Lake District bog repaired with mystery £10,000 donation
- Published
Thousands of walkers had to plough over the "ever-spreading" wet bog
A blighted path in the Lake District which had become a bog has been repaired thanks to a mystery donation.
Fell walkers had to navigate across a 20m-wide quagmire to reach the top of Walla Crag above Keswick.
Now a mystery £10,000 donation has enabled the Lake District National Park Authority to fix the path to the 1,243ft (379m) summit.
Ranger Richard Fox said he was "not surprised" somebody wanted to put right a "troublesome blot" on the landscape.
Rangers used ancient techniques to fix the route - by rearranging the naturally occurring soils, in this case boulder clay deposited 10,000 years ago by retreating glaciers, the top soil became hard-wearing, leaving a natural dry route.
Ancient techniques were used to rearrange naturally occurring soils so the top soil became hard-wearing boulder clay
Mr Fox said: "The path at this point was 10 times wider than it needed to be, a really horrible area of ever-spreading wet bog which people had to plough through.
"This is a well-loved and much-used route, particularly for those living and staying in Keswick.
"I can imagine that someone who really loves the place wanted to make a real difference to all those who walk here by removing an unsightly and boggy obstacle."
Mr Fox said the work could not have been carried out without the "generosity" of the mystery donor.