Observation 16: Riverside Paths - Another Strategy for unlocking Snowdonia

This is a proposal for an initiative which would achieve many of the objectives of 'Snowdonia Green Key' at massively reduced expense and disruption. It would not provoke widespread public unrest and antagonism. It recommends the completion and promotion of a comprehensive system of river paths crossing the area from sea to sea. Some of these routes have three-quarters of their distances already on the map as rights of way. Not one of them is usable at present. The economic benefits are best illustrated by an example.

PATHS AND MONEY

The Case of Kinlochleven

The small settlement of Kinlochleven (pop. approx 1000) used to lie on the A82, the trunk road from Glasgow to Fort William. It stands at the head of Loch Leven, a narrow sea loch not a quarter mile wide at its outlet, never approaching a mile in width, but enforcing a detour of almost 18 miles on winding roads. A car ferry at the narrows eliminated this diversion at some expense and at risk of lengthy delays at holiday periods. With the construction of the Ballachulish bridge the ferry became redundant and Kinlochleven became the most decisively by-passed village in Britain. It is now served by the renumbered B863 and is no longer visited by through traffic.

Kinlochleven was essentially the sister village to Dolgarrog in the Conwy Valley. For almost a hundred years its aluminum smelter plant was its only large employer and until the 1990's deliveries were made twice a week by road to Dolgarrog. Like Dolgarrog it suffered intermittent downsizing and it has now closed, with Dolgarrog under notice at this moment.

But for a single circumstance Kinlochleven should be the most depressed community in the whole of Britain. Assistance came by chance, in the shape of the opening in 1980 of a long-distance footpath, the West Highland Way, routed through the village. Since the trail is passing at this stage through a virtual wilderness all walkers are obliged to overnight at Kinlochleven. The most recent estimate is that 12,000 to 15,000 walkers complete the whole of the Way each year and a further 50,000 take one or more stages. The final stage from Kinlochleven is one of the more dramatic and, even if taken by itself, involves over-nighting there or at Fort Willliam with a bus trip there or back. These walkers all require accommodation, food and drink, daily provisions and the necessities weather and circumstances demand. The effects on the economy are visible. Guest-houses, B&Bs and bunkhouses have multiplied. Laundrettes, restaurants, fish and chip shops and general stores gain a steady income. Private hotels have opened public bars and a new public house has appeared. The West Highland Way is a model for green tourism' and the economic spinoff can be calculated. And yet, this is a route only suitable for strong walkers. In bad weather its seriousness is of a different order of magnitude to that of the valley walks of Snowdonia. This must strongly limit recruitment.

SNOWDONIA AND THE LAKES

The example of a single long-distance path is inappropriate to Snowdonia though the economic payoff deserves attention. The writers of the Green Key' document, however, complain that visitors here don't spend so much per head as visitors to the Lakes though the two districts are broadly comparable. (Nevertheless, it must be noted that the Lake District has an immeasurably more difficult traffic problem, with no major roads entering the central block and all roads in all valleys much tighter and more difficult. Yet no Park and Ride scheme has been imposed there.)

One significant difference between the two areas is that the Lake District offers much more attractive low-level walks. In Langdale, Borrowdale and Buttermere, for example, it is possible to take delightful full-day walks never rising from the valley floor but never using roads. Some low-level circular walks which do not resort to roads are also possible there. It is perfectly obvious that these walks attract a broader section of the public than is seen in North Wales. Planning within a National Park ought never to discriminate in favour of older and wealthier visitors, though this partiality has been a discernable element in local planning from the first Snowdonia National Park Plan and the first Gwynedd Structure Plan onwards. In any case, whatever their spending power, most valley walkers take a mid-day break at a cafe or pub and may well visit shops in any small village passed through, amenities the hill walker does not support. These walks are enjoyed almost irrespective of season and weather in the Lakes. There is no topographical reason why Snowdonia might not develop a footpath nexus as good as or better than that of the Lakes. The scenic upgrading of the paths to a similar standard is a longer-term project, demanding a commitment not widely seen in public bodies since Victorian times -- devotion to an aim not to be fully realised within the planner's lifetime.

SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RIVER PATH

Unlike the mountain ascent, the river path has pride of ancestry. The ideal journey starts from the sea, follows a river, crosses a watershed by the easiest evident pass, and descends another river to another sea. It is a natural route and always has history on its side with the evidence all around.

Planners have been expressing concern about the erosion of mountain paths for many years and, intermittently, more and more money is demanded for stabilisation work. A river path complex, offering more sheltered situations, would take a large proportion of walkers especially in poor weather and in winter off the hills. It would put them onto ground which. being less steep, is in principle less subject to erosion.

River paths are easier to maintain because they are less subject to extreme conditions and are much more easily accessible to maintenance teams. Remedial work conspicuous on the mountains is not out of place in more pastoral surroundings where the variety of route and terrain -- riverside, woodland, drovers' lane, rock gorge and pass -- suggests a variety of materials and where walls, hedges, stiles and bridges are integral features of the scene.

Some of the necessary amenities are already in place. All the routes named below offer, at intervals, accommodation, food, drink, and provisions. It would be open to more isolated farms and houses along or near the routes to take advantage of a demand for further services if the owners felt inclined.

The river path is the perfect example of the 'green tourism' the Green Key writers wish to encourage. Whether taken for a day or a week it probably demands a return to the starting point by bus or train and it is never essentially car-dependent.

ROUTES AND SPECIFICATIONS

The routes are equally attractive in either direction and recombinations crossing two of the included watersheds suggest themselves. Progressively longer routes might extend through the southern Park using the Conwy and Lledr, Machno or Upper Conwy as start or finish.

The principal specifications are that main roads can be crossed but not followed and that minor roads may be used for short distances only where traffic is minimal and avoidance involves diversion or is extremely contrived. A good path cannot double as a cycle track. Further design specifications involve risk, aesthetics, in-built surprise and felt isolation but these demand lengthier illustration than is possible here.

REALISATION, COSTS AND BENEFITS, PROMOTION

These matters cannot be discussed at short notice but some brief notes seem relevant.

Realisation

Before embarking on a project of this nature it might seem wise to examine the history of the Welsh Offices purchase of former Vaynol Estate lands in 1967. The negotiations employed local planners for a period of twenty years. In dealing with perhaps ten or twenty landowners some means of collective bargaining seems to be called for. Farmers ought to be compensated generously with a single payment and without having any maintenance obligation imposed. Perhaps an additional bonus for swift agreement might be productive. There may be an argument for negotiating a single central section, with most of its distance available already (say, Llanrwst-Pont Aberglaslyn), to gain a fast-track result. This could not be satisfactorily promoted in isolation however.

Costs and Benefits

In the late eighties the Thames Path was being costed at £4000 per mile. Whilst that seemed an absurd over-estimate it must be borne in mind that it was to pass through the most highly-valued lands and estates in Britain. (The principal objectors were the wealthiest land-owners en route, the Duke of Devonshire and the Queen.) The total distance to complete a full path web in Snowdonia must be only a fraction of the length of the Thames Path.

Aside from the acquisition of the missing links some expense would be incurred in footbridge construction. However, it is important that footpaths are not over-designed. For a cautionary example see Llanrwst's quarter-mile riverside path, resurfaced at a cost of £60.000 (for materials only). This sum would have established a substantial part of a Snowdonian river path scheme.

Information is available on the financial return from the establishment of long-distance paths. In Wales studies have been carried out on Offa's Dyke and the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. In the case of the latter the most recent was the National Trail User Survey 1996-97. This found that the path generated £14 million of local spending in the user year. That represented a rate of £57 per £1 spent on path maintenance.

Promotion

A river path system would be of incalculable value whether it earned money or not, just as a mountain path is. But if there is to be a return to the local economy it would have to be promoted. There now exists in Britain a substantial body of serial treckers of long-distance paths but the scheme ought not to aim principally at that group. It should be promoted as something new, a comprehensive system of medium-distance routes, with central sections possible in a weekend. Careful consideration would have to be given to finding the right name.

Some official guides to long-distance paths are published by HMSO but there may be no reason why Gwynedd and Conwy might not produce their own guide, or series of guides, and reap the profits themselves.

OBJECTIVE

We now have good access to most of the mountains in the Snowdonia National Park and more should be forthcoming. The time has come to unlock Snowdonia's valleys.

Next Observation

See also Observation 79

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