Crowdfunding for urgent maintenance work on the Ullswater Way

Walking the 22 mile Ullswater Way is a challenge. Just like taking care of its surrounding footpaths. The path welcomes thousands of visitors each year but this popularity comes at a cost.

Urgent maintenance work is needed to reduce the impact of the busy summer season ahead so the Lake District Foundation have launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £5,000 by the end of April.

The route needs drainage works, improvements to the path surface, new drystone walling, waymarker signs and help to maintain the general upkeep to ensure the path is litter free.

The money raised through this appeal will be used for this work to be carried out by the Lake District National Park ranger team and volunteers.

It only takes a small donation to make a big difference:

• £5 helps pay for a new finger post
• £10 helps pay for a new gate
• £25 helps pay for a new section of surface path
• £50 pays for one metre of drystone wall
• £100 covers the cost of planting an acre of new native woodland
• £200 could pay for a day’s digger time or a day’s work for a skilled contractor to carry out the repair work

Please donate here to support the invaluable work of the rangers and volunteers.

Caroline Conway, The Lake District Foundation Campaign and Events Manager

Dorothy’s Daffodils

Now is the time to share Dorothy Wordsworth’s excitement at an early sighting of our native daffodils along the shores of Ullswater.

In her journal entry for 15th April 1801, she describes how they ‘tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake; they looked so gay, ever dancing, ever changing.’

‘They grew among mossy stones about and about them; some rested their heads upon these stones, as on a pillow for weariness’.

Another line from that journal entry: ‘I never saw daffodils so beautiful’ is inscribed in the bar of the ‘Dorothy Gate’ situated just outside the Aira Force Tea Room.

The Tea Room is now open from 10.30 am – 4 pm and the Ullswater Steamers are running a mid-season timetable from Glenridding, Howtown and Pooley Bridge.

And pause to think: Dorothy Wordsworth’s entry for this sighting was 15th April – ours is March 11th …

Cecilia Fry,   March 11th 2019