Mend Our Mountains: South Downs Way
One of the biggest projects ever supported by Mend Our Mountains has hit its huge fundraising target, enabling repairs to be made to badly damaged sections along the South Downs Way.
The whopping £120,000 raised by members of the public, businesses and charitable donors for the South Downs Way will enable vital improvements to be made to eroded sections of the 100 mile national trail across the rolling chalk hills of the South Downs.
Work is already underway to mend the most heavily damaged parts of the trail, with a section at Plumpton transformed from a muddy, waterlogged quagmire into a brand new weather-resistant path. Work to fix other damaged sections at Millpond Bottom in West Sussex and Old Winchester Hill in Hampshire will take place later this year.
The South Downs National Park Trust has coordinated local fundraising efforts under the banner of the 'Mend Our Way' appeal.
This in turn has been part of the broader 'Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million’ appeal, which is coordinated by the BMC and has raised around £650,000 for projects across Britain so far.
Momentum
The South Downs Way is an ancient track thought to have been used by people for around 8,000 years. Today around 20,000 visitors every year walk, cycle or ride its length, and millions more explore sections of the trail every year.
It crosses modest hills but it offers an enormous sense of space and escape amid the densely populated south east of England, and takes in the iconic chalk sea cliffs of the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head.
More projects supported by Mend Our Mountains are expected to hit their targets very soon, with work starting on a rolling basis through the spring and summer. Watch this space for more updates.
After the Bruntscar path on Whernside hit its £45,000 target last month, practical work started days later, with 130 tonnes of stone being airlifted to the site of the project and contractors getting stuck in to the work of repitching the path.
Thank you
“We want to say a huge thank you to each and every person who donated,” said Andy Gattiker, trail officer for the South Downs Way.
“When the appeal launched at the end of 2017, we knew people loved the South Downs Way and so were expecting a good response. But the community’s goodwill has far exceeded anybody’s expectations – it’s been phenomenal.”
Andy added: “Every single penny donated will go towards mending sections of the trail that had suffered the effects of erosion and mud over several decades.
WATCH: Mend the South Downs Way
“Fifteen thousand pairs of boots, 10,000 tyres and 800 hooves travelling the length of the trail each year certainly cause a lot of wear and tear!
“Our existing funding had allowed us to make most repairs but there were more remote sections of the path that were simply too expensive to tackle using existing funds.
“This additional funding, the benefits of which are already being seen, will make a huge difference to the long-term vitality of the trail and ensure it can be enjoyed for many generations to come.”
Partnership
Carey Davies, Mend our Mountains Campaign Lead, said: “We’re thrilled that the appeal for the South Downs Way has its target.
“This has been a great example of what can be achieved by working in partnership and coming together as a community.
“We all have a role to play in looking after these trails and it’s wonderful that this project will ensure the South Downs Way is safeguarded for everyone to enjoy for many years to come.
The £120,000 was raised from a mixture of public donations, crowdfunding, and a number of charitable donations, including from:
- Langham Brewery
- The Gerald Micklem Charitable Trust
- The Monument Trust
- The Chalk Cliff Trust
- Friends of the South Downs
- The Banister Charitable Trust
- Ian Askew Charitable Trust
- The Calleva Foundation
- HF Holiday
- Trail Riders Fellowship
- M J Camp Charitable Trust
- Players of the Peoples Postcode Lottery
- Low-Impact Christmas Gifts For Walkers and Climbers
- Top 11 tips to improve your winter hiking & mountaineering for International Mountain Day
- BMC North East Area Meeting
- Julie Smith
- Have Your Say: 2025 to 2030 BMC Strategy Consultation
- Five of the best beginner ski tours in Chamonix
- Everything you need to know about the ongoing Roseberry Topping footpaths repairs, North Yorkshire
- Top 10 snacks for winter walking and mountaineering
- Iggy Rinaldi shortlisted in top 10 for SportsAid One-to-Watch Award
- The secret to a crowd-free ski tour in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland
- Rock climbing in the remote Bektau mountains of Kazakhstan
- Tabitha O'Caroll
- Nina Henderson
- Mia Coia
- Kasha Ogilvie
- Emma Bush
- Scott Dearie
- Sam Pigden
- Martin Cusack
- Ken Pallister
- Clarke Noone
- Youth Climbing Series Grand Final
- Did you know? You can donate free of charge to the BMC this Christmas
- Basic Child Safeguarding Training | Thursday 10th April
- Climbing Equipment Safety
- The British Mountaineering Council Launches Ambitious Climate and Sustainability Action Plan
- Everything you need to know about the proposed new National Park in North Wales
- Our 6 favourite sunrise & sunset routes for National Hiking Day
- Top 6 accessible routes for wheelchairs, mobility scooters and prams
- The British Mountaineering Council welcomes the British Boulder and Lead Championships to Manchester
- Five reasons to go trekking in Europe
- Julie Smith appointed as Head of Finance at the British Mountaineering Council
- BMC Winter Lecture Series: Bristol
- BMC Winter Lecture Series: Manchester
- BMC Winter Lecture Series: Bangor
- Best 6 climbs at Carn Gowla, Cornwall, according to our Local Access Rep
- Your Climbing Counts | Survey Results
- Bouldering outdoors for the first time
- David Hamilton
- Five historic walking routes to explore Scotland in autumn and winter
- 5 favourite Exmoor walks using the new Great Bradley Bridge
- Time Together: Lucy Garlick and Natalie Stilwell
- Basic Child Safeguarding Training | Monday 13th January
- Basic Child Safeguarding Training | Tuesday 18th February
- Basic Adult Safeguarding Training | Monday 20th January
- Basic Child Safeguarding Training | Wednesday 19th March
- December BMC Open Forum
- Clubs Open Forum
- Promoting your club using social media | Club Support Webinar
- Mental health, nutrition & exercise during menopause
Related Content
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Work to improve the first route at Roseberry Topping from Newton Woods to the summit is now complete, but there are 9 more sections of path repair to go over the next two years. Here's everything you need to know about the ongoing repairs, where to walk, when and why.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Help the BMC's Access & Conservation Trust raise FREE donations with all your online shopping this Christmas with Easyfundraising
Mend Our Mountains Articles
This Sunday is National Hiking Day, celebrated on 17 November, encouraging people to get outdoors and enjoy the beauty of nature through hill walking. Use the BMC's hiking route ideas to inspire you and our mapping discounts and freebies to navigate your way.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
With a new all-terrain, electric mobility scooter in the Cotswolds Natural Landscape thanks to Mend Our Mountains support, we celebrate the rise in accessible outdoor routes with a top six across the UK.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Part-funded by the BMC, the new Great Bradley Bridge in Exmoor opens up access to the famous, 117-mile Two Moors Way long distance walking trail. Here are our five favourite walks that take in this new crossing.
Hill Walking News
With almost 2,000m of footpath around Haytor Rocks in Dartmoor newly repaired, thanks to BMC Access & Conservation Trust funding from the Mend Our Mountains campaign, here are our top 5 walks and climbs in the area.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The BMC’s Access & Conservation Trust (ACT) is pleased to announce a seventh project within the Mend Our Mountains campaign for 2024.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The dramatic skyline of the Great Ridge walk connects the summits of Lose Hill and Mam Tor in Derbyshire’s Hope Valley. Heavy footfall left the path in a badly eroded state and work to repair the damage to the path started in March this year, and has seen 500 metres of the most serious damage along the path repaired to protect the surrounding landscape and bordering habitat.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
A kilometre-long stretch of one most heavily eroded footpaths in the heart of Bannau Brycheiniog (The Brecon Beacons) has been fixed, thanks to £12,100 of funding from the BMC’s Mend Our Mountains crowdfunding campaign.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
England’s highest mountain has been a constant headache for its custodians, the National Trust and Fix the Fells, as ever-increasing numbers seek to top England’s highest summit. Yet a poignant anniversary has highlighted the continuing need for large-scale projects to repair and revamp its slopes and pathways.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
In the last three years Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park Authority have been very active in working on a number of lower level bridleways around Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) and more recently started work on the bridleway connecting Capel Curig to Crafnant. While some of these trails have given opportunities to link communities and provide access to lesser-abled users, the scale and nature of the works on some of the routes that pass through some wild and remote areas has also surprised many users.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The money raised through the Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million appeal has started going into work on the ground, after a dramatic helicopter airlift helped path repair work to get underway on Yorkshire’s highest peak.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Commuting with crampons, hard outdoor labour, and spending 120 hours a week with your colleagues - we speak to a mountain path repairer to find out more about the highs and lows involved in this vital job.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Mend Our Mountains: Make One Million has helped leave a lasting legacy on some of the highest peaks not only in Scotland, but in the whole of the British Isles.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
The Nuns Cross Path is used by more than 30,000 walkers and 10,000 mountain bikers, as well as horse riders, disabled ‘trampers’ and many others each year - it is a shining example of the accessible but wild landscape Dartmoor can be. But a combination of extreme weather, like the storms of winter 2014, and erosion damage had taken its toll over the years. In stepped the BMC's Mend Our Mountains campaign.
Access & Conservation
Seven things you always wanted to know about path repair (but were too afraid to ask)
Access Articles
BMC volunteers from the Get Stuck In programme joined Fix the Fells last month in Wasdale on Lingmell Breast, one of the main routes up to Scafell Pike. They spent the day helping to maintain part of this hugely popular footpath up to England’s highest mountain.
Mend Our Mountains Articles
Mend Our Mountains is back for 2024 with six incredible access and conservation projects across England and Wales. This project is funded by the BMC’s Access and Conservation Trust charity (ACT) and we would like to thank all our members, supporters and volunteers for making vital work like this possible. Here’s what is happening this year as a result of your funding, including volunteering events you can get involved with.