Volunteer with us this summer

Volunteer in some of Scotland’s most beautiful wild places - book a volunteer conservation day at Nevis or at Strathaird on Skye.

Get off the well-worn tourist trails at Nevis or on Skye this summer and spend a day volunteering with our team as we tackle some urgently needed practical conservation tasks. All are welcome to join us in practical conservation work that will help ensure the long-term protection of the Trust’s wild places.

Our volunteer conservation days are a great opportunity to meet other Trust volunteers, as well as learn about and contribute to our peatland and native woodland restoration projects. You will directly contribute to helping natural processes thrive in these special wild places.

Nevis conservation days

Spend a full day with our team in the high hills contributing to essential conservation work on the summit of Nevis. This is a long, strenuous and physically demanding day in exposed, high-altitude terrain and weather conditions. Throughout the day volunteers can expect up to 16 km of walking and 1000-1352m of ascent, carrying tools such as spades, mattocks and bags of litter in a mountain environment.

• Find out more about our upcoming Nevis conservation days and how to book a place.

Skye conservation days

Help our team with urgent upcoming tasks including: removing Sitka spruce seedlings; mapping INNS (invasive non-native species); removing redundant fencing and joining our partners in the annual beach clean at beautiful Camasunary with its views over to the Cuillin ridge.

Why remove Sitka spruce seedlings?

As part of the commitment to our peatland and native woodland restoration projects, we need to remove competing vegetation and non-approved species such as Sitka spruce seedlings.

These growing as a result of adjacent unfelled Sitka spruce plantations and they are now significantly impacting the success of the regeneration of native species across sections of the site. In some areas, Sitka regeneration is actively suppressing the establishment and growth of native broadleaf species through shading and resource competition.

Why remove fencing?

Following the construction of a new stock-proof boundary fence between the Trust’s freehold land at Strathaird and the Elgol common grazings, the historic roadside fence adjacent to the Broadford to Elgol road no longer serves a functional livestock management purpose.

The Trust aims to remove unnecessary man-made infrastructure that impacts wild place qualities wherever practical alternatives exist.

What’s involved in the beach clean?

The annual volunteer beach cleaning operations at Camasunary are run in partnership with the Johnson family who own the bay. Each year volunteers help to gather substantial quantities of marine litter and microplastics from the coastline ready for removal.

Due to prevailing wind patterns and topography, plastic waste deposited along the Camasunary shoreline is frequently transported inland into Sligachan Glen, possibly one of the wildest glens on Skye.

• Find out more about our upcoming Skye conservation days and how to book a place.
• View more conservation volunteering oportunities on our events page.

Photo at the top by Adrian Trendall taken at last year's Camasunary beach clean - read more here.