Walking Trails
Footpaths were originally created by people walking across (mainly private) land to get to work, to market, to the next village and so on. Many paths originated hundreds or even thousands of years ago. The Rights of Way Act 1932 introduced the rule that members of the public could claim a route as a public path if they could prove 20 years' use, without interruption or challenge.
Without these footpaths and other Public Rights of Way would we be able to access the countryside around Bath?
Nicole Daw, Trails and Access Officer, Cotswolds National Landscape
The value of walking
Walking for leisure in our beautiful countryside, offers different things to different people. It is something that you can do on your own or with friends and provides floods of health benefits for the body and mind.
It also costs almost nothing. Specialist kit is not a requirement, and the footpath network means you can escape into Nature from your front door though you may wish to travel a little bit to get away from the urban area.
Walking can be enjoyed for as long or as short a time as you like, fitting it around your own pattern of living. You don’t have to commit to a gym membership, where the fees come out of your bank account whether you use it or not.
When people experience and engage with the outdoors through walking or other methods it gets under their skin, they start to notice and appreciate it. The long-term effect of this means they care about it, and advocate for it. This is essential if we are to reverse the huge decline in biodiversity we have witnessed in recent years and ensure our countryside is protected into the future.
Footpaths
Recognised footpaths are public rights of way, along with bridleways, restricted byways and byways open to all traffic. They often cross private land but they must be free from obstructions to allow public access. People should follow the countryside code when visiting the countryside (check the code here). The Council’s public rights of way team is responsible for ensuring that the paths are kept open.
Waymarking (Photographs by Nicole Daw)
Public rights of way are waymarked with circular discs in both directions. Many of these are put up by volunteers. They are very important. They help us to keep to the paths and prevent us straying onto private land. Generally, landowners welcome the markers, because they help people avoid getting lost. If you notice a lack of way markers somewhere, please let your local council team know so they can be replaced. The best way to do this is by taking a note of the grid reference on a map or the what3words location and sending it to the public rights of way team. (what3words uses three words to uniquely identify any place on the surface of Earth to within 3 square metres. For example, the bus stop opposite the Guildhall in Bath has the what3words address ‘trees.wallet.empire’. Find out more at what3words.com .)
Bathscape
Currently my main work is on the Bathscape Scheme (www.bathscape.co.uk), which is a Heritage Lottery funded project. The Scheme’s aim is to improve the green spaces around Bath and encourage more people to enjoy them. There is a small staff team running Bathscape which sits within the Council. Then there is a host of partnership organisations that deliver the Bathscape vision. Cotswold National Landscape (www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk) is one of those partners.
I’ve been creating and improving the Circuit of Bath walk. It is based on the route of the sponsored walk, in aid of Julian House (www.julianhouse.org.uk), that has been going for many years.
The Circuit is quite a challenge. It is 20.5 miles and it goes up some big hills. But the improvements we’ve been able to make have made it more accessible, easier and more pleasant to walk on. This is particularly good if you are not a regular walker as you can do it without having specialist gear and in short sections.
Don’t get lost! I've written up the sections as walks for people to download and print or have on their phones. There are suggested start and finish points for each part of the Circuit and information on how to get back to the start point using public transport.
This year, 2023, the sponsored walk in aid of Julian House is on Sunday 24th September and, as usual, you can do the Circuit of Bath as a whole or in sections. (circuitofbathwalk.co.uk)
View to Kelston Roundhill from Englishcombe (Photograph by Nicole Daw)
In addition, I have created 18 other walks in the Bathscape area. The aim of this suite is to have something for everyone. They range from less than a mile on the flat, with toilets and parking really close by to an 8-miler from Monkton Farleigh to Dundas Aqueduct and back along the canal and up past Browne’s Folly. Plus, lots of different ones in between. Some are suitable for wheelchairs, pushchairs, scooters or balance bikes.
To help people decide if a walk is suitable for them each description outlines key features including:
• what facilities are nearby
• how to get there by public transport
• if there's a cafe on route
• how long it is in terms of distance, not time, because everyone walks at a different pace
• points of interest
The walks are on the Bathscape website (www.bathscape.co.uk/activity/more-self-guided-walking-trails) and the Cotswold National Landscape website as well (www.cotswoldsaonb.org.uk/visiting-and-exploring/walking/self-guided-walks/#walks-map). Enter location “Bath” and then look for Bathscape walks in the list.
Will they last?
When Bathscape comes to an end in 2025, we'll still hold the instructions for each walk on our website, and we'll still look after the routes themselves.
The walks are being well used. We don't have any sort of counters on the gates, but we can see how many people are downloading the instructions. It was the most popular part of the Bathscape website at the last audit.
There are anecdotal signs too. I was up on Little Solsbury Hill, earlier this week and could see a clearer line where people are walking compared with what I recall from last year. It's not scientific, but it seems like there are more people walking there.
Walking with a guide
If you are not confident about following the walks on your own, there are guided walks for the general public, some led by me, and a lot led by our voluntary Cotswold Warden walk leaders. Turn up at the specified place, and we will take you for a lovely interpretive walk.
Groups taking a break stop atop Little Solsbury Hill and at Newbridge Marina (Photographs by Nicole Daw)
There is always a walk leader, a backmarker and someone trained in First Aid. There's usually a couple of stopping points along the way – to look at interesting things … or to have a coffee. The walk leader talks about whatever she or he is interested in. For example, local history, natural history or conservation work in the area.
Special group walks
I've also been trying really hard to work with groups of people, who wouldn't otherwise go into the countryside. I’ve looked for people that would benefit. Helping them make the first step has felt really good.
Wheelchair walk (photograph by Lucy Bartlett)
This morning I was up at Fairy Woods with a group from Carrswood Day Service. There were 8 wheelchair users with quite profound additional needs, who wouldn't otherwise have gone out for a country walk. Some staff members came along to support the service users and as a result they saw how to take the group outside safely. The staff were really enthusiastic and they know they can always call on us for advice.
We are also doing walks with a group of Ukrainian refugees. We're in the midst of a 12-month programme of guided walks for them. We’ll lead the first few. But then we’ll show them how to plan walks with the hope that they gain the skills and confidence needed to go on their own walks.
Similarly, I did a couple of sessions with the Guides up at Rush Hill. The first week was all about planning: how to use an OS map and how to plan a walk. The second week, we went back to walk the route they’d devised. They used their maps and their compasses and led themselves around the route, racing against the dusk! It really empowered that group of young women to feel confident going out into the countryside.
Learning map skills (Photographs by Nicole Daw)
Each special group has needed a slightly different approach, but the hope for all of them is that they have started on a journey.
Maintaining the paths
We all know paths which are difficult to find and navigate … where stiles, way marks and even landmarks have vanished … where the path is blocked by brambles. Not ours!
For the Circuit of Bath, we have a team of volunteer rangers. They have a section of between 3 and 5 miles long, that they regularly walk. They cut back encroaching vegetation, litter-pick, replace signs and waymarks and report more difficult problems, that they can't fix on their own. If a fence or steps or a handrail needs repairing, they will feed that into the Cotswold Wardens to do the work. If it's a larger problem, then I'd talk to the public rights of way team in BANES or we'd see if we could find some funding to do the job. That's going to carry on forever, because the Circuit of Bath is now a promoted route like the Cotswold Way. If you look at the digital versions of the OS maps, the Circuit of Bath is now marked with the green diamond which is really exciting to see! (Green diamonds indicate a national trail or recreational path.) From our perspective, it's now a route that people are going to seek out. We are determined it will always be a really pleasant walking experience.
For the self-guided walks, I've another team of volunteers who have agreed to walk them once a year and feedback any issues or route changes so we can keep the paths in good condition and the instructions up to date.
We also have Parish Wardens who do sterling work walking every single footpath in their parish to keep them in good condition.
We have had reports from walkers all around the UK who visit and comment that the quality of footpath maintenance is really good in and around the Cotswolds. That is down to our vast number of dedicated volunteers who really care about people getting out and enjoying the area. We have an incredible volunteer workforce that often goes unnoticed.
What’s in the future
Bathscape has asked us to create 10 films, each around 2 minutes long, to help promote the walks and break down barriers. So that's what I'll be doing over the summer. I’ve been waiting for the weather to improve. Not that people shouldn't go out walking in the rain, but a lovely sunny day gives you that yearning to be outside.
We're encouraging more Wardens to come forward as walk leaders, to offer walks at different times and in different places. Traditionally, they've been midweek at 10 o'clock. We'd love to be able to say: come on an evening walk; come on a weekend walk; and it's only three to five miles or even shorter – rather than 8 to 10 miles, which is quite a leap if you're new to walking. Even beyond Bathscape, we at the Cotswolds National Landscape still want to encourage different groups to enjoy the outdoors and plan to continue some of this work.
It would be brilliant to replicate some of what we’ve done in Bath in other cities such as Cheltenham and Gloucester.
June 2023