Sheep wool paths are being used in the Western Isles as an environmentally-friendly alternative to using plastic membrane.
A technique which has been utilised before in the Pentland Hills and the Lake District is now being put to good use in Uist with RSPB Scotland buying sheep fleeces from local crofts to lay in Balranald Nature Reserve.
The wool is placed as a foundation for the stones to stop them sinking into the peat and allows water to drain away.
The floating foot path offers environmental benefits as Reserve warden Heather Beaton explains: "The normal way you would put in paths would be to have a plastic membrane and then put stones on top. But its not what we want for the reserve. We heard about sheep wool paths were being experimented with in other parts of Scotland and we thought we would give that a shot," she concluded.
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