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Keeping Port Wemyss Coastal Path open
Proposal code: AP-2026-09-170
Restoring and future-proofing Port Wemyss Coastal Path for safe year-round community access, recreation and events.
Estimated Price
40000
The path is in an exposed location and increasingly violent winter storms have taken their toll. We want to restore and upgrade the surface to allow increased community access and use. The path is already used daily - the only community asset in the Rhinns for which this claim can be made. The path was put in by the original committee in 2004 and has needed little maintenace since then. Over the past decade it has been used for community events such as treasure hunts and halloween walks. Recently the committee were the instigators in an unprecedented collaboration between four community groups (The Rhinns Playing Field Association, Friends of Portnahaven Church, the Rhinns Hall Committee and Bun Othan Harbour and Recreation Association)) which resulted in the Rhinns Lighthouse Festival celebrating the Bicentenary of the Rhinns lighthouse and involved other community groups (Islay Rowing Club, The Rhinns Events Team, Sidekick, Islay High School Parent Council, RNLI fundraising committee, Islay Running Club to name a few), and 40 island businesses and organisations. 1,800 people attended which on an island of 3,200 is remarkable, the event lasted three days and culminated in a street party on the path. The committee have recently adopted the telephone box which will form an information hub for the RSPB's Species on the Edge Programme and acquired funding for solar lighting. A civil engineers report was obtained in the summer of 2025 which identified the most urgetn works on the pier and slip which have just been completed using a combination of small grants and our own fundraising. We would like to complete the works in spring 2027, the path itself will then hopefully need minimal further investment for another 20 years.