Workers with one of the gates on the route. Photo: Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority

Staff and volunteers in the Yorkshire Dales national park have made the going easier for walkers on a long-distance trail.

Work has been completed on a section of the low-level route of Alfred Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Walk in Swaledale.

Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority volunteers and staff have improved a section of footpath on the north bank of the River Swale in Melbecks between Feetham and Isles Bridge near Crackpot.

Ian Broadwith, the authority’s access ranger for Swaledale and Arkengarthdale, said: “It is a very popular footpath with both local people and the users of the low-level route of Wainwright’s Coast to Coast walk, which passes through Swaledale.

“Over recent years a number of timber step stiles along the route have become dilapidated and or flood damaged along with the adjoining boundary fencing, making the walk a little more difficult for some members of the public in what are otherwise beautiful surroundings.

“So, with the good will of all the farmers and landowners along the route, we have carried out extensive improvements along the whole of the route, replacing all of the timber step stiles with hand gates to make access much easier for many more people.”

Six gates have been installed to replace the timber step stiles along with a single squeeze stile on Isles Bridge. Two other stiles further down the Coast to Coast route through Swaledale at Marrick have been replaced with hand gates to increase access there.

The work was done by Mr Broadwith with help from Dales Volunteers, members of the Ragged Robin conservation group and Suzannah Barningham, an apprentice working with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority as part of the Dales Rural Trainee Scheme, which was launched in 2013 by the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust.

Nick Cotton, the authority’s member champion for recreation management, said: “We are very grateful to our fantastic volunteers. They turn out rain or shine and, without their help, the work would have taken much longer to complete. We would also like to say a special ‘thank you’ to the landowners and farmers for their support.”