Project opens wheelchair accessible routes on Dartmoor

Work in the Dartmoor National Park has included building bridges across streams

A new project is helping to make Dartmoor more accessible for people who use wheelchairs, mobility scooters and pushchairs.

Miles Without Stiles is opening up stile-free, easily-accessible routes in the Devon national park.

Five routes are currently available, but the park is hoping to increase that to 15 or 20 in the next three years.

Tim Russell, who leading the work for the park, said it was a "vital project".

He said it meant people could access moorland without having to worry about obstacles such as stiles, which many people found difficult.

"It is basically what it says on the tin - it is miles without stiles," he said.

Kate Wass said it was difficult to explain the freedom she felt being in the open air and experiencing the sights of Dartmoor

Mr Russell said the work included negotiating with landowners, resurfacing, building bridges across streams and in some cases replacing stiles with gates.

He has joined forces with the Dartmoor Wheelchair Access Group to identify suitable locations for new paths and then to test them.

Current routes include Princetown to Nun's Cross, Bellever Forest and Merrivale stone rows.

Kate Wass, who had polio as a child, said the new routes had "opened up another world to me".

"When I come up on Dartmoor, it's my fix. Yes - I'm addicted," she said.

"It is very difficult to explain, but it's freedom; just to be out here in the open air, experiencing all of these sights."

Gordon Guest, from the Disabled Ramblers, said the work had made a big difference

Gordon Guest, a member of the Disabled Ramblers, said the improvements at Merrivale made a big difference.

"This is really good because the last few times we have come here we've had to bring our own ramps to get across the streams," he said.

"Everyone has been a bit nervous about going across them, worried that somebody will fall off so now we have got these two granite bridges across the stream in two places and that means we don't have to have ramps, we can come any time and easily get down to the pre-historic stone circle."

Information on available routes can be found on the national park's website, which is being regularly updated.