Cut Gate bridleway is a popular route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders. Photo: Peak District NPA

Cut Gate bridleway is a popular route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders. Photo: Peak District NPA

The Peak District’s Bog of Doom may hold fewer terrors after the announcement of a €30,000 boost for its improvement.

The project to repair the Cut Gate bridleway in the national park has won the grant in a competition organised by the European Outdoor Conservation Association.

The route is popular with walkers and mountain bikers and runs from the upper Derwent Valley to Langsett.

One badly eroded section of the track is known by mountain bikers as the bog of doom, as they risk sinking into ankle-deep puddles of peaty mud.

The bid to repair the bridleway gained the most public votes – 57 per cent – in the eco-tourism, forest and mountain category of EOCA’s international online competition.

The project is being championed by user groups including Peak District MTB, Ride Sheffield, Peak Horsepower and Keeper of the Peak, who are promoting the campaign and supporting the fundraising effort.

Sarah Slowther, fundraising development manager for the Peak District National Park Authority, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Cut Gate has won this significant grant from the European Outdoor Conservation Association.

“It’s a great boost to this partnership fundraising campaign and we want to say a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who voted for Cut Gate – it’s a real partnership effort and it wouldn’t have happened without you.

“The fact that Cut Gate secured over half of the votes in the category, up against three other fantastic conservation projects, reminds us how well loved the route is by everyone who uses it.”

The Cut Gate project is also included in the British Mountaineering Council’s Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million campaign, which aims to bring in £150,000 for 12 path improvement schemes across Britain through a crowdfunding site. The BMC last week extended the deadline by seven days in an attempt to meet its target.

With less than 24 hours to go, the overall figure raised stood at less than £115,000, or 76 per cent of the goal. The Cut Gate project had had £4,400 pledged, £1,600 short of the target.

The wider BMC campaign aims to bring in £1m to fund path repairs on the projects in British national parks.

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