Walking away from mountain problem

Mike McKimm
Environment correspondent

The collective footfall is causing mayhem with the hillsides

Filming in the Mourne Mountains in County Down is not what it used to be.

It is no longer a lonely and empty wilderness.

Instead, I had to dodge the endless groups of young trekkers "doing" their Duke of Edinburgh or groups of people sporting numbers on their back as part of some sponsored event.

Recording pieces to camera was interrupted by the chatter of youthful voices or anxious inquiries as to the right route. This is a busy place.

Even during the week there are droves of people hurrying through the high Mournes - and their collective footfall is causing mayhem with the hillsides.

The annual Mourne Wall Walk was a very popular event in the last century but after increasing concerns about the amount of damage being done, the event was abandoned in 1984.

Ironically, since then the numbers using the Mournes for recreation have blossomed.

Groups of up to 600 people plod up and down the hills raising money for various charities.

Their hearts are in the right place but often their feet aren't. And it's all taking its toll.

There is no single organisation in charge and little or no resources to maintain or even repair damage in the mountains.

Serious damage

Paths that needed emergency repairs years ago still await attention.

Others have been washed away, causing new tracks to be cut into the hills with the inevitable potential for even more serious damage.

"We describe some of our work as a stitch in time," says David Thompson of the National Trust which carries out repairs and lays new paths when cash permits.

"If we can do it now or very soon, it'll save an enormous amount of heartache and money in ten or 15 or 20 years," he said.

"This kind of work is very expensive. I think we have a cost of about £200 per metre just to stick a metre of stone pitch path in the ground.

"When you want to build a kilometre of it, that is a really expensive business."

Many people walk in the Mournes on weekdays

As the paths start to break down and become difficult to walk on, people bypass them, trampling fresh ground and making the situation worse.

Competitive events encourage corners to be cut and straight-line navigation, so instead of sticking to the original track, competitors head off across country with the inevitable results.

Eventually, if it were to become a national park, some control might be brought in. But that could be a decade away.

In the meantime, it seems that no-one is in overall charge.

The Mourne Heritage Trust works with local people, landowners and those who use the mountains.

Piecemeal

They also carry out some repair work and offer advice where possible, but they have no statutory powers and little in the way of funds.

With just one ranger at present and a countryside team of just two people, they look after 57,000 hectares as best they can, and they carry out work where and when they can.

The trust says that up until now, this work has been done in a piecemeal fashion when the money has become available.

"A study was done of paths back in 2002 when about 2km of those were in a critical state of erosion and another 4-5km needed some serious repair. That was seven years ago," says Matthew Bushby of the Mourne Heritage Trust.

The message being, of course, that the work still has not been done.

The mountains are worth millions of tourist pounds to the economy but who is going to pick up the tab for all the remedial work?

An option put forward by Matthew Bushby is that those who use the mountains should help out.

"One way is volunteering. If you're on a walk you can lift litter wherever you see it," says Matthew.

"Also coming up as teams and working with the Mourne Heritage Trust or the National Trust to do a bit of volunteering at the weekend to repair sections of badly eroded path.

"Or, if people don't want to do that, contributing a small amount of money towards a path fund."

David Thompson of the National Trust shares the message.

"I wish there was a body here that folk knew they could turn to or at least a written protocol, something on a website that is managed by an appropriate agency," he said.

"We need to grow a culture, an awareness here that one shouldn't just come in big parties to these mountains without thinking what the impact might be."

In 2001 I filmed above the Trassey Track leading to the Hare's Gap.

Last week, using the original footage I tried to retrace the same locations and see what the present damage was.

It became a difficult task because the erosion is substantial and it was all but impossible to identify the same spot.

Only a curiously-shaped flat rock gave it away.

In some places the path was so worn that the original ground level was up to, or beyond, waist height.

That level of wear and tear is unsustainable - and it is not very iconic.