A CUMBRIAN charity which provides exciting outdoor adventure holidays for people with learning difficulties and disabilities reached new heights this week when it opened what is thought to be the UK's first wheelchair-accessible high ropes course.

The Lake District Calvert Trust welcomed its first thrill-seekers who took on the challenge on Tuesday.

The centre, based on the shores of Bassenthwaite Lake, saw 18 wheelchair users - members of the Back Up Trust, which supports people affected by spinal cord injuries - make their way round the swinging course.

Julie Hill, who led the trip, thought it was "fantastic" that it coincided with their visit to the centre.

"As a group of wheelchair users, we’ve taken great delight over the last couple of days in testing this new activity out before anyone else gets to use it.

"As a specialist centre, the Calvert Trust was already a great destination for us, but this is really the icing on the cake and not something we’d be able to do anywhere else in the country.”

Sean Day, centre director, said the Calvert Trust is always looking for innovative ways to challenge residents and make visits even more exciting.They decided a woodland space at the back of the centre would make a great place for the new addition of a high ropes course. After two years of planning work started at the beginning of the year to install the course.

"We already have a wheelchair-accessible challenge course and zipwire on our site, so our task was to think about how to make a high ropes course accessible so it could get maximum use from our visitors. We wanted to create a unique course that could challenge both those with learning difficulties and also those with restricted mobility,” said Mr Day.

It's been built by high ropes specialist Technical Outdoor Solutions, who say it is unique to the UK. Craig Palmer, the company's managing director, said they were "delighted" to be involved.

"As far as we are aware, this is the first one in the UK which makes it even more special.

"Hopefully, we’ll be able to use the expertise gained here to build others around the country to further help those with disabilities enjoy the thrills and fun that high ropes courses can offer."

The £84,000 facility has been funded by the Harold and Alice Bridges Charity, the Bailey Thomas Charitable Fund, the Leathersellers’ Company, and a personal donation from Michael Toulmin, who was a trustee of the charity until 2015.

The high ropes course will be incorporated into the centre's activities programme sitting alongside other activities including sailing, canoeing, horse-riding and abseiling.