The Swine Tail area of Ingleborough

An appeal to raise cash to repair a heavily used path on the Yorkshire Three Peaks route is more than a fifth of the way to its target after only eight days.

The British Mountaineering Council’s Mend our Mountains campaign is backing the Yorkshire Dales authority’s bid for £10,000 for the route on Ingleborough.

The Swine Tail path on the 723m (2,372ft) peak is used by thousands of walkers and runners each year who tackle the 39km (24-mile) challenge of summiting Pen-y-ghent, Whernside and Ingleborough.

The repair project is just one in the BMC’s campaign, which aims to raise £100,000 for schemes put forward by national parks in England and Wales. Outdoor enthusiasts can pledge cash to individual schemes or to the overall project via a Crowdfunder website.

More than £26,000 has so far been promised by donors, with the Ingleborough repairs attracting bids of more than £2,600 since the Mend our Mountains launch.

Steve Hastie, the Authority’s Three Peaks Manager, said: “This is a great start and we are hoping people will dip into their pockets and come up with all the cash by the time the campaign closes on May 14.

“We’ve got some excellent rewards for the different levels of donations people make, ranging from fantastic Damart clothing to a helicopter ride round Ingleborough.

“The Swine Tail network has really suffered because of the huge numbers of walkers using it each year and it is badly eroded.

“It needs a lot of work doing to it including helicopter airlifts of flagstones, and that can be very expensive. But, when the work is completed, walkers will certainly be able to see the difference.”

The Mend our Mountains campaign is being backed by celebrities including mountaineers Sir Chris Bonington and Doug Scott and TV presenter Julia Bradbury.

The campaign will run to 14 May and the money raised will be channelled to the different projects through the BMC’s Access & Conservation Trust.