They are a haven for wildlife, the hedgerows home for nesting birds and the banks blooming with rare orchids.

But works to upgrade the footpath along the route of the old railway line between St John’s and Kirk Michael have ruffled the feathers of countryside campaigners.

Manx Wildlife Trust managed to get the works stopped in their tracks before banks of orchids were ripped up - and is now to carry out an environmental impact assessment.

A Facebook group, IoM Western Railway Tracks, has been set up to lobby the Department of Infrastructure to rethink its designs - and has questioned why the wildlife survey wasn’t done before the diggers moved in.

Under the £1.3m scheme, the old railway line will be resurfaced using recycled quarry material and stone, to creating a path 2.5m to 3m in width, similar to the work done on the heritage trail between Peel and Douglas.

Former railway bridges at Glen Wyllin, Glen Mooar and over the Peel to St John’s road near Ballaleece, are being reinstated.

The DoI said the project will make the trail accessible all year round to walkers, cyclists, wheelchair users and horse riders but insists it will also preserve the route as a fantastic wildlife corridor.

But a spokesman for the MWT, Graham Makepeace-Warner, told the Examiner: ’We have been in contact with the parties involved, expressed our concerns about the timing of these works and requested they stop until bird besting has finished and an environmental impact assessment has been completed.

’I believe they have stopped work for now which certainly saved a patch of orchids. We are due to provide surveys on this project but have not done anything prior to these works.’

Mr Makepeace-Warner said the MWT couldn’t comment on the merits of the scheme itself until the surveys are completed.

But he added: ’Personally I am caught between encouraging people to walk/cycle safely and the potential damage to habitat.

’Similar paths that I have used across are nowhere near 2.5m wide.’

IoM Western Railway Tracks posted: ’Fortunately, Manx Wildlife Trust has managed to get the cutting stopped until they have carried out a wildlife impact survey - which actually should have been carried out before any cutting back was done.

’The cutting stopped just before a bank containing hundreds of orchids was demolished.’

The Facebook group said the DoI’s engineers need encouraging to ’think outside the box’ to achieve the goal of making the footpath accessible for all without defacing the countryside.

It suggests there should be no hard edges or man-made surfaces and the path should be narrower.

The group added: ’I honestly don’t think anyone wants to stop any user group from using the path or to prevent the bits in need from drainage and upgrading from a bog from being sorted.

’What divides people is how it looks when it is finished.’

Last month (July), Celtic League secretary Allen Moore wrote to Glenfaba and Peel MHKs Ray Harmer and Geoffrey Boot, both government Ministers, to complain about large areas of gorse being cut down from the banks along the former railway track just north of Devil’s Elbow.

’I am surprised that DEFA allows and condones this sort of work in the breeding season when the nests of most birds are protected under the Wildlife Act,’ he wrote.