Robot lawnmower blazes a trail for Caberfeidh Shinty Club at Strathpeffer as Ross-shire outfit slashes carbon footprint in a move that could be template for others to follow
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A Ross-shire shinty club is trailblazing a smart way of cutting its costs, its carbon footprint – and its grass.
In what is believed to be a first for the sport, the Strathpeffer club is making use of a robotic mower to help keep its playing surface spick and span.
The hook-up came when Caberfeidh Shinty Club president Ian MacLean was concluding the purchase of other grass-cutting equipment with Dingwall-based Frank Nicol Farm and Garden Machinery Ltd.
Managing director David Nicol suggested that the firm could supply an IMOW robot mower as a pitch-cutting tool to reduce the club's carbon footprint and the amount of diesel and petrol machinery used to maintain its Castle Leod ground to premier league standard.
The use of the Stihl mower is believed to be a first in shinty and possibly even Scottish sport in general.
A few days later the sponsorship offer was confirmed and a team of Stihl and Frank Nicol engineers installed the underground perimeter guide wire. The next day, the mower was commissioned and operational.
Ian MacLean said: "This is an extraordinary development in our pitch maintenance and we believe the way forward in grass-cutting. We will save man hours, fuel costs and even more importantly increase and improve our green environmental credentials. We hope to install solar pv panels at our clubhouse shortly which will further reduce our carbon footprint and help power the Stihl IMOW."
The machine is only able to be used at Castle Leod and has a range of security measures inbuilt which makes it unusable elsewhere.
Mr MacLean added: "We are grateful for the support of David and Frank from Frank Nicol,Murray and Stewart of Stihl and Angus MacKay Electrical in this exciting development.
"Hopefully other shinty clubs and indeed other sports will see the benefits and we welcome any interested clubs to come and have a look at the IMOW in action."
