Voting closes on Friday, July 10, in the National Lottery Awards 2009, in which the trail is up against 10 other environmental projects from across the UK in the annual search to find the nation's favourite lottery-funded projects.

It is the only Scottish entry in the Best Environment Project category of the competition, having been chosen from over 500 hopefuls.

The winner in each category will receive national recognition on a special BBC1 TV show later this year as well as a £2000 cash prize to spend on their project.

The eight-mile trail was created with the help of lottery funding and passes through a National Nature Reserve, previously not open to the public.

It is used by more that 200,000 people each year, helping to boost the economy of the Loch Leven area.

The project was conceived and directed by TRACKS (The Rural Access Committee of Kinross-shire), a charity that aims to provide walking and cycling paths throughout the area.

Neil Kilpatrick, project director of TRACKS, said "Lottery funding has been vital to the development of the Loch Leven Heritage Trail so we're delighted to have reached the semi-finals of the National Lottery Awards — we're really hoping people will get behind us and vote."

Voting in the semi-finals closes at noon next Friday, after which the three projects with the most votes in each category will go through to the final round of public voting in August.

To register your vote for Loch Leven Heritage Trail call 0844 686 5219 or log on to ther website www.lotterygoodcauses. org.uk/awards