The Bob Graham Round holds a special place in the hearts of many hill, fell and trail runners across the globe. From American superstar Jack Kuenzle to local legend Billy Bland, it has a pull on the psyche of the adventurous and the bold.

The Round is split into five legs and each leg has its own character: leg one is the bog; leg two is the rolling Dodds; leg three is the mean one; leg four is the meaner; leg five is the run home – the victory lap or the dreaded sprint for the 24-hour deadline.

Over the years, I’ve supported several successful (and unsuccessful) attempts, and run sections of the route multiple times to familiarise myself with the ground. I know leg one the best – an unending climb up Skiddaw that sinks into the boggy marsh leading to Great Calva, followed by a fence-hugging descent.

During my many runs across those fells, I started to notice something. With each visit, the trod had widened and was encroaching further into the peatbog. At the same time, the wind seemed to whip harder across the fells as it ran, unimpeded, across the tops.

Working in conservation, I’m aware of just how precious peat and trees are, both for carbon capture and biodiversity. According to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), UK peatland is storing around 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon¹ – equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of India², and some more. In fact, each square metre of upland peat³ stores between 40kg and 200kg of CO2.

This process relies on peat remaining wet and submerged – there’s a reason it’s defined as a wetland! If it’s damaged or dries out, it begins to release carbon into the atmosphere. In the UK, around 80% of our peatlands are damaged⁴, meaning damaged peat now contributes around 3.5%⁵ to the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions. 

Looking out across the foggy heath and wetland of the Skiddaw Massif, knowing one false step can result in a thigh-deep plunge into a bog, it might be hard to imagine the landscape is in a deteriorating condition. But it is – and, unfortunately, runners tackling the Bob Graham play a part in that. For every attempt, there are several support runners, and multiple recces run, each slowly degrading the state of the peat and heath.

At the same time, you’d be hard pressed to hear the sound of anything but meadow pipits and skylarks over the rush of the wind. The truth is, this wild landscape isn’t as wild as we think⁶. With healthy peatland and woodland cover, it could be teeming with life.

As runners, it can be difficult to see the impact we’re having on our landscapes over the short-term, but I invite you to look at the trods and paths of the Bob Graham Round and see how worn they have become. Though we might recognise the weight of our carbon footprints on our environment, perhaps not enough of us appreciate the physical impact of the footprints we leave behind. It’s time to change that.

This is why I encourage runners to support Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s Skiddaw Forest fundraiser. If the Trust reaches its fundraising goal and purchases Skiddaw Forest, it will maintain all access routes to the area. The Bob Graham Round will always go through here and our footprints will always have an impact – but we can also give back to the landscape by supporting efforts to restore it.

If we’re to fight the climate emergency, we need more projects like this one to restore our uplands so they can capture carbon and provide vital habitats for wildlife. What happens to people and nature over the following centuries will be determined by the action we take to protect our world today. You and I could be part of this pioneering project to restore a stunning upland landscape for generations of runners, walkers and wildlife to come and enjoy.

Ross Brannigan is a writer & environmentalist who is part of The Green Runners, a running community making changes for a fitter planet. The Green Runners are proud to support Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s Skiddaw Forest fundraiser.

^{1 https://www.ceh.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Peatland%20factsheet.pdf
2 https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions
3 https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/publications/factsheet-peatlands-fore…
4 https://www.iucn-uk-peatlandprogramme.org/about-peatlands/peatland-dama…
5 https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0668/#:~:text=UK%…).
6 https://stateofnature.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/TP25999-State-o…}