Finishing off at Stickle Ghyll & working on Gowbarrow

During the end of October and early November we finally finished off our path repair project at Stickle Ghyll. Our main piece of work was a short section of pitching with an incorporated drain just before the stepping stones.

Area before the stepping stones in need of repair

We managed to squeeze all four Rangers onto the section that needed to be worked on so we rattled through the work in just a few days.

Section just prior to completion

Once we'd finished the pitching and drain we put down the last of our grass seed, and had a general tidying up of the area. This involved removing any excess rock that had been dug out, taking down our signs, collecting all the helicopter bags together and dismantling the shed.

With our work at Stickle Ghyll now completed for the year we moved on to work on a section of path at Gowbarrow in Ullswater.

Unloading the bags at Gowbarrow

As you can see in the photograph above, the section we were working on was particularly wet and boggy. This had caused people to try and avoid the area which in turn had produced several additional paths, so our work was to remove all the extra paths and get everyone back on to one line again.

Pete working on the drain

The work involved constructing around ten metres of pitched path and a large stone drain that would remove much of the water from the path. The work was made more difficult by the boggy conditions but the path quickly started to take shape.

Section of path before the drain

Once the pitching was all in place we were left with large quantities of peat that had been dug out from the path. This was moved either by shovelling, or using plastic trugs, to fill in the additional paths and other eroded areas around the footpath and recreate a more natural looking landscape.

Section of path above the drain

With this work completed and winter looming that's the end of our upland footpath repair work for this year. So over the next few months we'll be turning our hands to a wider range of estate work around the property. Of course, we'll keep you updated.