Winter Floods - the Dales Way is Open
The heavy winter rainfall that hit the north
of England devastated Cumbria and parts of
North Yorkshire and also had a severe impact
on the Dales Way footpath.
Storm
Desmond tore through Britain, bringing
strong winds and heavy rain to the region
and causing Cumbria to declare a major
incident. The army was called in to help
evacuate residents as Carlisle and Appleby
suffered severe floods, with over 2,000
properties flooded and 60,000 homes left
without power. There was major
transport disruption throughout the region.
As these communities struggled to cope and
rebuild their lives, officers from the local
authorites concerned were soon out surveying
the damage to footbridges and footpaths in
the area. Not surprisingly there was quite a lot of damage, and the
Dales Way has borne it's share.
It is going to take a long time and a lot of
work to fully repair this damage, but
already some sections have been fixed in
time for the start of the walking season. In
the meantime, unpassable sections of the
Dales Way have been marked as such and
various diversions for walkers put in place.
As of mid May, just 2 diversions
remain:
- A footbridge over the River Mint
near Patton Bridge is closed. A short
diversion leads via Bracken Fold and
Haveriggs to Patton Bridge.
- On the approach to Burneside, the
Sprint Mill footbridge is closed, and
the Sprint road bridge is closed. A
proposed diversion is in place
(see Flood Updates).
The Dales Way Association Footpaths' officer
Alex McManus has prepared a detailed
document outlining all the problems we are
aware of, together with proposed diversions.
You can
download this as a PDF Document
here.
We will endeavour to keep this document up
to date, so please keep checking it,
especially if you are due to walk the Dales
Way in the near future.
Please don't let these minor difficulties
put you off walking the route. The spirit of
co-operation shown by all within the
affected communities is an inspiration, and
as they rebuild their lives they will
welcome the support of visitors to the area.
Download the latest
Dales Way Flood
update here (pdf).
26 July 2016
