As outdoor participation soars, what will Britain’s mountains look like in another 25 years?
The BMC Access and Conservation Trust marks their 25th anniversary with a warning that investment in Britain’s mountains must keep up with growing outdoor participation.
Britain’s growing love of the outdoors since the covid-19 pandemic should be celebrated - but investment in mountain landscapes has to keep pace if these beautiful, wild places are to remain accessible for generations to come. That is the message from the British Mountaineering Council’s (BMC) charity, the Access and Conservation Trust, which is marking its 25th anniversary by highlighting this standpoint.
Visits to England’s wild places have risen from an estimated 2.9 billion in 2009/10 to four billion in 2025/26, with almost seven in ten adults now spending time in green spaces at least once a week. Hill and mountain walking has become one of the UK’s most popular activities, with 3.58 million regular participants, even outperforming football (2 million regular participants), according to Sport England’s Active Lives survey.
BMC Head of Access and Environment, Dr. Cath Flitcroft, says, “As participation increases, our collective sense of custodianship and funding for these stunning landscapes needs to grow with it. Twenty-five years ago, the BMC Access and Conservation Trust was established to protect the wild places we love to explore. As we observe this milestone, it’s worth asking what our mountains will look like in another 25 years if we don’t look after them. We need more funding if we are to do the same for the next 25 years.”
Pressure on popular landscapes
The challenge is already visible across Britain’s best-loved upland areas.
Around 500,000 people climb Scafell Pike and Helvellyn in the Lake District each year, while Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) in North Wales attracts over 600,000 visitors every year, making it the busiest mountain in the UK.
While more of us are feeling the benefits of our hills, heavy footfall can accelerate erosion, particularly when combined with severe weather. Damaged and waterlogged sections of path encourage walkers to create alternative routes, widening ugly, boggy and/or rocky scars across the landscape and threatening sensitive habitats.
Building mountain paths is a highly-skilled task carried out mainly by hand, where possible using local materials like sheep fleeces and local stone, but often helicopters are needed to reach remote areas and drop larger, heavier rocks or gravel. Repairing a single metre of path is estimated at £250, and one heli-bag drop can cost £1,000.
At Roseberry Topping in North Yorkshire, a recent 416m path restoration project required around 4,000 hours of manual labour and 200 bags of material transported by helicopter at a cost of £50,000, funded by the BMC Access and Conservation Trust.
Alongside visitor pressure, climate change is creating additional challenges. More frequent storms, more intense rainfall, prolonged dry periods and wildfires all increase erosion rates on paths, peatlands, upland habitats and mountains.
Cath Flitcroft, says, “The BMC Access and Conservation Trust are aiming to fix 25,000m of path to celebrate our 25th anniversary. An estimated 1.2million people climb Helvellyn, Scafell Pike and Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) every year. If they each donated £5 to the BMC Access & Conservation Trust to celebrate our 25th anniversary, 24,000m of path could be fixed, which could repair five paths up to the UK's most popular summits.”
25 years of action
Since 2001, the BMC Access and Conservation Trust has supported conservation, education and access projects across Britain’s mountains and crags. It funds professional and volunteer mountain path repair, upland conservation, moorland restoration and environmental education. The charity can also arrange corporate team conservation days in return for donations.
Its award-winning Mend Our Mountains campaign has raised more than £1 million for conservation since 2016. In the last three years, the charity has funded almost £300,000 worth of projects, including most recently - an apprentice path repair ranger in Eryri, professional path work on Helvellyn in the Lake District, volunteer path repair projects nationwide and a Wildfire Engagement Officer in the Peak District.
Chair of the BMC Access and Conservation Trust, Chris Coleman, says, “Twenty-five years from now, we’d like to be celebrating another generation discovering Britain’s mountains, hills and crags. The solution is a long-term commitment to investment in the awe-inspiring landscapes that people depend upon for their physical and mental health, bringing together government, businesses, the outdoor industry and the public.
“We need to invest in that future now. What Britain’s wild places look like in 2051 will depend, in no small part, on what we’re prepared to do for them today. If you love the hills and want them to remain wild and wonderful, please invest and help us continue to mend our mountains.”
Will you give back to the mountains?
The BMC Access and Conservation Trust are aiming to fix 25,000m of path to celebrate our 25th anniversary.
An estimated 1.2million people climb Helvellyn, Scafell Pike and Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) every year.
If they each donated £5 to the BMC Access & Conservation Trust to celebrate our 25th anniversary, 24,000m of path could be fixed, which could repair five paths up to the UK's most popular summits
Donate to us for FREE!
Did you know that you can donate to the BMC Access and Conservation Trust entirely FREE simply by shopping online as you usually would, at any time of the year with Easyfundraising? It only takes two minutes to set up, here's how.
Donate to us (not for free!)
If you want to contribute to upland and mountain access and conservation causes like the above, then simply click here to donate to The BMC Access and Conservation Trust via The Climate Project or Mend Our Mountains campaigns at any time. One-off or regular donations of any amount are always most welcome.
Volunteer
Fancy fixing footpaths in the Lake District, placing stepping stones in Eryri or planting sphagnum in the Peak District? Sign up to one of our Get Stuck In events here. And if you can't volunteer, why not gift us the amount you would have spent in fuel or on a train fare getting to a volunteer event?
Leave a legacy
A wise person once said, the most noble thing you can do is to, "plant trees under whose shade you will never sit," and likewise, fund path repair projects on which you will never walk and moorland restoration projects that you will never see. If you'd like to make a lasting impact on the landscape long after you've left this world, please consider leaving us a legacy.
The Get Stuck In path repair is funded by the BMC Access & Conservation Trust's Mend Our Mountains campaign.
To support more work like this to protect the mountains for future generations, join the BMC and/or donate.
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