Went back there this weekend to beat a monster loop of 60k which has had me beat twice before with a couple of mechanicals only to find a JCB about a third of the way down the Walna Scar Road smoothing the whole thing out with a length of grit stone suitable for a light aircraft !!!
What the hell s going on with these natural routes, someone was telling me that they’ve done the same to the route back from Hayfield to Edale in the Peaks too ?
If I find out it’s for f-in Landrovers I’m goin to cause some real shit.

ffs, I realise LAs have a duty to upkeep byways/bridleways for horses to use, but even with a 10ft wide mud/gravel path up and over there how many horses will actually be going over the ~605m pass?

this was one of my favourites too
As was chapel gate I believe you mentioned too

Its dead simple. It is a road and as such has to be useable by all who are allowed to use it. Funnily enough this maintanence isn’t for the benefit of 4WDers etc as that type of user doesn’t want a flat surface. Thats down to stupid regulations.
Like Chapel Gate etc local people like them flat so they can use them without any hassle.
And how can anyone call Walna etc natural. Its as man made as they come. See yoour point but nit picking with your terminology.

A good winter and lots of heavy rain sorts it out. IIRC they’ve banned 4×4 from having access again as it’s been classed as no longer being a road. However, access for all means it gets smoothed out from time to time as does Garburn and others.

Aye thought so it’s not a road.

Walna Scar (Bridle) Road

It is a shame from a selfish perspective, but nothing stays the same and as has already been mentioned a good dose of rain and winter will soon have rivuletes carving through the stone chippings. It will be a few years before its as good as it was though.

On some passes the Lake District National Park Authority has or is doing that path making technique where they lay stones end on to form cobbled paving. I think they are doing a bit up from Sadgill towards the Garburn Pass.

Tomaso, when did you see the work at Sadgill ? It was about 6 weeks ago when I was last there… don’t tell me they’re messing that up as well !

I knew they’d been through the boat application thing for the Walna Scar and kept it as a bridleway. It’s amazing how many cars get up beyond the half way point though.

The top is still fairly knarly, it’s just so loose after all those rocks they’ve thrown at it on another attempt to re surface it (I think that was to stop the 4×4’s).

The Pakamoor trail is cutting up nicely though. A good quick descent with sections you can really throw yourself down.