Infrastructure Work - More Gates

At the top of our land, runs a footpath. Generally this is a positive thing, as most people are friendly and nice. But in the past we have had issues with dog walkers dogs attacking chickens or just running onto our land and juumping up on the children. 

It seems very few read the "keep your dog on a lead" sign.

So a number of years ago (2014) I planted a hedge across the top to give a wide access to a tractor but to also separate the footpath off. This has given us loads more privacy and made things much better.

Like all good jobs though, I hadn't finished it!

Damaged Stile

I've mentioned before that we've got a footpath that runs across the top of our fields. 

This doesn't cause me much concern for most of the time, I've had a few incidents with dog walkers dogs attacking chickens but on the whole it been fine, people shut gates and most are respectful of the country code. 

Yesterday a walker came up to the house and said they'd found the plywood that slides up and down to make it easier for dogs to go through down the field broken in half. It's not a thin bit of ply (5/8") so it would have taken some force to break. 

I was quite annoyed by this, for starters if my sheep had been in there then the lambs could have escaped, luckily they weren't. But mainly because some one went out of their way to damage it. 

For now I've screwed it shut and left a note explaining why it's shut and when I get chance I'll have to make another sliding gate for it. Part of me doesn't want to bother but then there are a few elderly walkers that will struggle lifting their dogs over. If I do repair it and it gets damaged again then the walkers will have to just use the stile and lift their dogs over. 

Do many stiles around where you live have access for dogs?