Landscape conservation charity Friends of the Lake District has launched three more virtual tours allowing people to explore its land wherever they are in the world – the latest additions include a temperate rainforest and an Iron Age hilltop fort near Kendal.
Visitors to the online tours can now explore the Helm, near Oxenholme and Kendal and is home to an Iron Age fort.
Friends of the Lake District has owned one side of the hill since 2007, and over the years the charity has improved access to the site, planted over 1,500 trees and introduced a rare breed of Fell Pony, native to Cumbria, which help with conservation through their grazing.
Also available is a tour of Rusland Woods in the Rusland Valley which contains some trees thought to be over 1,000 years old.
The two woods which make up this area, Bull Coppice and Resp Haw, are currently part of a project by the international conservation charity Plantlife to find out more about temperate rainforest in Cumbria.
Temperate rainforest is a globally rare habitat characterised by high rainfall and mild, humid conditions, and is internationally important for lichens and bryophytes (mosses and liverworts).
The third tour available is of Middle Bleansley in the Lickle Valley near Broughton-in-Furness. Nestling in a quieter part of the southwest Lake District, it is a mix of grazed fields and native woodland with stunning views in all directions.
The online 360-degree tours, created by aerial photographer Colin Aldred, allow virtual visitors to explore these places on a home computer, VR headset or mobile, deep diving into key elements such as history, wildlife and ecology, and land management activities via short videos, blogs and image collections.
Jan Darrall, land manager at Friends of the Lake District, said: “We know that many people may not get the opportunity to visit these wonderful places in person, so it’s fantastic that anyone, anywhere, can now explore these spectacular landscapes using our virtual tours.
“We’re so proud of what we’ve achieved on our land and are delighted that we now have new ways of sharing this with people. Of course, we still want to encourage people to pay a visit in person to these wonderful places, and we’ve dedicated our land as open access in perpetuity, so anyone can come and enjoy these landscapes long into the future.”
All the virtual tours currently available can be found on the Friends of the Lake District website at www.friendsofthelakedistrict.org.uk/virtual-tours
