Investigating Fellfoot Forward slow trail routes

Fellfoot voices blog by Sara Hayes, The Public Art Company

I’m Sara Hayes, of The Public Art Company, and I was commissioned to investigate the six new slow trail walking routes for the Fellfoot Forward scheme.  This blog captures my day-by-day experience, visiting Cumbria for five nights and spending four days walking in the scheme area. I was joined by volunteers who guided me, met locals en-route, learned about the location through its stories, art, history and heritage.

On my first day in Cumbria, I took a walk with David, a member of Brampton Walkers Are Welcome, around Talkin Tarn. With its accessible trail, I discovered that this fantastic location is jam-packed with wetland birds and wildlife, plus things to do. The site really is a fantastic place to visit for all the family.

My second walk, also on day one, was with one of the team who helped develop the more recent buildings at Castle Carrock reservoir. He explained how the reservoir works, drawing water from the surrounding hills to supply the people of the area. I enjoyed this easy walk, bathed in birdsong, and with a fantastic local pub, at the centre of village life, at the end. I reflected upon the local ‘temperance hotels’ that used to house the reservoir workers in the area.

My second day, and walk three is a long walk through the stone wall-edged fields of Ainstable. I discovered the breath-taking beauty that is Coombs Wood and met a forager en-route, learning about what’s good to eat in the woodland. Then I stopped to chat with the local farmer, who explained how the local wool is processed and what it’s used for.

Walk four, and day three, saw me joined by local architectural heritage specialist, Jeremy, at Brampton & Gelt Woods. He took me on a guided tour of the fantastic valley which is Gelt Woods. Hewn from the rock since pre-Roman times, the area is shaped and studded with the mark-making of these historical mines. However, it also offers a unique habitat supporting mosses, brackens, ferns and lichens, making it an example of temperate rainforest, an extremely rare habitat more threatened than actual rainforest. I find out just why the woods and Unity Bog are listed as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, and what other secrets they hold.

My fourth and final day. After a run of fabulous sunny days, the weather closes in for walk five at Kirkoswald and I am faced with a drizzly walk following the Raven Beck. I wandered off track and lost my way, muddling though the boggy terrain only to be wowed by an unexpected sighting of wild deer in the stunning woodland ravine. After a muddy trek back to the start, I grabbed a quick sandwich in my car and carried on to the next walk of the day, and the last of the series.

Walk six, the final walk. What an impressive and happy sight it is to arrive at Long Meg. After days of walking, and a morning walk of heavy rain, I was weary, but exploring the exciting Bronze Age site gave me the final impetus to push on and finish the last of the six walks. The weather eased off a little, and while it was muddy underfoot, I enjoyed discovering ancient gravestones at St Michael’s Church and meeting some of the locals.

All the six walks will be printed and available free of charge from tourist information centres in and around the Fellfoot Forward scheme area. The leaflets will contain a local artist’s representation of the walk on a postcard to take home or send to loved ones. The leaflets will also be available as pdfs to read or download from the North Pennines National Landscape website.