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The Pennine Way | |
| Introduction Edale Crowden Globe Farm Slack Top Ponden Thornton Malham Horton Hawes Tan Hill |
 The foaming waters of Cauldron Snout, Teesdale |
Bowes Middleton Langdon Beck Dufton Garrigill Alston Greenhead Twice Brewed Bellingham Byrness Uswayford |
The Pennine Way is a 250 to 270 mile (410 to 443 km) trail from Edale in Derbyshire (England) to Kirk Yetholm in Roxburghshire (Scotland). The length of the Pennine Way depends on which guidebook you use, the route you take (there are a couple of options) and any excursions away from the Pennine Way. It was first proposed by the rambler and journalist Tom Stephenson in 1935 and officially opened on 24th April 1965, at a gathering of over 2000 walkers at Malham Moor in the Yorkshire Dales. Since then thousands of people each year have traversed the Pennine Way in part or whole. This first and longest of the English hill-walks is under constant renovation as the effects of so many people are felt.
Information for the walk can be gathered from the following guidebooks:
The National Trail Guides -
Pennine Way South (Edale to Bowes) (Amazon.com) and
Pennine Way North (Bowes to Kirk Yetholm) (Amazon.com) - written by Tony Hopkins, published by Aurum
Press Ltd. in association with the Countryside Commission and the Ordinance
Survey. These books cover the whole route in considerable detail with extracts
from Ordinance Survey maps showing the route. There is good advice on how to
walk the Pennine Way, what to take and what to expect. Included are a number of
articles about features met on the Pennine Way - read especially the one on
peat and blanket bogs on pages 44-45 of the southern book. As an added bonus
there are a number of circular walks described that take in some part of the
Pennine Way. At the back of each book there is a section of useful information
- transport, accommodation, useful addresses, the OS maps to use and other
books to have a look at.
Pennine Way Companion - a pictorial guide (Amazon.com) by A. Wainwright - a famous Lake District
walker and journalist who died in 1993. This is the classic Pennine Way guide
written in 1968. It is well worth any money spent for A. Wainwright's style of
wit, his unique presentation of the route, the many well executed pen sketches
and his notes on the history, geology and biology of the countryside. The book
is entirely hand written! It is no longer as accurate as it was - keep an eye
out for an updated version (hopefully in keeping with A. Wainwright's style).
If you want to keep your guidebooks in mint condition to enjoy in
the evenings then the Footprint booklets,
Pennine Way Part 1: South and
Pennine Way Part 2: North provide enough information to
keep you on the right track (and are cheap and light).
Also have a look at my
Pennine Way Fact File.
Most of the guidebooks describe the Pennine Way as "tough". By New Zealand standards, it is an average tramp - there are no long steep sections, no river fording and few navigation problems. Two factors though make it more suitable for fairly fit and experienced trampers.
Firstly there are large sections of the first 3 days and the last 2
days (over the Cheviot hills) that trudge their way through bogs. These bogs
are not just a few patches of mud. The blanket bog on the Kinder plateau and
Featherbed Moss consists of square miles of black peat to a average depth of
over 3 feet. On top of this is a crust of moss and other water-loving plants.
Erosion by water and walkers boots form channels (groughs or cloughs if they
hold flowing water) which can be up to 6 feet deep. Navigation through these
groughs can be quite confusing (I can definitely vouch for that!). Improvements
are being made with boardwalks over the boggier patches in the Cheviots and
stone causeways in the southern bogs.
If you do the Pennine Way in one go (as I did) then you face the
strain of walking many miles each day, every day for up to 3 weeks. I was lucky
in that my only injuries were quite large blisters on an a heel during the
second day (caused by wet boots from the bog-trotting) which cleared up by the
fifth day. I suggest that you set a reasonable daily limit (mine was 16 miles
(26 km)) and have at least 1 rest day.
Despite the previous paragraph, I have heard of an American family with a 9 year old girl who did the Pennine Way and walked some of the way with a retired bloke. So age is no barrier.
Access to the start in Edale is quite easy by public transport since there is a railway station with regular trains from Manchester and Sheffield. I have tried both ways and the train journey in from Sheffield is longer but much more scenic than that from Manchester. What little I saw of Sheffield was also prettier than Manchester. The only public transport from Kirk Yetholm is buses (frequent Monday to Saturday but only 3 on Sunday).
Accommodation of various sorts is available in most places. In general the further north you go, the less accommodation there is on hand. I have lists of hotels, pubs, B&B, Youth Hostels and camp sites on my pages. However I cannot guarantee that these are up to date. I suggest that you order the National Trail leaflet which includes general information about the trail, an accommodation guide and a public transport guide.
The guidebooks above have good enough maps to keep you on track but you
may want maps for a larger area, e.g. to identify distant features. The
Ordnance Survey Landranger maps that cover the Pennine Way are:
0109:
Manchester, Bolton & Warrington
0103:
Blackburn & Burnley, Clitheroe & Skipton
0098:
Wensleydale & Upper Wharfedale
0092:
Barnard Castle and Surrounding Area
0091:
Appleby-in-Westmoorland
0087:
Hexham & Haltwhistle
0086:
Haltwhistle & Brampton, Bewcastle & Alston
0080:
Cheviot Hills & Kielder Water
0075:
Berwick-upon-Tweed
0074:
Kelso & Coldstream, Jedburgh & Duns
I did the Pennine Way in 1991 - there have probably been changes so don't use this as a definitive route guide! For example, the path across Featherbed Moss has been improved by being paved with stone slabs and there are similar causeways laid over many of the boggier parts.
| The Pennine Way - August/September 2004 |
| Lots of photos and a good description of Shirl's trip. |
| The Pennine Way, May and June, 2002 |
| Lots of photos with a bit of description. |
|
John's Pennine Way |
| A well documented trip done July 1st - 16th 2000 with tons of photos. |
| Walks N' Talks (1997). |
| A good set of diaries on various long distance walks. |
|
The Pennine
Way by Ian Steele |
| Lots on information based on his 1995 trip. |
| A
Pennine Diary by George Tod |
| This is the tale of his second traverse of the Pennine Way in 1994, going north to south. It has a number of good photos and there is also an account of his 1991 trip. |
|
Spotlight's Pennine
Way |
| This site has a great description of the walk, includes an on-line accommodation booking service and offers a baggage transfer service. |
|
The Pennine Way |
| This is the official National Trails site for the Pennine Way. A wonderful site for planning your conquest of the Pennine Way - a good map, accommodation guides and lots of information. |
|
Pennine Way Association |
| A short description of the Pennine Way with distances, tips and addresses. |
|
The Malham area |
| YorkshireNet description of Malham (nice pictures). |
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