RAMBLERS will this weekend complete a challenge to walk along more than 2,000 miles of the public footpath and bridleway network in County Durham.

Last year, the Ramblers' Association (RA) set the challenge to local groups to walk all the footpaths in England and Wales between the 2006 spring equinox and this year's autumn equinox.

The organisation hopes the Use Your Paths challenge will raise the profile of the rights of way network.

There are 2,152 miles of paths and bridleways in County Durham and, on Saturday, Durham and Darlington ramblers will meet to walk the final four miles.

They will gather at the Queen's Head pub, in Cockfield, at noon for the celebratory last walk and are hoping for a large turnout.

The county was divided into squares and all the paths within each square were walked by teams of ramblers.

Roger Carpenter, who co-ordinated the effort, said: "Thanks to the efforts of RA members and other walkers, we should achieve the challenge of walking all the footpaths in the County Durham area.

"Thanks especially to all those people who walked squares in part or in whole, and to those walk leaders who passed on details of their walks so that they could be included in the challenge."

Several hundred problems discovered by the walkers have been reported to Durham County Council, which is responsible for the footpath network. The concerns range from problems with stiles, to missing bridges over streams.

Most paths were negotiated without serious problems.