Let everyone share the health benefit
Sara Barnes makes a plea to protect access for less mobile visitors and the importance of the outdoors on our mental health.
I know the Crummock lakeshore intimately. I have been both an active and less mobile visitor over the years. I know what works with a wheelchair, pushchair, on crutches and what becomes impossible.
So the car park at Lanthwaite Woods is a rare and precious place providing ample parking from which a broad, flat track runs through Ancient Woodland filled with the sounds of songbirds and the burbling river Cocker. You are invited to slow down, breathe in the scent of wild garlic, bluebells and catch glimpses of woodpeckers, red squirrels and the occasional deer. At dusk owls call to each other as everything calms down for the night.
Easy tracks through Lanthwaite Wood. (Courtesy Andrew Locking)
After 15 minutes or so, you catch glimpses of something glittering, revealed gradually. And, then, there she is. Crummock Water in her full beauty. This view is iconic and makes you catch your breath every time. Whatever her mood, she is stunning.
A breathtaking view - whatever the weather. (Courtesy Andrew Locking)
This beach, which is made up of tiny shingle, crushed by the waves over thousands of years, is easy to walk around, for kids to paddle in the gravelly shallows, or just perch under the well loved Scots pine with a book and watch the minnows race.
I make conversation with people on the shore. it is a place of connection with each other, a community space for those who might otherwise not see another person, such is the enormity of social isolation and loneliness in our rural area. It offers inclusivity, positive wellbeing and healthy outdoor activity, all on the doorstep of some of Cumbria’s poorest social and economic west coast communities.
With an increasing number of studies concluding that being outdoors is essential for our wellbeing and is a natural need driven by our primal brain, it is no wonder that doctors are now prescribing Getting Outside alongside traditional medicines. We are seeing an increase in forest bathing, rewilding, back to nature therapists working alongside the NHS to reverse our device addicted nation.
Helen. A regular visitor to the Lake.
We all benefit from being able to access open spaces such as Crummock Water and this access must be protected and retained.
Sara Barnes
