Western team
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July 2010 update by Iain Gray
Target: the breakfast rock (but not before breakfast!)
The next stage in the task of protecting the relentlessly used route to Scafell Pike via Brown Tongue sees us return to a path which the late Ray MacHaffie tackled in the early 1990s. It heads towards the ominous girt amphitheatre of Mickledore to that famous landmark- the Breakfast Rock.
above: the challenge confronting us
Having recycled stone from the original Hollow Stones path and flown it the very short distance to the planned new route we now begin to build a path capable of withstanding the torrents of water which caused the demise of the old one.
Around 300 metres of pitched path, considerably wider than the original, will gradually snake its way upwards along with a series of “bunds”- semi naturalised drainage channels in areas where a formal stone drain would be inappropriate.
Material dug out from the route will be used to landscape the wide and unstable scar along the old line to blend it back in with its surroundings.
Above: A very substantial drain (left) and a bund under construction (right)
The team will be joined during July and August by volunteer Rob Hayes (on summer break from Cambridge) as well as Ben Kober (on his days off from Wasdale YHA). We have also lined up several Fix the Fells volunteer days during the summer when the presence of many hands will speed up the landscaping element of the project.
The latest fix the fells residential weekend has also achieved a good deal of remedial work on other sections of the Brown Tongue / Hollow Stones route (despite clashing with some obscure football match in South Africa) [photo:footpaths coming home]
Above: Footpaths coming home! Volunteer work party
As a footnote: we have in the last few months occasionally heard people referring to the “breakfast rock” as the “Woolworths boulder”- in my previous 20+ years in Wasdale I have never heard this name before - it would be interesting to hear by what name anybody else refers to it (Wainwright just called it the “big boulder”)
To find out more about the work carried out by Iain and his team, visit the Western team diary archive
