It’s astonishing what can be achieved when a community pulls together! (sorry…). With today’s goals being to lay 3km of 96- fibre-in-duct backbone from Dhanakosa to Monachyle Beag on the Northern Loop  and to lay 800m of ducting to connect the Southern Loop from Tuarach to Monachyle Mhor, we put out the call. And our community responded: no less than thirty people turned out to form a human tugging and pulling chain over some seriously rough and muddy terrain. 

And, if you’re going to be spending your Sunday hauling fibre and ducting across a mountainside, there can’t be any finer place to do it than Balquhidder Glen on a glorious and crisp Autumn day. Even the Eagles came out to see what we were up to.

With huge thanks to everyone who turned up, to David and Andrew for organising us (has anyone seen David’s glasses?) and to the team at Monachyle Mhor for stuffing us full of tea, coffee, beer and amazing soup. It’s not often your dig team caterer is one of the world’s finest boutique hotels…

So we’ve only one short segment left to lay to connect the Northern and Southern Loops, completing the ring around Loch Voil, we’re but one field away from completing the run from the village to Auchtubh and are just waiting for our contractor to confirm a date for cutting the road under the A84 to reach Mhor 84. With that lot completed, we should be able to reach all the central glen properties (about 150 of them).

Thereafter, it’s onward to complete the secondary legs to Balquhidder Station and Edinchip to the north, Inverlochlarig to the west and to Immeroin in the south. After that, we just won’t know what to do with ourselves.