Joint Effort - National Trust - Fix the Fells and Newlands Adventure Centre

There are a lot of paths to maintain and repair in and around the North Lakes Property and Lake District in general. Whilst the NT has Upland Footpath Rangers and now is the main partner in the Fix the Fells programme we sometimes have help from the public as well as the busy Fix the Fells volunteers. For public on this day read Newlands Adventure Centre Stair. For the second year the staff at the adventure centre wanted to help maintain the paths they use for their core business - out door adventure.

A joint work party was organised and led by the NT Rangers Joe, Dan and Jack together with staff from Newlands and Fix the Fells volunteers.

Start of the day a mixture of staff, FtFells volunteers and NT staff ready for the off.

The aim of the day was to complete the circuit of three nearby routes on Cat Bells and clean out 60 stone lined drains, sweep 400 metres of pitching (stone built steps) over a distance of 9 kilometres. The weather was kind to us, warm and sunny with a slight breeze.

Hard at it Brushes, spades and mattocks on Skelgill Bank

As usual on Cat Bells it was busy with walkers and families taking on what Alfred Wainright described as a family fell. There was a lot of engagement with the public about what we were up to with many comments of  "I thought the path had been swept and now I know who by thank you!"

The view from Skelgill Bank back towards Keswick

After a short break for tea and or coffee we continued on upwards to the summit where we stopped for lunch in an area out of the by now not forecast and picking up wind. The statutory picture was taken of the combined group of Fell Fixers.

Smiles all round, NT Rangers FtFells volunteers and Newlands staff with Newlands Valley in the back ground

Suitably refreshed we set off with another task in mind. We had been asked to take down the unofficial and not mapped cairns that had been built up by passing walkers over the years. No problem we thought. We had forgotten how large they had become by taking stone from the path to build them.

Cairn, what cairn - this one was huge and on a clearly defined path. It took over an hour to recycle it back to the path.

The footprint of the former cairn can clearly be seen to the right of the picture. Some upland seed mix will be applied to help the area return to grass. Interestingly apart from the usual hidden bags of dog poo and litter at the bottom of the cairn was a drinks can with an expiry date of November 1999 perhaps the start of the cairn?

A good day was had by all with many thanks going to Newlands Adventure Centre Stair for gifting a days hard graft by some of their staff for the benefit of all who use the paths on and around Cat Bells.