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Most of the uplands in the
Britain excluding (Scotland) have 20 million people living within 50 miles
of them so they are heavily trodden by walkers
and climbers to say nothing of sheep. Erosion by too many feet was long
identified as a problem. "Authorities" of various sorts have tried hard
to protect the land but their efforts are not necessarily applauded. Nobody
finds it easy to get it right. The "Three Peaks" mentioned below comprise
Ingleborough, Pen Y Ghent and Whernside in West Yorkshire,none of
them reaching 3,000 feet. The author is a well known writer and pioneer
of cave rescue, Jim Eyre.
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Polemic on
paths
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Government funded vandalism of our national parks
in the name of job creation has been going on for some years now and the
net achievement has been to keep a few people off unemployment benefit,
a lot of people in very lucrative jobs and Disneyfication of some of our
finest hill scenery.
Regardless of cost, and working on the premise that
British mountains are 'jelly mounds' that consistently need propping up,
these eager beavers have been draining peat bogs, building paths and making
cute but potentially lethal stone stairways, and wooden walkways that disfigure
the landscape and in a few years time will have served no useful purpose
at all; except in the courts, when walkers start sueing the builders and
owners of these edifices after slipping or tripping.
Mountains are not static, they are a dynamic feature
continually eroding and rebuilding in a quite natural way to offer natural
routes for the fell walkers to take.
These routes are not permanent and over the year's
change frequently as land slips, and bogs block one route to reveal another,
it is continous change and re building that has gone on for millions of
years.
Politicians of course are on a different planet
to the rest of us and in the 90's by emulating King Canute in his urge
to control nature our present crop have decided to go into the landscape
business, with the ulterior motive of course of making themselves popular
with sponsored walkers, mountain bikers and the hoards of Lycra clad outdoor
enthusiasts churned out by the youth leaders or certificate chasers.
The result of their handiwork can now be seen
everywhere in the northern national parks and is not an achievement to
be proud of, more an act of utter folly. The main route to Scafell is disfigured
by the dumping of tons of gravel to try and sustain a path across loose
scree and which is already sliding down the hillside, almost everywhere
paths are crazy paved and the least slope has proved to be an excuse for
building steps which being 'landscaped' have the double effect of upsetting
the natural rhythm of a walker and being uneven with protrusions, creating
a potential risk of tripping. Most of these stone staircases are built
on a solid rock base which already had existing natural steps or footholds,
so are unnecessary.
However, there seems to be no way of stopping
these frustrated stone masons and every nook and cranny is being filled
in, and believe it or not, they have even erected a ladder at the 'Bad
Step' on Scafell Pike so there seems to be a strong possibility that the
'powers that be' could be starting on the rock climbs next!!
It is in the Yorkshire Dales however, that the
worst excesses have taken place, especially in the 'Three Peaks' area,
which, owing to its easy accessibility provides a perfect playground for
the path builders.
The erection of wooden walkways on Ingleborough
covered in wire netting were the first eyesore and completely out of place.
Most of the netting has corroded away and within the foreseeable future
the walkway will either rot, or sink into the peat, much to the pleasure
of a recent French visitor who exclaimed" I didn't come here to walk on
wooden pavements" and refused to use them.
On the main tourist route up from the village
of Ingleton, a line of pink sand and gravel now stretches up from 'Crina
Bottom' almost to the top of Inglebrough, whilst across the valley, beautiful
slabs of limestone, that have originated in the Vale of York and are 'supposed'
to be protected, have been dumped on a peat bog. on the east side of Whernside
to help tourists keep their feet dry.
It seems, like 'anything goes' for these descendant
of the builders of Hadrians Wall for the top section of Ingleborough looks
like the overflow of a builder's yard.
The natural slabs of millstone grit have been
covered by millstone of another kind, where the remains of past generations
of mill town dwellings have been laid down in a rough staircase leading
to the summit. Stone door casings and lintels rest on windowsills and carved
stone pillars. The remains of number 27, can be seen, 'cheek by jowl' with
an old gate pillar still complete with iron hinge pin, and amongst these
artefacts from some northern 'Prospect Street' or 'Dale Street' there are
placed bits of marble and granite that looked suspiciously like pieces
of gravestones.
Indeed I felt I was walking on gravestones, as
I passed over these pieces of dwelling houses, bits of history still covered
in many layers of different coloured paint as each householder had stamped
his originality on each particular dwelling over the years.
Who had lived in these bygone houses? I wondered
how many times that particular doorstep had been scrubbed and 'holystoned'
by people long gone, dead or languishing in some nursing home.
It was like clambering over an archeological dig
and I could almost hear the ghosts as I climbed further up the multi coloured
highway, red, green, black, blue, yellow, suddenly there was a preponderance
of yellow and I was upon the yellow brick road in the land of Oz; and I
wondered who was responsible for this vandalism, - was it the Tin Man in
Whitehall? Or the Straw Man who worked for the National Parks and who 'hasn't
got a brain'?
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Back
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Forests-a Sherpa's view,
The epic of Mt. Everest, The state of the world mountains, My first summer
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Poems and Belles letters, The Yellow brick
Road - Polemic, Paradise fishing at Autannes, Traditional
Solar Science,Dogs on high, Obituary,
Esme Percy, Web-sites for browsing
Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan on sustainable
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P.B. Stone on mountains under pressure (general overeview of so-called
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