Pennine Way

The Pennine Way was the first and probably the best known of all the UK National Trails although with the recent announcement that the Coast to Coast walk from St. Bees to Robin Hoods Bay is also to become a National Trail, then I expect the Pennine Way to become a distant second in the near future. It's a long one at 268 miles and that's why we decided it was just a bit too much to do in one hit with both of us having full time jobs. So we decided to split it into two sections, a Southern Section from Edale to Middleton-in-Teesdale, which was the one we did first in 2021 and then a Northern Section from Middleton-in-Teesdale to Kirk Yetholm in Scotland which was completed in 2023.

It's quite a tough one, with a lot of wear and tear on your feet and legs with all the hard stone slabs making for fast but often tiring walking.

Some good parts, some excellent parts but also some mundane treks across moorland and those relentless stone slabs - the Pennine Way is certainly one for the lone walker who likes to get away from the throng of popular and busy walks. There's a lack of places to visit and planning is not straightforward as often there are few options on where to stay - but lets face it, the whole journey is high along the Pennine range in it's entirety, so it's only to be expected I suppose.

My favourite places on the entire walk were Malham Cove, Malham Tarn, Pen-y-ghent, High Force, High Cup Nick, Hadrians Wall and of course, The Cheviots.