Mark Eccles
Head of Park Management at the Lake District National Park Authority
Now managing all the public rights of way in the Lake District, Mark is also an ex-member of the Langdale and Ambleside MRT, one of the busiest teams in the country.
“We’ve got 500 square miles of open country and 3200km of public paths in the National Park. Those paths are signed where they leave the road and we try to include a sensible destination an appropriate distance away. Where the paths split we tend to put in waymarkers, but we purposely fade out the detail as you go into the mountain environment because in the uplands we want to maintain a sense of freedom and adventure. Generally, we believe that people should be able to look after themselves, so signposting for us, in that environment above the fell wall, doesn’t really fit.
“The Lake District is a heavily used environment, so there is normally a clear trod and we work in partnership with the National Trust on Fix the Fells. A defined route on the ground solves erosion problems and also demarcates the route quite clearly. You don’t need signposts if there’s a clear path. There are other features as well, such as cairns marking path junctions. We will proactively take down some new ones because people don’t always put them in the right place. But historic ones on packhorse routes or between valleys will be left as a feature – Esk Hause is an example.
“But we have to think of the conditions year-round. In winter, signposts or the path could be buried in drifts of snow or lost in poor visibility. So they can’t be relied on for going point-to-point; you’ll still need a map.
“We want to provide a platform for people to build their adventure. We’ve got information online, interpretive panels at car parks or key entrance places into the mountains, we run guided walks and offer mountain skills training. There are also low-level promoted routes called ‘Miles without stiles’ that you can self-guide with a leaflet.
“Adventure in the countryside means a lot of things to a lot of people. It could be simply having a picnic next to a lake and being surrounded by sheep, or taking a rock climb on Scafell. We don’t want to spoil the very remote, wild feeling that some areas of the Lake District still have by putting in signposting where walkers can take personal responsibility.
“The proportion of people who get lost and injured out of 19 million visitors is relatively small. Adventurous activity has an inherent risk and that’s why many people do it. We don’t want to lose that and spoil it for those who want that experience, so our job is to promote instruction: get your knowledge, get your gear.”