A three-year project to repair and maintain a popular Lake District fell route has begun.
Fix the Fells rangers have started work on Swirls Path on Helvellyn, a route which begins from Swirls car park near the A591.
The first year of the project is expected to cost £220,000 and will be the first significant work on the route since the 1980s.
The path sees huge numbers of walkers year-round and is now narrow, the Fix the Fells partnership said.
Isabel Berry, partnership manager for Fix the Fells, said: “It’s sloping, slippery surface is currently difficult to walk on, meaning people are walking at the sides of the path resulting in damage to surrounding vegetation and fragile thin soils.
“There are wide erosion scars either side of the path and soil material is being lost at an alarming rate to surrounding watercourses.”
In February, 100 tonnes of stone were flown to the site by helicopter and in the coming months a team of rangers will be pulling out the old path, saving all reusable stone, and replacing sections with a wider stone pitching.
Rangers will also be landscaping extensively to encourage people to stay on the path, helping improve the ecological condition and resilience of habitats.
The work, anticipated to take nine rangers around 70 days, will reuse the old stone.
Isabel said: “This work will restore vegetation alongside the path and improve resilience to intense rainfall by stemming the loss of soil into watercourses like Thirlmere.”
The cash to pay for the first year of work will come from fundraising from people and others who are keen to support the work of Fix the Fells.
Isabel said: “We’re really hoping our local communities, as well as those visiting the Lakes, will get behind our work on Helvellyn and help us to raise the funds needed for this vital piece of work.”
Pete Entwistle, Fix the Fells area ranger, said: “I am delighted to be leading our ranger teams on site for this essential work on Swirls path.
“We’ll be working to a carefully prepared specification, aiming to repair both the widespread erosion alongside the path, and to make the path itself much more desirable for walkers to use.
“Our team of nine rangers will use a mix of techniques to do this, aiming to strike that happy balance between what is needed to protect the fellside environment and meeting the needs of path users.”
Matt Powell, catchment partnership officer for United Utilities, said: “Thirlmere is an important source of drinking water for a million of our customers across the region.
“Managing the catchment land, by working closely with other landowners and partners, means we’re able to look after the landscape in a way that protects raw water quality.
“Projects like this can help to slow the flow of water during heavy rainfall, reduce soil erosion and naturally filter water before it enters the reservoir.
“Improving the quality of water coming off the land not only benefits the environment, it also helps keep water treatment costs down for our customers.”
