Seven things you always wanted to know about path repair (but were too afraid to ask)
Seven things you always wanted to know about path repair (but were too afraid to ask)
We often get frequently asked questions about path repair, so we thought we would debunk some common myths about it and sheds more light on what kind of work we support in the British mountains.
#1 Why is path repair important?
We all use and benefit from paths in the British hills, mountains and countryside. A lot of the time we take them for granted, walking on them without giving too much thought to why and how they were created.
When we walk in the hills we all contribute the erosion of the ground underfoot. The effect of an individual is negligible, so you won’t notice your own impact, but on the most popular routes there can be hundreds of thousands of people walking the same way over the course of years and decades. This drip-drip effect opens up scars in the hillside, which are rapidly widened by running water and people detouring around the eroded sections.
This ‘vicious cycle’ means that what starts as a narrow trail can grow exponentially into a scar of 30 metres or more in width – that’s as wide as the M1 – or into deep trenches that could easily swallow a person.
Don’t believe it? Check out this image of Coledale, in the Lake District, before path repair was carried out:
The last twenty or thirty years have seen a range of efforts to address this problem, much of it targeted in specific areas. Work by Moors for the Future in the south Pennines, Fix the Fells in the Lake District or the Three Peaks initiative in the Yorkshire Dales has done a lot to heal the damage of the past.
This is what Coledale looks like today, thanks to work by Fix the Fells – by any standards, a vast improvement:
If we don’t support path repair, these nightmare scars will return. There is simply no point in pretending the hills can ‘look after themselves’ – well-targeted, high quality path repair is essential if we are to continue to enjoy the places we love and not disfigure and harm them in the process.
#2 I don’t like the way these repaired paths look. It doesn’t seem ‘natural’.
Path construction and repair should always be carried out in a way which ‘blends in’ as far as possible to the surrounding environment. A path intervention designed to control erosion has failed if it is as intrusive or unsightly as what it replaces.
All path work funded by Mend Our Mountains must meet a set of quality standards designed to achieve this which includes things like avoiding linearity and uniformity and using ‘indigenous’ materials such as locally appropriate stone and vegetation. ‘Light touch’ solutions (such as using landscaping to better define paths) are always preferable to more intrusive methods such as stone pitching and laying down flagstones, but this is not always possible on the most heavily-trodden routes, where more robust, durable solutions are needed. We use references such as the Mending Our Ways guidance, which was published in 1998 by the British Upland Footpath Trust (in which the BMC was integrally involved) and still serves as a key benchmark for high-quality path repair.
The solution must always be proportionate to the problem – a one metre-wide flagstone path is obviously an artificial ‘intrusion’ in the landscape, but if it succeeds in controlling a twenty metre-wide erosion scar (which is also an artificial intrusion in the landscape), then it could well be a justifiable intervention. Of course, the same intervention may not be appropriate or justifiable in other places.
Path repair is also about more than just visual appearance. It plays a vital role in protecting and conserving the soils, vegetation and ecology of mountain areas. If that hypothetical twenty-metre wide erosion scar referred to above runs through an irreplaceable habitat then it makes intervention even more important.
Take the blanket peat bog which covers much of the Peak District moors, for example. This is vital for carbon storage, water quality and biodiversity and has been thousands of years in the making. But in the nineties and early noughties, vast motorway-sized scarring along the route of the Pennine Way over moors like Bleaklow was destroying huge swaths of peat. For many years the summit of Black Hill, for example, was trodden to death, until not even a blade of grass remained. As Mike Rhodes from the Peak District National Park Authority recalls: "It was a choice of either making a major intervention and spending a significant amount of money to make the route sustainable – or close it."
As part of efforts by likes the of Moors for the Future to restore this habitat, paths constructed from Millstone Grit slabs were laid down to create durable surfaces for walkers. These proved controversial, but they are one of the most effective techniques to protect this habitat from our footfall (and in a nice quirk of history, the flagstones were often reclaimed from disused Manchester mills, having originally been quarried from the Pennines - the very place they were being returned to in order to protect.)
Valuable habitats are not just found in the Peak District. As ecologist Barbara Jones says: “On the very tops of our hills, especially the more rounded tops such as the Carneddau, Great Dun Fell and the Helvellyn plateau, there is a wonderful miniature habitat. It consists of tiny mosses, lichens and Britain's smallest tree, the dwarf willow creeping along the ground, yet most people walk all over it and never even notice. It is suffering from overgrazing, but unconstrained wandering over these plateaus can increase the damage.
“No-one likes to think we need constraining to a footpath line on these open plateaus, but the alternative could be additional damage to this habitat which is literally right at the edge of its range in England and Wales and it could be lost completely if we don't do all we can to protect it and give it the best chance of surviving into the future.”
#3 I find flagged and stone-pitched paths are hard to walk on. They are dangerous when iced up or wet and hard on the knees.
Climbing a mountain is inherently challenging, and hill walkers and climbers should have the ability to cope with whatever conditions they are presented with, including rain and winter conditions. Mend Our Mountains-funded work is not designed to make paths ‘easier’ or to ‘urbanise’ the mountain environment. Going into the hills and mountains is an adventurous activity requiring fitness, navigation skills and self-reliance. As Barbara Jones says: “We don't build paths to make it easy for people to walk, but to protect the mountains from us.”
That said, a poorly-constructed path which is unappealing or overly hard to walk on can fail in the aim of controlling erosion; users will avoid it and simply spread damage to the sides. Good path repair should strike an effective balance between preserving challenge and being sufficiently ‘appealing’ it will be followed by the majority of users. This is one of the criteria used when assessing whether to fund work through Mend Our Mountains.
#4 Why is path repair so expensive?
Richard Fox, from Fix the Fells, puts it succinctly: "Path repairs are expensive because the majority of the work is carried out by skilled craftspeople. There are very few folk who have the skills and experience to carry out high quality, well designed path works that will last for the long term. We only use locally occurring, natural materials for our repairs, but to move them to site requires either specialist and very expensive machinery, or more often a helicopter."
There a misconception that paths are built by volunteers. While volunteer labour can be useful to maintain paths after they have been constructed, for example by clearing drainage, the actual construction of paths is usually skilled, specialist work – and therefore costlier still. At the high end, in the most inaccessible and remote locations, path repairs can cost as much as £200 per metre. It isn’t always that much, of course, but it is never cheap.
#5 Why are you fundraising for path repair? Why can’t National Parks fund it all?
Funding upland path repair has always been a challenge, but it has got harder in recent years. Visitor numbers to the countryside are rising, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent, and the ability of National Parks and other bodies to cope with these factors has been significantly diminished by cuts. Since 2010, for example, National Parks have had their budgets slashed by an average of 40%. This ‘perfect storm’ of factors means that many paths are deteriorating faster than they can be fixed and are sliding into disrepair.
Richard Fox describes the stark funding situation in the Lake District, which Mend Our Mountains has addressed with its support for Scafell Pike. "With 19 million visitors to the Lake District every year and many of them accessing the fells, we need £500,000 per year to maintain the inadvertent damage caused by so many people," he says. "We currently maintain 330 fell paths across the Lake District, all of which need regular maintenance and minor repairs, with some needing larger project works to sort particular erosion issues.
"There is no statutory funding for this work, so we need to fund raise for all the work we do. Many folk don’t realise the issues that we deal with, or think that central government funding pays for it all, and therefore it is not a particularly easy cause to fundraise for.
"Despite tremendous support from the National Trust, Lake District Foundation, Friends of the Lake District, individual donors and our own volunteer fund raising, we face an annual shortfall of around £250,000, which means that access related damage is occurring faster than we can stabilise it.
Like other issues affecting National Parks and protected places, such as congestion, litter or overcrowding, the problem of path repair needs long-term thinking and action – ultimately it is the responsibility of policymakers and government to provide this. But in the meantime, erosion is not a problem that is going to go away, and we all need to step up and do our bit. The success of campaigns like Mend Our Mountains will send a loud, clear message that we expect people in power to play their part too.
#6 I have found some newly-built paths are unsympathetic to me as a mountain biker (either too hard to ride or too easy). What are you doing about that?
Mend Our Mountains is led by the BMC, which represents walkers, climbers and mountaineers. Nevertheless, we believe that good footpath repair should include consideration of the needs of a wide range of outdoor users where appropriate (for example, on upland bridleways), and this was reflected in the Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million appeal, which involves close collaboration with organisations and groups from the mountain biking community.
The Nun’s Cross bridleway on Dartmoor, used by 10,000 mountain bikers a year, is one example of Mend Our Mountains-supported work which benefitted the mountain biking community. But the most significant example is our partnership with Peak District-based mountain bike groups such as Keeper of the Peak, Peak District MTB and Ride Sheffield where we raised funds for the repair of the Cut Gate Bridleway, one of the best single track routes in the UK, within Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million campaign.
Thanks to the dialogue around this joint effort, mountain bikers have been at the centre of the conversation around the specification of the repairs which will be undertaken on the route. When it comes to path repair, mutual respect, cooperation, education and dialogue between different kinds of users will achieve more than outraged finger-pointing or a 'them and us' attitude. Looking after the hills and mountains is our shared responsibility and the organisations at the frontline are acting in good faith with hugely limited resources.
#7 Who is involved in Mend Our Mountains?
It is coordinated by the British Mountaineering Council (BMC), funded by their charity BMC Access and Conservation Trust (ACT), and run in conjunction with a coalition of National Park authorities, outdoor enthusiast groups and charitable trusts. Headline sponsorship is generously provided by Cotswold Outdoor and Snow+Rock.
Related Content
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Work to improve the first route at Roseberry Topping from Newton Woods to the summit is now complete, but there are 9 more sections of path repair to go over the next two years. Here's everything you need to know about the ongoing repairs, where to walk, when and why.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Help the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust raise FREE donations with all your online shopping this Christmas with Easyfundraising
Mend Our Mountains Articles
This Sunday is National Hiking Day, celebrated on 17 November, encouraging people to get outdoors and enjoy the beauty of nature through hill walking. Use the BMC's hiking route ideas to inspire you and our mapping discounts and freebies to navigate your way.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
With a new all-terrain, electric mobility scooter in the Cotswolds Natural Landscape thanks to Mend Our Mountains support, we celebrate the rise in accessible outdoor routes with a top six across the UK.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Part-funded by the BMC, the new Great Bradley Bridge in Exmoor opens up access to the famous, 117-mile Two Moors Way long distance walking trail. Here are our five favourite walks that take in this new crossing.
Cerdded Bryniau Newyddion
With almost 2,000m of footpath around Haytor Rocks in Dartmoor newly repaired, thanks to BMC Access & Conservation Trust funding from the Mend Our Mountains campaign, here are our top 5 walks and climbs in the area.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Do you have Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) days to fill or is your company looking for new and exciting CSR days for your staff? The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) has the answers.
Mynediad Dysgwch
This unassuming, bright, green or red moss with lush, almost tentacle-like fronds is hiding five well-kept secrets.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Did you know that the 140,000 miles of footpaths and bridleways we have access to in England and Wales are under serious threat? The footpaths you love the walk on are disappearing fast before our eyes due to erosion from increased footfall and more extreme weather conditions. Here are 14 reasons why we can't ignore footpath erosion.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The BMC volunteers have been super busy this summer, with the latest Get Stuck In project seeing 12 of them create a 50m length of stepping stone path to make a more sustainable way through the bog below Tryfan, Eryri (Snowdonia), North Wales.
News
The BMC is pleased to announce our membership of Sports for Nature (S4N) - the first mountaineering organisation to do so. S4N enables and encourages sporting bodies to champion nature and contribute to its protection and restoration, an initiative that aligns completely with the BMC’s values, including our ongoing access and conservation work, aims for net-zero emissions by 2040 and new Climate & Sustainability Action Plan.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
If you're a BMC member or if you have made a donation to the BMC Access & Conservation Trust (ACT), you are directly supporting our Mend Our Mountains campaign which is funding Fix the Fells again this year. Your contributions enable rangers like Caroline Mercer to consistently repair and manage the Lake District paths that we love to walk on. We caught up with Caroline on a path above Derwent Water, near Keswick, to find out about a typical day in her life - it's pretty hard work!
Cerdded Bryniau Newyddion
This August, 14 BMC volunteers spent two days on The Band in Langdale, Lake District, making repairs to a 100m stretch of footpath in the latest Get Stuck In event, funded by the Mend Our Mountains campaign from the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
BMC member Roy Hammond from Congleton, Cheshire, has now volunteered seven times for Get Stuck In events, funded by the Mend Our Mountains 2024 campaign from the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust (ACT). This summer he stepped it up a notch and led the Get Stuck In Eryri event this June, coordinating a dozen volunteers who stayed in the Lincoln Mountaineering Hut in Deiniolen, North Wales. The group worked for 6 hours during both days, including a hike up to 750m on Glyder Fach on day one. We asked Roy what he gets out of volunteering on the Get Stuck In events for the BMC, and what it's like to start organising them himself.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The BMC’s Access & Conservation Trust (ACT) is pleased to announce a seventh project within the Mend Our Mountains campaign for 2024.
News
The sphagnum season is upon us again! Now that the ground-nesting birds have stopped ground-nesting, it’s time for BMC volunteers to start planting this incredible, carbon-sequestering moss at strategic locations across the Peak District moorland. Can you help us?
Olympics
With four GB Climbing athletes heading across the channel for the Olympic boulder and lead competitions starting Monday 5 August, not only are they bringing their A-game in terms of performance but, as part of the BMC, the whole team is supporting Paris 2024 in its bid to be the ‘greenest ever Games’.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
One of the biggest projects ever supported by Mend Our Mountains has hit its huge fundraising target, enabling repairs to be made to badly damaged sections along the South Downs Way.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The dramatic skyline of the Great Ridge walk connects the summits of Lose Hill and Mam Tor in Derbyshire’s Hope Valley. Heavy footfall left the path in a badly eroded state and work to repair the damage to the path started in March this year, and has seen 500 metres of the most serious damage along the path repaired to protect the surrounding landscape and bordering habitat.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
A kilometre-long stretch of one most heavily eroded footpaths in the heart of Bannau Brycheiniog (The Brecon Beacons) has been fixed, thanks to £12,100 of funding from the BMC’s Mend Our Mountains crowdfunding campaign.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
England’s highest mountain has been a constant headache for its custodians, the National Trust and Fix the Fells, as ever-increasing numbers seek to top England’s highest summit. Yet a poignant anniversary has highlighted the continuing need for large-scale projects to repair and revamp its slopes and pathways.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
In the last three years Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park Authority have been very active in working on a number of lower level bridleways around Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and more recently started work on the bridleway connecting Capel Curig to Crafnant. While some of these trails have given opportunities to link communities and provide access to lesser-abled users, the scale and nature of the works on some of the routes that pass through some wild and remote areas has also surprised many users.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The money raised through the Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million appeal has started going into work on the ground, after a dramatic helicopter airlift helped path repair work to get underway on Yorkshire’s highest peak.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Commuting with crampons, hard outdoor labour, and spending 120 hours a week with your colleagues - we speak to a mountain path repairer to find out more about the highs and lows involved in this vital job.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million has helped leave a lasting legacy on some of the highest peaks not only in Scotland, but in the whole of the British Isles.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The Nuns Cross Path is used by more than 30,000 walkers and 10,000 mountain bikers, as well as horse riders, disabled ‘trampers’ and many others each year - it is a shining example of the accessible but wild landscape Dartmoor can be. But a combination of extreme weather, like the storms of winter 2014, and erosion damage had taken its toll over the years. In stepped the BMC's Mend Our Mountains campaign.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
If you're a BMC member or if you have made a donation to the BMC Access & Conservation Trust (ACT), you are directly supporting our Mend Our Mountains campaign which is funding Fix the Fells again this year. Your contributions enable rangers like Liam Prior to consistently repair and manage the Lake District paths that we love to walk on. We caught up with Liam on the very popular path up Scafell Pike from Wasdale Head to find out what a typical day in his life is like - it's quite demanding!
News
As part of Volunteers Week 3 - 9 June we have Cotswold Voluntary Warden Walk Leader Margaret Reid sharing her inspiring experience. Margaret organises and leads walks in the Cotswolds National Landscape for people from the Friendship Cafe in Gloucester. Activities like this are made possible with funding from the BMC Mend Our Mountains project from the BMC Access & Conservation Trust (ACT) charity.
Volunteering News
This week is Volunteering Week 3 - 9 June so why not get involved with one of the many BMC volunteering opportunities? There are loads to choose from, including helping out at climbing competitions, leading hill walks at events and litter picking nationwide, planting seagrass in Wales, repairing footpaths in the Lake District and restoring peat bogs in the Peak District.
Mynediad Dysgwch
BMC volunteers from the Get Stuck In programme joined Fix the Fells last month in Wasdale on Lingmell Breast, one of the main routes up to Scafell Pike. They spent the day helping to maintain part of this hugely popular footpath up to England’s highest mountain.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
May is National Hill Walking month, but not everyone finds it easy to access this hills, whether that’s due to physical, financial or knowledge-based barriers.
News
The Watkin Path up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and the peat hags on neighbouring mountain Glyder Fach have benefitted from BMC volunteer improvement work on the latest Get Stuck In event, 15-16 April 2024. This was organised by Hill Walking Rep Steve Charles and Access & Conservation Officer (Wales) Tom Carrick as part of the Mend Our Mountains project, funded by the BMC Access & Conservation Trust.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The BMC’s volunteering arm, Get Stuck In, donated £1,500 to Fix the Fells this week to buy footpath repair tools to enable our teams to quite literally get stuck in to fixing the mountain footpaths in the Lake District.
Climate Articles
The sphagnum-planting season has come to an end to allow the ground-nesting birds to, well, ground nest! Thank you to all the volunteers that have helped the BMC to plant over 16,000 plugs of this super soggy, carbon-locking moss this winter, helping to restore the Peak District peat bog.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Mend Our Mountains is back for 2024 with six incredible access and conservation projects across England and Wales. This project is funded by the BMC’s Access and Conservation Trust charity (ACT) and we would like to thank all our members, supporters and volunteers for making vital work like this possible. Here’s what is happening this year as a result of your funding, including volunteering events you can get involved with.