Getting ‘Clued Up’ About Paths

For most people, you know you have been on a good path when you can look up and enjoy the view and not what is beneath your feet, when you don’t arrive back home with your wellies and the dog covered in mud, and when you can find your way easily without getting anxious or lost. Usually this does not happen by chance. Paths need careful planning, constructing, and signposting and most important of all, they need looking after to keep them in good shape.

From doing simple maintenance to building a bridge, choosing a suitable path surface to finding a suitable contractor there is a lot to learn and sometimes some difficult choices to make. These pages are designed to help you develop some path ‘know how’, whatever level you are working at. There is advice and training available, National Path Demonstration Sites to visit, a lot of tried and tested ideas and designs to make use of and some information about how legislation underpins how paths are planned and managed.