Logo
Volunteer
Donate
Volunteer
Donate
Caring for Eden
Exploring Eden
Our Charity
Exploring Eden
People walking along a dirt path surrounded by trees. It's Autumn, so leaves are already falling to the ground.

Topics

Podgill Viaduct and Smardale Trails

Part of project: Access to Eden: breaking barriers, building bridges

Aim: To increase the number of places in the Eden where those with sensory and physical challenges can experience nature on their own terms.

Activities planned

  1. Improve 1.5km of path to be fully accessible from east of Smardale to the road head before Waitby Greenriggs and reinstate bridges.
  2. Hold workshops with beneficiaries to design, test and build a sensory trail along the Podgill trail.
  3. Undertake an 18 month engagement programme for potential users of both routes, focusing on those with  sensory and physical impairments as well as other under-resourced local communities without resources to visit. Link with Access the Dales’ activity programme.
  4. Signpost participants to other events and activities with the Access to Eden programme further north.
  5. Hold dedicated open days for both trails.

Lead partner: Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority

Challenge

There are currently no trails in the Eden or across the Yorkshire Dales National Park that are planned (and  promoted) specifically for those who have sensory impairments (there are very few in the north of England with the nearest being Harrogate) and a limited number of fully accessible trails (only five with this level of accessibility promoted within the whole Yorkshire Dales National Park and one in the north of the Eden catchment at Talkin Tarn.)

Approach

To increase the number of places in the Eden where those with sensory and physical challenges can experience nature on their own terms.

So far ...

Bridges for Smardale Gill are ready for ordering. A Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) assessment is now underway at Smardale but will require an additional badger survey which has now been commissioned.

Spring 2025 update

Bridge structures have been purchased!

A Biodiversity Net Gain assessment has been completed.

A badger survey has been completed. It contains recommendations to build into the works methodology.

The next step is the planning application submission. The build and installation of bridges and the surfacing works are now scheduled for August  or September 2025.

Image gallery

  • Staff members from Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Yorkshire Dale National Park Authority and Eden Rivers Trust standing on the Podgill viaduct trail path looking up at the Podgill viaduct structure.
  • Looking from the top of a grass mound across the gap to a grass mound on opposite side of a road track cutting through the raised banking and foot trail.
  • Section of the Podgill viaduct trail walk. Grassy pathway with viaduct spanning in the background. Large cow sat at edge of pathway watching the group walk past.

Access to Eden Doorstep Sites

Creating thriving natural spaces

Making improvements to the river environment at eight sites ‘on the doorstep’ of urban areas along the length of the river Eden.

Partners and Funders

This project is supported by the Access to Eden: breaking barriers, building bridges partnership project led by Eden Rivers Trust with a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks also to the Garfield Weston Foundation and Penrith Town Council for their support during 2024.

More Projects