YDNPA Volunteers at Swinnergill, Swaledale - 1 October 2015

As a change from sometimes repetitive dry stone walling in the Yorkshire Dales, this week the Dales Volunteers and some members of the Yorkshire Dry Stone Walling Guild tackled the building of a large “staircase” over a section of path on the Pennine Way. The path had become blocked and difficult to negotiate by landslips on the steep banks of the Swale gully at this point

Large blocks of stone - some weighing up to a tonne each - had dropped from a crag about 50 metres above the path, causing the damage and blockage

After levering away some of the boulders to reinstate the route of the path, some of the larger flat stones were utilised to create the steps through the landslip; it is four years ago since similar work was carried out by the volunteers at the same spot. It is hoped that today’s remedial work will last at least another four years to maintain a safe passage through “avalanche alley”!

Photos: Dick Laidler