Celebrating Penpont!

Last weekend we attended the official opening and celebration of phase one of the Penpont to Thornhill active travel path – a real achievement.

Entrance to the path half way between the two communities

Although it was a very brisk and breezy early spring day, there was a good turnout of people who had come to celebrate this fantastic new link that opens up a safe route to Thornhill for people in the village – walking, wheeling or cycling.

KPT Development Trust Chair Maureen Halkett and MSP Oliver Mundell at the official opening of the path.

As we know from our Missing Links series, there are loads of places where a safe separated path that gives people an alternative to fast and busy rural roads would be welcome – but very few where the communities have been able to actually make that happen themselves.

Comments from local schoolchildren welcoming the path.

Rather than waiting for the council to deliver something, the KPT Development Trust have taken the lead on this path, providing some of the funding, liaising with landowners, getting the plans drawn up and ultimately delivering the building of phase one, which is the bulk of it (the path ends just before the bridge over the Nith to Thornhill).

the end of the path where it joins the road.

Although Sustrans and the Council have provided some of the funding, this has very much been the community’s project and it’s been a huge amount of work to create something of this high quality – while not always completely direct, the path is wide, smooth and wonderful to walk and cycle on – even into a biting headwind.

Not just for cyclists! The path seems popular with dog walkers and runners, as well as those trying to get into Thornhill by bike.

The KPT trust have also helped to build the case for the path, with their celebration of cycling weekends and mass bike rides, as well as tireless work in the community. This seems to have paid off in the support for the project, over the long years it has taken to get it off the ground.

The villages of Keir, Penpont and Tynron are fortunate to have an organisation like the KPT Development Trust, that had the vision to take on such a project and the resources (and people) to persist with it. We wish them well and hope that they can be an inspiration to any other communities who need a similarly safe route.

The Trust aren’t stopping there – they are continuing to build a cycling and active travel culture in the community, as befits the birthplace of the pedal cycle, and are taking over the KM (Kirkpatrick Macmillan) Rally – a celebration of cycling in the local area that will be taking place during the late May Bank Holiday weekend. We’ll be helping out providing family-friendly rides as part of the wider programme – please spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested in a weekend spent camping, cycling, eating and generally discovering the local area.