Footpath Hospitality

Posted by S on Sep 15, 2012 in S Posts | 5 comments

The highlight of this week for me has been time spent on just a fraction of the hundreds of miles of public footpaths that stripe the Lake District.  Yellow arrows on wooden posts declare public right-of-way, down roads, along fences, across fields, through pastures, up and down fells and knolls — much of this across privately owned property. We have been walking these paths (the boys prefer the term “hiking”) every day, sometimes following a planned route, and sometimes maplessly winding through the network by whichever way looks interesting or feels right.  These paths cross pastures, meadows, woodlands, creeks.  Through gates, over walls, around fences.  Fences here are used for hemming animals in, not keeping people out.  The sheep, cows and horses we share space with have become familiar friends to us — we stare at them, they stare at us, and we all keep our distance.

It took me a while to get used to this notion, traipsing across someone else’s land sheltering someone else’s animals.  Are we really supposed to be here?  Are you sure this is ok?  Where in the US have we ever found ourselves (on purpose) in a pasture with someone else’s livestock?  Even at our open visit farms at home, the fence separates us from the cows or sheep or horses.  How would this concept go over in our fenced-off suburbia?  At home, we are careful not to cut the corner on the way to the bus stop.  We are mindful to stay on the road as we walk so as not to mat down our neighbor’s grass, feeling self-conscious and apologetic if we have to fetch a stray ball from a neighbor’s bush.

The footpaths in this particular area also seem to serve as an intersection of community.  Dog-walkers, runners, families, serious hikers, evening strollers, children on their way to a friend’s farm. Visitors, vacationers, new neighbors, generational landowners.  Just yesterday, we met a homeschooling family and a woman who sings in the gospel choir of a nearby church. Most of the people I come across in the evening have a look about them, like they are thinking, “I’ve been looking forward to this all day.”  I feel so blessed to have shared in their secret.

Public footpath rules are simple:  Stay to the path.  Don’t bother the livestock.  Close the gate behind you.  The system surely can only work with landowners’ trust and visitors’ respect.

Simple concepts — Trust and Respect — that go a long way.

Hundreds of miles, in fact.