Does anyone know the Dovedale stepping stones?

[steppemum]

next year I will be close to these with a kids group/camp.
I'd love to walk there and let the kids walk across.

But I am sure it would fail a risk assessment.
What do you think?

How would you make it work?
Do I just need to show parents a photo and get their permission when they drop kids off??

How old are the kids? The stones are large and the water is shallow. Lots of people paddle in the summer. It does get very busy though.

The stepping stones are across a wide section of river, depending on the weather before you go it’s generally not very deep so even if someone does step off the stone they’re unlikely to fall in.

I don’t know anything about risk assessments for kids, but I don’t think it’d be overly risky.

Take a towel & few changes of clothes!? I agree it does get busy.

I know the stones, but don't know much about risk assessment!

My 4 year old can do them so they're easy enough, and worst case scenario is a soggy foot. The water is shallow and not fast.

kids aged 6-12, but lots of adults.

How shallow (I mean I know that on the day it may be effected by rain)

If they fell off, could they stand up? Or would they be washed downstream?

When are you going and how many in the group? The stones are really busy in the summer and I have seen queues of people waiting to cross from both sides.

kids plus adults = 40
summer holidays.

but, I could do it so we went out early, and got there before the rush.
staying about 1 mile away, so about half an hour's walk I should think.

Really shallow! Typically up to your ankles shallow! They're not very hazardous, that age group will he fine. They get hellish busy though.

I’d say it is knee deep and not fast flowing.

Here's a photo. They're not knee deep.

We've been on a fair few school trips there! It's fun and quite safe as stepping stones go

chitty - is that knee deep on me or knee deep on the 6 year old

ILikeyourHairyHands we cross posted.

Maybe knee deep was an over estimate but it was deeper than your pictures when I went. I was trying to give a ‘worst - case’ senario rather than best case.

This is slightly along from the stepping stones. My 6 year old is in the blue hoodie.

Oh that is a very reassuring photo. The ones I've seen (mostly on the National Trust site) are taken sort of from above, and it looks deeper and more dangerous.

Great, I'll be thinking how to word the risk assessment, which will definitely have to include an adult willing to jump in (paddle) and a few towels!

I may be able to visit on a saturday afternoon this summer, so should get a good look at how busy they are.

Oh brilliant chitty, thanks, was she barefoot?

I'm now thinking picnic and paddle as well as crossing the stones

It's not very deep at all. I take part in a race called the Dovedale Dash that goes across the stones. About 90% of the people don't bother going across the stones and just run through the water instead.

If the water is deeper than knee deep on an adult the stones are under water so it would be obvious. Generally the water is shallow, probably deep enough to go over a 6 yr old's welly but not deep enough to come up to their bottom.

The risk is similar to using play equipment that is raised up a similar height. Risk of drowning is low if the children are fit and well, although obviously water should be respected, it isn't deep or very fast flowing.

Try looking for pictures of the dovedale dash to see how deep it is when an adult goes through the river, it is a fell run that crosses the river by the stepping stones.

The dovedale dash is in November so the water is higher at that time of year than in summer

My school used to do an annual residential to the Peak District and doing the Dovedale stepping stones was the highlight!
We no longer do but it's got absolutely nothing to do with the stepping stones.

feeling very encouraged!
Thanks all

I have terrible balance but can manage them fine so the kids should be ok - once I made it across without incident whilst clutching an 8 month old! We were trying to beat a very rapidly approaching thunderstorm

The only risk assessment you’ll need is for everyone getting impatient about the length of time it takes in the queue to get across during busy times - and the tricky matter of which direction gets priority.

They need traffic lights.

Upstream a few yards there is a bit of a pool which when we were there was just about deep enough to swim in (May be waist deep in deepest bit) but slow flowing. The small hill beside it is quite a nice easy climb as well (though steepish in parts and possible to fall down some bits off route).

I've walked across them, the water wasn't that deep but the stones were really slippy...and I went in up to my knees!