Alfred Wainwright’s Coast to Coast walk covers a distance of 190 miles from St. Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire. The route is one of the most popular long-distance walks in the country and is packed with stunning scenery as it crosses the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and three National Parks.
When Wainwright devised the route he never imagined that, 43 years later, thousands of walkers would be completing the journey every year. This high amount of foot traffic along certain parts of the route is exacerbating the peat erosion and damaging the structure of the peat. To combat this, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) has set up alternate routes to be taken during the winter months in an attempt to re-direct walkers away from fragile sections. Despite this, the area near Nine Standards Rigg is deteriorating, having lost a lot of its vegetation. This means that the peat is slowly being washed away into nearby streams and has become very soft and boggy. With no clear route to follow, walkers have found themselves lost and some have even become stuck in the bog. Adrian Cottrell, team leader from Kirkby Stephen Mountain Rescue said: “An unfortunate chap got stuck, literally stuck up to his waist in the bog. ….. like being in quick sand, it was really quite surprising”.
The North Pennines AONB Partnership aims to lay stone flags along a section of the route which crosses the border from Cumbria into North Yorkshire. The flags will ‘float’ on top of the damaged peat and will not only protect the peat, but give people a stable surface to walk on and encourage them to stick to a dedicated route. This section of the Coast to Coast is not a Public Right of Way but accessed as a permissive route and under the Open Access legislation. To ensure future maintenance of the route, Cumbria County Council has agreed to dedicate the route as an official Right of Way once the improvement works have been completed.
To carry out the works the North Pennines AONB Partnership, working alongside the YDNPA, is running a Crowdfunding campaign to raise £15,000. The campaign, which will be launched on Monday 21st March, will run for five weeks and has support from the Wainwright’s Society, the British Mountaineering Council, television presenter Julia Bradbury, the YDNPA, Kirby Stephen Mountain Rescue Team and Kirkby Stephen and District Walkers Are Welcome.
Julia Bradbury, who famously walked the route as part of her popular BBC One series, said: “I am delighted that the North Pennines AONB Partnership is planning to start a Crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the renovation and ongoing maintenance of the trail itself. This type of fundraising tends to bring together like-minded people and fellow travellers who will support this particularly wonderful walk in any way they can and are lovers of our great British countryside.”
If you would like to donate to the project and help the Partnership fix this path to allow future walkers a safe and sustainable passage please visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/raisingthestandard. Or you can find out more about the campaign by searching #BogStandard on social media or by visiting www.northpennines.org.uk.
