The National Trust has seen a 40% increase in the overall popularity of its downloadable walking routes which take visitors to many of the National Trust properties around Britain.
There are currently around 240 walks on National Trust land available from the web site, although the trust hopes to increase this to around 1000 National Trust walks by 2012. In 2010, more than 350,000 walks were downloaded with the Bath skyline walk proving to be the most popular averaging 14,000 downloads during the year.
Second in the download list was Alderley Edge in Cheshire, often regarded as one of the most affluent areas of the country with many of the North West’s top footballers living there. The walk itself however focuses more on the ancient mines and woodland beauty of the area.
The third most downloaded was Flatford Mill in Suffolk which was made famous by Constable and his landscape paintings which adorn many National Trust properties. Ashridge in the Chilterns was forth and Clumber Park in Nottinghamshire was fifth, possibly due to the close connections to Sherwood Forest and of course Robin Hood who myth states came from nearby Edwinstowe.
The trust also wants to add cycle routes, horse-riding routes and canoe trails to the trails to increase the diversity and access to its lands.
The full top 10 downloaded National Trust walking routes were:
1 Bath Skyline, Somerset (14,066 downloads)
2 Alderley Edge, Cheshire (8,494)
3 Flatford, Suffolk (6,582)
4 Ashridge, Hertfordshire (6,071)
5 Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire (6,005)
6 Knole, Kent (5,246)
7 Stourhead, Wiltshire (4,964)
8 Brownsea Island, Dorset (4,724)
9 Formby, Merseyside (4,541)
10 Lansallos, Cornwall (4,177)
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