So the group helped the staff to experiment with the idea of a "subsoil" path. I've heard of these in upland areas but no one really knew how it would work out in the deer park.
There is path between the obelisk and farm walk along the edge of the deer sanctuary that had become very muddy due to a combination of rotting leaves, shadow, and poor drainage. We scrapped off the soft mud / leaf mould and found that there was a far firmer layer a few inches down. We then removed the top soil from a trench next to the line of the path, revealing a layer of sandy soil further down. This was then dug out onto the path, shaped to form a "camber", raked smooth and trodden down. We had quite a lot of fun with various combinations of volunteers treading the sand into place while trying to coordinate dance moves or space invader impressions! To finish the job and tidy up the top soil was used to part fill the trench, smoothing it out to leave the area as safe as possible, for both wildlife and humans. The raised bank of sand should stay comparatively dry and we hope will pack down to form a firm stable surface.
It will be interesting to monitor this section of path in the future to see how it behaves.
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