A MYSTERY benefactor has donated £10,000 to help repair one of West Cumbria’s best-loved fell paths.

Walla Crag, which overlooks Keswick, is used by thousands of walkers each year despite being blighted by a notorious 20-metre wide quagmire.

Now, thanks to the anonymous local donation, work has been completed on the 1,000ft peak using ancient techniques which utilise existing subsoil to create a natural dry route to the summit. 

Richard Fox, Fix the Fells ranger for the Lake District National Park, said he had been staggered by the generosity of the gift, but not surprised that someone locally wanted to put right a troublesome blot on the landscape.

He said: “The path at this point was 10 times wider than it needed to be, a really horrible area of ever-spreading wet bog which people had to plough through.

“This is a well-loved and much-used route to Bleaberry Fell, particularly for those living and staying in Keswick.

“It’s one of the few where you get that wonderful high fell feeling with very little effort, so you don’t have to be particularly fit or agile to reach the top and relish its unfolding sensational views.

“While every Lake District view is the nicest in many respects, this really is one of the best, taking in Catbells, Derwent Water, Buttermere fells and Causey Pike.

“I can imagine that someone who really loves the place wanted to make a real difference to all those who walk here by removing an unsightly and boggy obstacle, leaving Walla Crag to Bleaberry Fell a truly perfect experience.”

Fix the Fells has repaired over 200 fell routes across the Lake District and depends on donations and legacies to continue the work.

Mr Fox added: “We have now completed the work thanks to a method thousands of years old which uses subsoil, in this case boulder clay deposited 10,000 years ago by retreating glaciers.

“No material was brought in at all, the technique simply rearranged naturally occurring soils so the top one became the well-drained, hard-wearing, boulder clay."