Highland Council Planning and Development Service, with Castletown Heritage Society, upgraded the Castlehill Flagstone Trail at Castletown in Caithness to allow all-abilities access. This was the cradle of the flagstone industry.
The work, enabled by the award of £30,000 from the Aggregates Levy funding in 2003, improved the path with the use of natural materials - and especially flagstone. The short walk follows the progress of a piece of flagstone from it being raised in the quarry to shipment from the harbour. It reveals the remarkable history behind Caithness's most versatile and durable natural resource.
The purpose of this grant was to:
- upgrade a 0.5km path around an existing heritage trail at Castletown in Caithness to All-Abilities standard
- advertise this in appropriate publications
- install people-counting facilities.
The Path Works
Work on the implementation of the project began immediately upon notificaton of the grant award as the funds were to be spent by the end of March 2003. A specification for the work was prepared, on a "Design and Build" basis. Requirements for the design were set, for example that it should meet, as a minimum, the BT Countryside for All Accessibility Standards. In particular, it was specified that as much use as possible had to be made of the natural flagstone, given that the trail interprets the history of the nearby flagstone quarry, and the areas where the flagstone was worked before being exported. It was also felt that using flagstone as a major component of the build would lead to a more sustainable trail.
On completion of the specification, specialist path contractors were invited to tender for the works. This resulted in Moray Paths and Conservation being appointed. A quick start was made on site by the team, given the time constraints in place. The scale of the works resulted in the team being on site for nearly two months, building the paths by hand, rather than machine, to ensure a quality finish. A hand build was also required to ensure that the sub-surface archaeological remains were not damaged. Whilst the existing path was upgraded, resting platforms for wheelchair users were also installed on the site at appropriate locations. In addition to this a timber bridge was removed and replaced with a flagstone built culvert, and timber benches were also removed and replaced with locally deigned and built flagstone benches.
People Counter
At the entrance to the site a people counter was installed, to enable the Council to measure if the use of the site does increase, with better advertising of the improved facilities. This was sourced and installed as part of the path works contract. The local Countryside Ranger monitored the site to gather data from the counter. It could be seen at an early stage that local usage increased, due to the improved path. One particular new user group appeared to be local children using the ramps to practice "stunts" on their bicycles. Whilst this was not perhaps an anticipated user group, and there was some concern about potential damage to the path, the path was bearing up well. The Council hoped that the children would read the interpretive panels whilst on the trail, and find out more about the worldwide importance of flagstone in the past, and recent resurgence in its popularity, and that this would help to foster a sense of pride.
Advertising
It took a considerable length of time to locate appropriate advertising media for the trail, given that the Council wished to publicise the improvements to a wide range of user groups.
Luckily, during the previous financial year, the Highland Council had commissioned an upgrade of the interpretive panels already on-site. This was aimed at making them more pictorial and ensuring that people with visual impairments or learning difficulties could more easily take in the information contained in them. Along with this a marketing leaflet had been produced. This meant that a "brand image" for the trail already existed, and that the trail was already being advertised, due to the distribution of the leaflets around the Highlands. To build upon this, the Council's own Graphic Designer utilised the existing artwork to produce posters and an A5 flyer for the site, on which the All-Abilities standard was heavily featured. A local distribution company distributed these along the A9 road corridor from Perth northwards, and the A82 corridor from Fort William to Inverness. An advert for use in magazines was also designed, and the Council managed to source two disability interest publications. These were Radar, and the Magic Carpet. Adverts were placed in the appropriate sections of these magazines for two years. Finally, the Council located a website www.youreable.com and placed details of the trail in their section about Travel, which includes some information about attractions.
Opening Ceremony
The Council planned a formal opening ceremony for the trail. The local Councillor for the area was delighted with the work.
Acknowledgements
The Highland Council was grateful for the grant award, without which it would not have been possible to carry out the upgrade, due to financial restrictions. Moray Paths and Conservation proved to be extremely able, and efficient, working with a minimum of supervision, and responding positively to any change requests. The Council was delighted with the very high quality path which resulted from their work. Finally, the Council was grateful to the local community for their useful input.
Contact
The Highland Council
Planning and Development Services
Glenurquart Road
Inverness
IV3 5NX
Telephone: 01463 702252
Email: geoff.robson@highland.gov.uk
www.highland.gov.uk