Fix the Fells Volunteering Day

A few weeks ago as part of our Fix the Fells work we held a volunteering day giving members of the public the chance to come along and help with some path repairs and maintenance work around Langdale.

About 35 volunteers and staff turned out on the day and the work was divided into two sessions, drain runs and path repairs. There were two different drain run routes, both starting out at NT Sticklebarn and heading up into the Langdale Pikes. Drain runs, where gravel is cleared from the footpath and stone drains, are an essential part of our maintenance work.

The repair work took place on a section of the Stickle Ghyll path just beyond the car park, and involved resurfacing and drainage work. In preparation for this work we had previously spent a few days collecting some suitable rock from the nearby area and clearing back a few trees from next to the path.

 Preparing the work site

The large boulders that we'd gathered were used to edge the path to encourage people not to cut the corners and cause any further damage to the area. Once the path was edged it was time to start gravelling.

 Newly gravelled section of path

We'd arranged for a delivery of gravel from the local quarry to be tipped in the car park so it was just a matter of moving it about 200 metres from the car park to the work site. Armed with shovels and wheelbarrows the volunteers set about moving the gravel up the path.

 Bringing in some more gravel

With the addition of this fresh gravel the old rough path was quickly transformed. To help improve the drainage on the path some of the original drains had to be repaired and lengthened to help prevent water running down, and damaging, the new gravel path.

 Repairing a stone drain

As part of our preparation work we had also dug a large hole ready for a new stone drain to be built. After some heavy rain it became obvious that the new drain would definitely take some water.

 Hole dug ready for a drain

A large trench was dug to drain the hole of water and a group of the Fix the Fells volunteers started building a new stone drain to protect the path from any future downpours.

 Building a stone drain

We'd like to say a big thanks to all the volunteers who came along on the day to help us out, you did some fantastic work!