For generations it was valued for its warmth and comfort, while wool from Scottish sheep helped to produce carpets which covered the nation’s floors.

But while once farmers and crofters could rely on fleece to bring in a healthy income, cheaper imports, the loss of processing mills and slump in demand sent wool prices tumbling.

The problem reached a peak last year, with farmers reportedly having to pay to have wool removed from their land, with piles of fleece being burned or thrown away.

Now, however, a Skye crofter has tested a potential ‘carpet’ solution that would not only provide a new and sustainable use for wool but could help to regenerate Scotland’s precious peatlands.

Instead of Skye wool being used to create sumptuous carpets for homes, it has been successfully used to create a thick and water repellent ‘underlay’ for an outdoor path across a peaty bog, opening the door to wool becoming a sustainable alternative to traditional plastic-based material.

It has also raised hopes that the glut of wool can also be used to help rewet peatlands: tests have been carried out elsewhere involving stuffing wool into drains, securing it in place and creating an environment for sphagnum mosses to thrive and the bog to regenerate.

Currently some peatland restoration projects use plastic membrane lining to prevent water draining away or involve digging deep trenches which have to be repacked with peat. That process tends to involve the use of heavy machinery, which itself can damage delicate peat environments.

The wool carpet was used at a 100m stretch of the Kilmarie coastal path at Strathaird on the Isle of Skye, which had become particularly muddy. The path, which is looked after by the John Muir Trust, is regularly used by the community and visitors to the Iron Age fort at Dùn Ringill, and takes walkers on a scenic route past Kilmarie House, owned and lived in until 1994 by Ian Anderson, singer and flautist with Jethro Tull.

Normally the repair work would involve laying plastic membrane topped with gravel, or wood which eventually rots.

However, Skye crofter and John Muir Trust Skye team member John MacRae decided to switch the plastic for sheep wool to create a ‘floating path’.

The technique can be traced back to the Roman Empire, when fleeces were used in road building to create a layer on waterlogged ground. Wool was also used in the construction of railway lines in Ireland a century ago.

Mr MacRae sourced around 300 raw and unprocessed fleeces from local crofts including around 50 from his own flock to use an alternative to geotextile matting.

The fleeces were folded and rolled before being laid along 80 metres of the path, with the remaining 20 metres covered in the plastic-based matting in order to check how they compared.

The wool-based method protects the peat and soil, allows the easy drainage of water and prevents the gravel on top from sinking into the mud.

The solution is now being considered for other island paths and at other sites run by the John Muir Trust, which looks after some of Scotland’s best known sites including Ben Nevis, East Schieallion and Quinag, a mountain range in Assynt, Sutherland.

The Trust maintains around 60km of footpaths on the Isle of Skye.

Mr MacCrae said the use of wool as a foundation material for outdoor paths is at odds with days when he was growing up and wool fetched premium prices.

“Older crofters talk about how the wool cheque would be enough to pay your farm rent for the whole year,” he said.

“I remember as a child being told to go out and walk around the fences to pick up any spare wool, because it had a value and was worth collecting.

“But the price is now so low that these days there have been people just dumping it because they can’t sell it.

“I know that people this year were just going to dispose of their wool anyway they could because in theory it would have cost them money to get it to distributors or wholesalers.

“I have got about 50 sheep, and this has helped me to get my wool away and make space in my sheds.”

Farmers and crofters told The Herald on Sunday last August how they had been left earning little more than pennies, and in some cases making no money at all, for their sheep’s fleeces.

In at least one case, a Western Isle crofter ended owing money to the British Wood Board money after the costs of transporting his fleece was deducted from its price.

Others reported being paid little more than the equivalent price of a takeaway coffee for wool shorn from around 100 ewes, leading to some farmers throwing fleeces on the ground as matting to provide grip on muddy gateways, burying them, or even burning them.

The collapse in price has been partly blamed on the pandemic and a slump in demand from carpet and mattress manufacturers which most ‘rough’ Scottish fleece is often used for.

Using unwanted wool as a floating underlayer for paths in boggy areas and in peatland restoration would introduce a more sustainable alternative to plastic-based matting and divert fleece from landfill.

Mr MacRae added: “In the past people would have used branches or beech logs to stop gravel and stones sinking in peaty areas.

“This is the first time I’ve used wool and it’s very much a trial, but it’s worked really well and everything I can find suggests it will last a very long time.

“All the time I was working on the path, I was thinking about where the geotextile material had come from, what it cost in terms of carbon to make and get to Skye, whereas the wool was a local product, essentially free and hasn’t had to travel to get here.”