Although things aren’t quite back to normal we can at least meet up outside and enjoy some of the benefits for both our physical and mental health of the area’s wonderfully rich heritage. So as spring turns into summer there is plenty on offer for you to get involved with safely. We have a series of Wednesday Health and Heritage walks, supplemented on the occasional Saturday with some longer walks including ones in Great Asby on 17^th July.

Nicola’s been running some innovative sound walks too with sound artist Dan Fox and there are plenty of other activities including events with Cumbria Wildlife Trust as part of National Meadows Day. We’ve also been able to support the production of a film promoting an Accessible Westmorland Dales and are consulting with local parishes and people on our interpretive plans for the area. Finally, we’re hoping to get a couple of new projects moving later in the summer with a trial test pit in Ravenstonedale and keyhole excavations at Little Asby Common.

You can find out more about these two projects at our forthcoming webinars in August and September by which time details should be a bit clearer. But first up is a webinar on the 7th July on some of the upland birds we’d expect to see and hear in the Westmorland Dales, particularly at this time of year. You'll need to RESERVE A PLACE to join us on this webinar. Although the emphasis is on events and activities outside we know that many of you, often from further away or with limited mobility, have really appreciated these online events. So they will be a monthly fixture for the foreseeable future. Nearly 730 people have attended our online events to date, and there have been a further 960 viewings of our recordings.

And finally we’re just in the process of recruiting our latest group of apprentices, so by the end of the summer we should have a few new faces around. Enjoy the summer and we hope to see you out and about at some point.