22 May 2024
Two pots of Farming in Protected Landscapes funding have supported the creation of a new walking route, and has helped a farmer sell produce to those using it.
The Eamont Way is an ‘Active Travel’ alternative for people to get to Pooley Bridge from Penrith. As Cecilia McCabe, from Friends of the Ullswater Way and Sustainable and Integrated Transport for Ullswater (SITU) explains:
“There was an infrequent bus service, no obvious walking route to follow nor a safe cycling option. Most people were making the five mile journey by car. We thought a new walk could boost visitor numbers in Ullswater whilst promoting people to the area without using a car.”
Now complete, The Eamont Way starts at Penrith Railway Station and takes an average walker just over two hours to complete. The signed walking route takes visitors and locals all the way to the popular lakeside village of Pooley Bridge, via the beautiful River Eamont valley, crossing the rivers at two points.
It has been made possible through the hard work of a group of volunteers and residents in the Ullswater Valley, working with the parish councils, landowners, LDNPA and other organisations. A key task was to secure funding and bring landowners on board. It took a couple of years of negotiation and by April 2023 the route opened.
Wooden finger post signs mark the way with a logo featuring an eel. It’s a direct reference to the weekly fish market that was held in Pooley Bridge between 1215 to around 1860.
James Clarke, a Penrith based surveyor, noted in his 1787 survey of the Lakes:
“Incredible numbers of eels are caught here in the months of July, August and September...several horse loads are frequently caught in a few hours."
Cecilia says:
“It has been a huge success. On the inaugural walk we were joined by over 100 people and in just one season over 1,000 people have used it. This has saved many, many car journeys.”
Thanks to FiPL funding, there is also a stop off point on route, at Kirkbarrow Farm. Opened in March 2023, Fabi’s Fabulous Milk is where people can buy direct from the farm it’s milk, milkshakes, tray-bakes, ice creams, hot drinks, wagyu steaks and burgers. The grant helped the farm to buy a coffee machine, seating and some signs.
George Fabi, a fourth-generation farmer, has farmed at Kirkbarrow for 28 years. Up to 10,000 litres of milk a year is sent to dairy producer Arla. Being able to sell produce directly from the farm, has been an important for the family business, as a form of diversification. It means people can buy produce directly from the place where it is made and the farm benefits from the extra visitors who use the new footpath.
Cecilia’s McCabe who led the project on behalf of the Parish Council has some notes on FiPL funding:
“We already had some funding for signing the route, but it wasn’t going to be easy to find funding for footpath work. The LDNPA suggested FiPL, with Barton and Pooley Bridge Parish Council as the applicants. We all worked very hard to put the application in on time – in autumn 2022.
The result was a grant of over £15,000 from FiPL to pay for two permitted paths that we had negotiated with the landowners, and some extra signing. Everyone involved then pulled together in the early Spring of 2023 to complete the work so that the route could open in April 2023."
