Work starts on new Culloden Battlefield Trail
Inverness residents and visitors to the city will soon benefit from new paths connecting Balloch and Culloden Woods to the historic Culloden Battlefield.
Contractors M.M. Miller have started work on this £230,000 partnership project which will create a new link from the Cumberland Stone to the battlefield. The National Trust for Scotland, Forestry Commission Scotland, The Highland Council and Balloch Community Council has collaborated to develop a 9km circular network of paths linking Balloch and Culloden House with Culloden Battlefield through Culloden Wood.
The paths will lead people to the more remote parts of the battlefield where tales of the battle and the people involved can be read – an extension to the award-winning National trust for Scotland visitor centre that reaches out to incorporate the lines of the Government troops and where the last canon was fired. As part of this process the National Trust for Scotland is working with celebrated poet Aonghas MacNeacail www.aonghasmacneacail.co.uk/ to bring these stories to life.
Aonghas will be collaborating with Old school Fabrications www.oldschoolfabrications.co.uk/ to incorporate lines of poetry into benches across the path network.
The paths will also provide better links between the communities of Smithton, Culloden and Balloch and provide safer access between Balloch, the battlefield, Brookfield and Sunnyside.
Councillors for Inverness South Ward - Carolyn Caddick; Jim Crawford; Ken Gowans; and Thomas Prag – believe the new Culloden Battlefield Trail will be a great asset for the area and will be welcomed by local people and visitors alike. The trail covers farmland and forest that they think provides an excellent opportunity for people to link the local countryside with its rich history when walking the trail.
The total project cost is £232,649 of which 83% (£191,614) is funded by the Highland LEADER Programme with the remainder mostly provided by The Highland Council from the Inverness South Ward discretionary budget and TEC Services with in kind contributions from NTS and Forestry Commission Scotland.