Logo’s a no go!

Richard Wyatt

Images l have published from my early morning walks has prompted Bruce Jelly to send me an email about another well-known and used city trail

Bruce writes:
‘I know that you walk on the other side of the valley.
The Skyline walk is a great facility open to everyone.
I believe that there is an organisation that has received funds and promotes activities.
Could the Skyline be improved?
1) Yellow soon fades whereas the other signs in black or red stand out.
2) There are no signs at numerous junctions where it’s easy to go wrong but somewhere there is only one way to go.
3) Signs support clockwise walking but leave anticlockwise walkers lost.
4) Using QR codes on signs would provide walkers with details of the route and things to look out for etc with minimal intrusion.
IMG_20200517_155839
My suggestion is that someone who doesn’t know the walk goes with a Skyline officer to identify the numerous failures/weakness in the current signage.
With a fund available and few walking during the lockdown, this would be an ideal time to upgrade the signs.’
Sounds reasonable. What do others think?

Published by Richard Wyatt

Freelance Journalist, broadcaster, columnist and local historian. Director of Bath Newseum. Married and lives in Bath. Interested in local history, architecture and visual display in museums and urban spaces.

6 Comments

  2. My own experience, doing the walk for the first time last summer, anti-clockwise (random choice), completely supports this overview of signage.
    The yellow fades because it contains red pigment which is notoriously prone to fade in UV light.

  3. Totally agree, its well promoted, and a lovely walk, but very badly signed. We tried to follow it anticlockwise and went ‘off piste’ several times!
    Bob

  4. Completely agree Richard. Every time I’ve tried to follow this route relying on signage alone I’ve lost the path. There’s nothing worse than going for a walk with children and getting lost, tired and frustrated.

  5. I’m up to volunteer to be the “person who does not know the walk”. It has been something I’ve always wanted to do but never get round to it. My daily exercise recently has certainly made me fit enough!

  6. I am entering a comment that was emailed to me by Tom Marshall:

    ‘Firstly the Skyline Walk is not a “City Trail”. It passes through actively farmed land and wildflower meadows and needs to be nurtured and cherished. There is a growing danger that the ‘Skyline Walk’ becomes ever more park-like and less and less like a walk in the country. I live on the route and have seen its use grow exponentially over the past ten years. It is not a prescribed circular route, and one of the great things about it is that is can be joined and left at many places, it is still, just, a voyage of discovery rather than a Centre Parks trail. If anyone does get ‘lost’ this is not the Australian outback!
    I can also testify that far from there being fewer walkers during the lockdown, it is being used by many, many more people every day, and that has inevitably brought with it more litter and more carefully packaged dog poo left by the side of the path or posted in hedges! (See an earlier post of yours)
    There is a huge number of signs scattered along its route – some useful – but many more totally unnecessary, so please fewer signs not more.’

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