Armboth – Fix The Fells

Armboth – High Tove to High Seat

Before (2018) & After (2022), work done 2021

Location

Above Thirlmere, to the west

Legal status

None

Path use

This path forms part of a route along the tops of the fells between Derwentwater/Borrowdale and Thirlmere and features in a number of circular walks. It includes 4 Wainwrights and is therefore popular with “baggers”.

Historic interest

None known

The problem

Armboth Fell, regarded by Alfred Wainwright as the centre of the Lake District, is a popular route for walkers. It is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and, along with the other Lake District High Fells, supports a huge area of blanket bog. Upland peat bogs act like sponges, storing water and slowing the flow of water into our rivers. This provides both flood relief during heavy rainfall as water soaks into the peat instead of rushing into the rivers, as well as easing the pressure in droughts as water drains gradually from peat into rivers to keep them flowing. Healthy peat also captures and stores carbon, helping mitigate against the effects of climate change.

The flattish, lowest section between High Tove and High Seat (both Wainwrights) is called the Pewits and it had become unsafe to cross due to years of unabated erosion. There was no safe or dry route through this section, so walkers and livestock were forced ever wider searching for a dry route, spreading the erosion further. These recreational and grazing pressures had damaged the peat which had dried out and eroded. In its degraded state, water runs off the surface of the bog, rather than being absorbed into it. This run-off also carries a lot of dissolved organic carbon into the catchments of rivers and drinking water supplies, causing problems for native wildlife and increasing the treatment costs of drinking water.

The area of heavily eroded peat in the Pewits

A partnership project bringing together the National Trust’s Riverlands project, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, United Utilities, Fix the Fells and Natural England, was formed to work to restore the peat bog and reverse the damage.

Repair techniques

The Armboth fell project was to be carried out in 3 stages and this case study looks at the first phase of work done in 2021. Subsequent phases of the project involved small restoration interventions across the fell tops, focusing on creating a rich mosaic of upland habitats, and subsurface drain blocking and hydrological restoration across the fells lower slopes to encourage the colonisation of sphagnum on currently exposed bare peat surfaces.

The digger creating bunds and reprofiling the peat hags (Heidi Buck CWT)

The first phase was aimed at restoring the blanket bog in, and providing a dry sustainable path through, the Pewits. Dry and hagged exposed peat surfaces were re-profiled, bunded and seeded with sphagnum and other species to restore a vibrant wetland habitat.

Various options were considered for the path including subsoiling and boardwalks. In the end, a combination of stone flags and stretches of subsoiling were settled on. Stone flags have been used extensively in the Peak District and other places but this would be the first upland flagged path in the Lakes. It went very well and the same technique has since been used on a stretch of the Coast to Coast footpath on the climb up to Greenup Edge.