We are taking a rest day today in Richmond, doing laundry, visiting castles, eating curries. But this day off walking presents an ideal opportunity to write a special feature on a topic very dear to any Coast-to-Coast walkers heart - stiles.
The majority of the Coast-to-Coast passes through farmland. Even the moors, and hills of the Lake District, are grazed. Meaning that farmers get 20 plus people a day walking across their land, opening gates, maybe closing gates, maybe not closing gates, maybe freeing cattle and sheep to roam, well, free. The "solution" is stiles. A stile is described in the dictionary as - a series of steps or rungs by means of which a person may pass over a wall or fence which remains an obstacle to sheep or cattle. In the Yorkshire Dales the Coast-to-Coast walker passes through more than 25 paddocks a day.
To reduce the risk of a farm gate being left open, each paddock along the route has stiles built into it. The walker doesn't have to open a gate, instead they just walk through a stile that stock cannot get through. It is a nice theory, but sometimes the stiles are a bit of a tight fit.
Some of the stiles have been sponsored by the RSPA (the Royal Society for the Promotion of Anorexia),
and some of the stiles are staffed by border control cows - What is the purpose of your visit to the paddock?
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