Loch Ness felling work delayed after crag discovery

Forestry bosses have paused the resumption of the long-running operation on the A82 by Grotaig (near Invermoriston), putting it back until the New Year. 

While traffic management plans remain in place for now, officials are focusing on the rocky cliff find, installing more netting to ensure the site can be operated on safely. 

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Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) planning manager, Ian Allsopp, said: “As well as scaling and exploration on the cut slope immediately adjacent to the road, our most recent forestry operations revealed a crag that requires immediate attention.

“We will be putting more netting in place and dealing with those issues before we can safely get on with the next stage of taking trees off the hillside.

“The specialist team that operates the skyline system needs to do this job safely is still at work clearing another site. This gives us the time we need to take care of the geo-tech so that we can start felling in the New Year.” 

Tree felling is now scheduled to resume in January after the Christmas and New Year break.

Felling of Sitka spruce at the site (Image: Supplied)

One of several locations in the A82 Project, Grotaig over-mature conifers – many of which are more than 100-years-old – are at a high risk of being blown over by storm winds. An incident could affect the road, power lines and fibre optic cabling that would have far reaching consequences over weeks – or even months – of recovery time.