Many Green Roads have ancient origins whose history tells the story of thousands of wheels, hooves and feet that have travelled their path. In the Lake District, Gatescarth Pass is unique in the commitment of landowners, National Park Authorities and user groups to make sure that its heritage of motor access is conserved.
When floods descended on Cumbria, the future of Gatescarth as a Green Road was thrown into doubt as massive landslides covered large areas of the track. It was going to take all parties involved to pull in the same direction to get it open again. Was this the end of one of the most unique mountain passes in the UKCumbria TRF member Steve Pighills picks up the story
Gatescarth Pass, between Mardale and Longsleddale in the Lake District is perhaps the most outstanding unsurfaced road in England. It’s a rocky route through spectacular scenery and thanks to good relationships and close interaction between the Trail Riders Fellowship (who represent those who wish to ride road legal motorcycles on legal unsurfaced roads), the Green Lane Association (who perform a similar function for 4×4 drivers), and the Lake District National Park Authority it’s available for trail riders and 4×4 drivers to use on a Traffic Regulation Ordered permit basis – one day a month, 18 motorcycles and 12 4x4s.
All parties attend an annual Gatescarth Review Meeting in February, and this year the most important topic was the closure of the pass due to a landslip on the soft terrain on the south side of the pass resulting from the deluge which afflicted Cumbria in December ’15. This landslip was maybe 50m long, 10m wide and 1m deep.
Throughout Cumbria the damage was terrible, houses flooded, bridges destroyed, roads washed away, as we all know, and the Park has estimated that its liability alone is £10 million. Only around £2 million of potential funding had been identified to date, and the TRF and GLASS realise that remote mountain roads, mainly used for leisure purposes by motor vehicles, cyclists and walkers are necessarily low on the list of priorities. So their local representatives asked the Park if they could fund the repair of Gatescarth and were told that to get a contractor and digger to deal with the landslip, and to do needed preventative maintenance there and on the nearby Longsleddale Pass, would require £2,500.
It seemed fair to TRF and GLASS that they should attempt to fund this jointly; gratifyingly the TRF came up with its share very quickly thanks to a generous contribution from the National body, and GLASS were equally rapid. The Park were very pleased indeed with this response.
By April the Park had engaged a contractor, Steve Foster, who is highly specialised in this type of high level unsurfaced road repair, and work was planned to start late that month.
