What we do
Peak & Northern Footpaths Society (PNFS) is a community of individuals and organisations committed to protecting your right to access the outdoors. We do this by monitoring, protecting and improving public rights of way such as footpaths and bridleways. Since 1894, PNFS has defended the rights of everyone to use these routes and held landowners and councils to account in their duty to maintain them.
This work is entirely undertaken by our team of dedicated volunteers. If you have a passion for enjoying the great outdoors, please join us today
See all of our volunteering opportunities here.
Join us
Where and how we do it
We cover: Lancashire, West Yorkshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire.
Our Footpath Inspectors look at the rights of way in their area, report faults and obstructions to the accountable local authority and work with them to reach a satisfactory result. Although we prefer negotiation to confrontation, we do take court action when necessary to protect the network for all users. This is the role of our Courts & Inquiries team.
At PNFS we believe that protecting rights of way is our fundamental purpose. This is why we continually fund improvements to their infrastucture, including planting signposts and building bridges. Our Signpost Team have so far planted over 400 signposts and installed 30 bridges across our area.
More information:
Footpath Inspectors Courts & Inquiries Signpost TeamSignposts, footbridges and more
Here are some of the signposts, footbridges, footpaths, bridleways and byways that we have funded and in many cases installed or maintained.