Monument record MHG31868 - Drainage grip - Cnoc a' Ghrianain

Drainage Grip.
One of several straight, deep and narrow, machine-cut drainage trenches, which were cut into the peat bog in the 1960s, in an attempt to drain these permanently wet areas to improve the ground. This one, similar to others dissecting this saturated marshy, area of peat bog, is 0.4m wide and up to 1m deep, exposing many stumps and roots of old pine trees buried deep in the peat. Some of the grips contain fast flowing water (such as this example) and some contain standing water, which does not appear to drain to anywhere.

This primary grip feeds the sinuous burn, adjacent to Feature 080 (above) to its W, and trends 110 degrees for around 200m across this level area of boggy moorland in the flat saddle between the Allt a’Mhuilinn and Allt Smeòrail valleys. It acts as the main feeder, being joined by secondary ‘tributary’ grips to the E, such as Feature 082 (below). <1>