I did a walk at the weekend with my trusty hound up to the popular Ingleborough summit. I followed an established path from Clapham up past the Ingleborough Caves etc and eventually to the summit. The paths were clearly marked and in reasonable condition given the weather (It was chucking it down)
For the walk down I decided to head back towards Ingleton and following a route I have found on the Interweb and cross referencing this with my OS map.... I soon discovered that this was going to be a challenge.
I Quickly found that we were starting to share fields with a lot of livestock.... in particular Cows. Now I'm not bothered by this normally - however these cows in particular were intent on chasing us down..... to the point where I couldn't get across the field quick enough and launching the dog over a fence before climbing to safety myself.
I must say I don't think I've ever been so intimidated by cows before!...... they were literally running at us. yikes.
Anyway.... this continued for several fields and eventually to the point where the footpaths that I wanted to use were so overgrown that they were not walkable.
I resorted to making our way to the nearest road and found ourselves walking the last two miles of the walk by road..... not exactly what I was expecting for this visit to the Dales.
The paths that I wanted to use were clearly marked and official but obviously due to lack of use or lack of maintenance these were completely overgrown.
Question is - who's responsibility is it to look after these to ensure they are fit for purpose??
It was only after this experience and whilst walking back to the car park.... that I noticed many other paths which were unwalkable due to their condition.
I'd appreciate any info views on this topic
Thanks SP
Post edited at 09:59