Help from the Outward Bound Trust

Help from the Outward Bound Trust

During the summer the Rangers at Ullswater have been carrying on path improvement works throughout Aira Force.

There was a particularly bad section of path at High Force that needed some remedial work undertaking on it.

This picture shows the old path leading up the left hand side to a very rocky and eroded section. The grass and soil have gradually been washed away over the years, which has exposed the bed rock; this has become extremely hard to walk on which in turn leads to people walking on the edges of the path; these edges eventually erode away and expose more bed rock, which over a number of years leads to the path increasing in width.

The plan was to re direct the path up to the right, avoiding the bed rock. The idea was to dig a metre wide channel into the soil and then lay some gravel down to provide a hard surface to walk on.

This sort of work is extremely labour intensive, so it was very useful to be able to work in partnership with the Outward Bound Trust.

On four separate occasions we were joined by groups of young adults. The first three days we were joined by a mix of European and UK students, on a three week course, learning different life skills.

They all worked extremely hard and at the end of the three days the new path had been dug and filled with gravel.

 

           

On the fourth day we were joined by a younger group of students; this time the plan was to landscape the old path in so that people weren’t inclined to still use it.

Soil that had been dug up was used to cover the old path, and stones where dug in so as to deter people from following the old route.

Grass seed was then spread over the soil, so hopefully by next spring/summer the old path will no longer be visible.

Thanks again must go to the hard work all the students put in over the four days. A job that could have taken a couple of weeks to complete was finished in half the time.