Quarry works!

With a new year comes a new project for the Upland Rangers, and a interesting and challenging one at that!  With our team expertise in stone work, come the winter months it's an opportunity to tick off various stone work tasks around the property, such as the work at Moss Eccles . This time however we were off to improve one of the access routes into one of our local quarries.  A beautiful place to work, but rather a lot of different challenges to contend with!

Spot the red jumpers! Beautiful work site, but many challenges...

First off we needed to get stone onto site.  Working in a quarry there was plenty to choose from, but getting it to the path was a mission in itself, especially as there was rather a lot of steep ground to contend with and rocks have a tendency to roll!

Step one, power barrow to top of site

Step two- roll carefully down onto path!

While we were doing this part of the job, we did close part of the quarry off to minimize risk to the public and it would appear that a local resident also took advantage, deciding to try out some of the more extreme pastures available in the Lakes!

Spot the sheep...

 With two of the team were getting stone onto site, the other two were sorting out some of the drainage that had washed the old path out in the first place.  Diverting water away from the path is always a key task as, more often than not, it's not people erosion that's the biggest problem, but in fact water.  Which with the amount of rain we get in the Lakes makes drainage quite a priority!

Drain at top of path...

...and another in middle!

With the recent wet weather, water is something we've most definitely seen plenty of.  At one point Sarah even appeared to be making a swimming pool rather than a path, the splash however when a stone was dropped in was particularly impressive!

Anyone for a swim?!

Having been working on the path for a couple of weeks now it's looking much better than it did before and it won't be long before we've finished.  It will also hopefully be much easier for the numerous outdoor groups that use the quarry. 

Part of the path being started....

...and it heading up and out of the quarry

So if you're in the area and you see us beavering away feel free to come over and have a chat, but one small request, please don't cook bacon in the immediate vacinty, it affects our productivity!

Interesting commute in and out to the work site

 Keep up to date with the team and our work by following us on twitter @ntlakesfells

By Sarah (Upland Ranger)