After years of talk, some actual repair work was achieved between July and October 2010.  The contractor was Wildland Services based in Ullapool and run by Brian Wilson  They accepted the challenge of setting up safe access down the south side of the bridge and spanning water at the abutments. They packed lime mortar into exposed abutment backfill.  They poured 8 tonnes of special grout into holes in the roadway to fill up all the weak spaces within the bridge abutments. Where this didn't reach the right spots, they created other grout entry points.  Work was interrupted by occasional high river flows, including an exceptional summer flood.

The parapet was repaired using locally recovered stone.  The eroded east abutment was rebuilt, again with locally recovered stone.  With this work achieved, the bridge is better placed to survive a big flood, and still be there for restoration of the upper arch and wingwalls when full funding is available. We have not however yet reached the stage where pedestrians can again be allowed to use the bridge.

The cost of this initial repair work was £18,000, half from Stratherrick and Foyers Community Trust (SFCT) and half from local donations.  No work was attempted during 2011, which was an exceptionally wet year. The bridge survived unscathed from several fierce floods, thanks to the work done in 2010.  We hope to raise funds in 2012 for repairs to the west abutment which has been severely eroded in the past.

Our original larger funding application was turned down by local landowners, and in turn by the SFCT partly as a consequence of this. This in turn prevented access to three times the funding from bodies such as Historic Scotland who are supportive.

The trust welcomes new members and donations - see http://southlochnessheritage.co.uk/index32.html%20