Work under way to tackle soil erosion at beauty spot

Conservationists in the Peak District are working with nature to tackle soil erosion on an ancient hillfort site on Mam Tor.

Rangers working for the National Trust have installed special hessian matting impregnated with grass seed on the burial mound in Derbyshire to encourage regrowth.

The National Trust says a third of England's population lives within an hour's drive of the Peak District and the area attracts millions of walkers each year.

Mam Tor's popularity with walkers has caused significant erosion in some areas, the National Trust has said, meaning replacement top soil has had to be brought in by helicopter.

The site on Mam Tor is not accessible by road so National Trust ranger Chris Lockyer says helicopters and quad bikes are used to bring in the top soil and rocks needed to repair paths, some of which are 1,696ft (517m) above sea level.

"Working in these environments is often the biggest part of the job, so huge numbers of hours of staff and volunteer time is needed to get all this material up here, even before we can start doing the repairs themselves," he told the BBC.

Jon Pearce, MP for High Peak in Derbyshire, said a "TikTok craze" had led social media users to the area to see the sunrise and sunset at Mam Tor, causing the "increasingly untenable" state of parking at beauty spots in the Peak District.

He wrote to Peak District authorities calling for "immediate and decisive action".

"The vegetation surface has been worn away by heavy footfall, revealing the soil underneath," Mr Lockyer said.

"It's also incredibly exposed up here so we use wooden pegs to hold the hessian in place, protecting it from the elements. And like the hessian, they too will eventually rot down naturally."

Work has also been carried out to rebuild a collapsed entrance at Odin Mine nearby, known for its iconic open cave and limestone gorge.

The sealed mine entrance sits underneath Old Mam Tor Road and - due to an active landslip and extreme weather - was at risk of collapse.

Working alongside Historic England and external contractors, the stonework of the mine entrance has been rebuilt, and improved drainage will prevent future structural damage from water run-off.

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