A FARMER is warning walkers to watch where they put their feet after hundreds of hikers turned one of his fields into a quagmire leaving it unusable for months.

Many of the walkers going over David Arnold's land at Hawkshead have bypassed the footpaths which run through his fields and instead have churned up the grassland.

Keen Ground Farm, which has been in Mr Arnold's family for generations, is on one of the most popular tourist routes between Hawkshead and Tarn Hows.

Two footpaths snake through Mr Arnold's property one to the tarn and one to the village.

Both paths are clearly signposted but the farmer says that walkers are instead cutting through his fields and turning them into a quagmire.

The sheer number of visitors has also meant that the footpaths themselves have widened dramatically and have formed a muddy swathe across his fields.

And the damage caused by hundreds of pairs of boots meant it was impossible to put 30 of his flock of Lleyn pedigree sheep out in the field to graze as he had planned, as there was no grass left.

Mr Arnold, 39, said: "At this time of year, when there is not much grass around, you rotate the sheep around the fields so they are not damaging the pasture. But this field is out of action now until March because there is nothing for the sheep to eat."

He added that many walkers were unaware of the damage they were doing to the eight-acre field as they strayed from the path.

"People start taking short cuts, if one person does it then they all do it. They are like sheep, they all follow each other," he said.

In the past Mr Arnold said that he had put up signs and ropes warning walkers to stick to the footpaths but said that these had been torn up by unknown vandals.

And although he had approached visitors walking through his fields, telling them they were not on the footpath, he was often met with "abrupt" replies.

"They think I am just the grumpy old farmer. You approach people and they look at you as if to say what harm am I doing?' They don't realise but how would they like it if someone trampled across their food, which is what they are doing to the sheep."

Mr Arnold stressed that he did not want to put visitors off coming to the national park, but asked walkers to think about where they wandered.

"It's not that I don't want people to enjoy themselves in the Lake District but there has got to be a balance people need to earn a living as well," he said.

Instead, Mr Arnold's sheep will now be spending the winter in other fields on the farm. The farmer believes that the damage to the field is financially detrimental because he could keep more stock, if he was sure the field would be in good condition.

Lake District National Park Authority spokesman Mick Casey said that if Mr Arnold contacted the authority, the body responsible for footpath repairs, about the state of the footpaths, it would be "prepared to go out and see what it could do.

"It is generally acknowledged that the fields around there get quite bad during wet weather," he said.