OREANDA-NEWS. July 17, 2015. A team of SSE volunteers from Gordonbush wind farm have given a day of their time to help restore storm-damaged gravel areas around Brora Ice House.

Ruth Liddicoat, Michael Walker and Karen Anderson, armed themselves with rakes, shovels, and wheelbarrows to bring the gravelled flowerbed that runs alongside the wall at the harbour end of the Ice House back to life. The stones were raked back so that the flower boundary could be straightened out or replaced where damaged, and new gravel added to top up thinner areas.

The Ice House was used heavily in days gone by when Brora exported a lot of salmon to London.  Ice was cut from the river in winter and stored at the Ice House for use during the summer to keep the salmon fresh.

Janet Durban, chairperson of A Brighter Brora said: “We are very pleased with the work that’s been done by SSE’s Gordonbush team to restore the damaged footpath.  SSE helped regenerate steps and fencing here a few years ago so this is really ‘phase two’!  It’s a very attractive and popular area at  Brora harbour and it’s also part of our Heritage Trail walk. During fairly recent tidal surges much of the gravel was washed away.  We have dedicated volunteers who keep the area in check but this particular project required ‘heavy duty’ labour.  SSE’s ‘Be the difference’ was approached by Brighter Brora and the end result looks amazing. Generously, the gravel was donated from one of our local contractors, Edward Mackay.

SSE Liaison Manager, Ruth Liddicoat, said: “We are delighted to be back again and able to help A Brighter Brora once more with the historic Ice House. Our Gordonbush wind farm construction team helped restore the footpaths and put up new fencing at the Ice House in 2012 and it is still looking very smart, however, some of the gravel areas needed attention as they had been washed away by storm tidal surges earlier in the year.

“Whilst this day’s work was on a much smaller scale, we hope that it has still made a meaningful difference. We worked hard and were lucky with the sunshine and beautiful views of the harbour; and to top it all off Jim Cunningham kindly offered us a trip out on his boat at the end of the day for a spot of fishing – delightful!”

SSE’s employee volunteering programme supports each of its 20,000 employees to ‘Be the Difference’ for a community project of their choice by taking a day away from their usual job and give a helping hand. So far, over 2,500 projects have received volunteering help from this initiative including charities, community organisations and schools.