CHILDREN, adult volunteers and animals alike celebrated the official opening of an enchanted nature trail in Rosneath last weekend.

The wooded wonderland has been created in the village’s Clachan Glen and features handcrafted fairy houses, toad stools and even a dragon carved out of a tree trunk.

The ribbon was cut to welcome visitors to the upgraded glen on Saturday with NHS staff and key workers - to whom the trail is dedicated in honour of their efforts throughout the pandemic - among the first guests. And Advertiser photographer Tom Watt also joined in the fun to capture the best of the day’s action on camera.

Autumn Brown, who initially came up with the idea for the trail back in January and has been backed by a team of willing volunteers over the course of the six month project, said she was ecstatic at the work completed so far - and more is yet to come.

She said: “We were actually getting quite nervous before the opening, so we opened a bottle of champagne to settle the nerves.

“It was nice to see everybody, the key workers and NHS staff, that’s what we did it for.

READ MORE: Volunteers chip in to create 'enchanted nature trail' for NHS and key workers

“It’s an ongoing project.

“We hadn’t envisaged how much rubbish there was, we still have at least 50 tonnes left to move.

“We’ve achieved more than I expected. You have this idea in your head, and I’m quite good at visualising things, but when you see it all come together it’s great.”

Autumn added: “Although it’s in Rosneath I am so glad it’s not just became a Rosneath project. The whole peninsula, Cove and Kilcreggan, Garelochhead, have got together and really supported us.

“My biggest thanks has to go to Brian [Jenkins, landowner], hats off to him for trusting me to go wild on his land. He’s so happy it’s getting used again.

“So many more people can use it now and that’s what we wanted. There’s no point having somewhere like that in the village if nobody can use it.

“I am happy that they’re happy.”