Path Stewardship

North Ayrshire has many miles of lovely paths, some of these are well used and some are lesser known. People often have their own favourite route. This project aimed at ensuring that the local path network was appealing for use by local residents and visitors to the area.

Through this project, people had the chance to help keep some of these wonderful routes available to all. The project created a network of supported volunteers who carry out tasks such as path monitoring, basic path maintenance and vegetation management. Volunteers were also encouraged to “adopt” a path in their local area to monitor, reporting on their condition and joining in with group maintenance activities.

Volunteers were fully trained in the use of small hand tools and in path maintenance techniques. In addition they were supported to work towards recognised qualification such as the John Muir awards if they wished to do so. The chosen paths may be in any part of the Garnock Connections project area. 

As the main Garnock Connections project came to a close, the Path Stewardship project teamed up with the team at Eglinton Country Park to form a Path Stewardship Legacy group. Volunteers will monitor paths, report issues and get involved in practical conservation tasks to keep the paths in the country park and surrounding areas useable for the many people who visit this beautiful area of North Ayrshire.