in a very restricted timescale, we put this to Clackmannanshire.
This footpath, which we are currently calling the 'Hillfoots Way', would follow designated core paths for most of its length. Some parts will be along back roads; some on tracks; some on paths. Some sections need significant works to get them into a satisfactory state of repair. The whole route will have sign posts and waymarks, to aid way finding. There will be a descriptive leaflet developed, and hopefully a specially-commissioned map.
We have thoroughly enjoyed being able, for once, to make positive proposals for something that we think will add to many people's enjoyment of the lower reaches of the Ochils without, hopefully, detracting from anyone else's pleasure. And we are delighted that our proposals have found widespread approval from others – a typical response being "Why didn't we think of that? It's obvious, when you come to think of it!" We hope our members will agree.
We will keep our fingers crossed that Clackmannanshire succeeds in attracting the Heritage Lottery Fund grant that will make this, and a number of other projects, a reality. Watch this space!
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