A charity which conserves and protects Ben Nevis and Glen Nevis is to close after the UK Heritage Lottery Fund turned down a funding bid.

Lochbar News reports that Nevis Partnership will wind up operations and make its three staff redundant after missing out on a £2m bid to the UK Heritage Lottery Fund.

However, the Partnership’s board of trustees will continue to meet on a regular basis and strive to find alternative ways forward for the area.

The Nevis Partnership was formed in 2003 and aims to “facilitate responsible access to the whole of the Nevis area through integrated management for the benefit of all”.

Mrs Wilshaw, one of the three people who will lose their job told Lochbar News: “We intimated last March that our future was very uncertain and many thought we were just scaremongering.

“I think we need to raise this issue on to the national stage. Everyone talks of Ben Nevis and the glen as Scottish icons, but when it comes to funding vital conservation work responsibility lies at local level.”