Aberdeen City Council (ACC) has announced that they will be closing both the Deeside Way through Culter, and Lovers’ Walk, until the completion of their planned work to remove the dangerous trees from the woodland bank between the paths.
18 months ago, three trees fell in a storm. Early last year another tree from the top of the bank had fallen across the path, this time because of instability of the bank rather than weather. Since then, we are aware of another four huge trees falling, only one of them in a storm.
The Council applied for, and obtained, a felling licence for removal of the larger trees, mainly beech, and some ash with ash dieback (which makes them brittle). Many of you will have seen that the Council marked the trees due to be removed. The Council has undertaken the other checks required for the proposed works.
They have now decided that the only way to meet the legal requirements for both environmental protection and for safety is to close the paths until they can remove the trees in autumn.
This means that we will not be able to use two of our finest paths over the summer. What we can look forward to is being able to use them once again next winter, without fear of being hit by a falling tree. In addition, the woodland bank will have been re-planted with native shrub species to hold the bank together, including some small trees such as birch kindly provided by residents.
While it is disappointing to lose access to these very popular walks over the summer months, there are many other lovely walks around our area. Details of some of them, including a leaflet and map which can be downloaded, can be found on the “Walks Around Culter” page