Sheep's wool used to make 'floating Roman footpaths'

A PATH-BUILDING technique borrowed from the Romans has been used to rebuild a route on Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon).

- By ANDREW FORGRAVE Countryside and Tourism Editor

It's underpinned by hundreds of sheep fleeces which act as a base on which the path “floats”.

As the method is particularly good for crossing boggy areas, it was selected for the footpath in Cwm Llan on the southeastern flanks of Yr Wyddfa.

Nearby runs the popular but demanding Watkin Path to the mountain's summit.

A 60-metre section of footpath was constructed, half of which used fleeces taken from Welsh Mountain sheep grazed by the National Trust's Hafod Y Llan farm nearby, and flown to the site by helicopter.

“There were about 200-300 fleeces used, given to us for free from the farm,” said Ifan Parry, National Trust Cymru area ranger in Eryri (Snowdonia).

“Sadly, the price of wool is extremely low in the UK and it costs more to shear the sheep than you get from selling the wool.”

From Bronze Age times, people have used a variety of natural methods for crossing wet ground, including bundles of willow and hazel, woven hessian and flat stones.

Traces of these techniques can still be found in submerged sections off the Welsh coast.

Wool provides a good medium as it is durable and has good compressional strength.

“This sheep wool fleece technique in paths was used by the Romans,” said Ifan.