16 walks to represent the entire UK??
Was what the marketing department wanted, so it had to be done... [1100 words, 5 mins
Writing ‘The Hillwalking Bible’1, they asked me to include 16 routes to be described in detail. Just sixteen, to stand for the whole of the UK’s hills and mountains, our lakesides and riversides, our tracks and trails and long distance paths.
Here’s a quick photo tour of the ones I went for.
1. Walla Crag
Cat Bells is the one that everybody climbs. And then puts it on Instagram where everybody else sees it and wants to climb it too. As a way of not going up Cat Bells, I put in Walla Crag on the other side of the same lake. Less of a pointy peak than Cat Bells, but with the bonus of a boat trip to begin with, a ramble along a clifftop overlooking the water, a couple of bluebell woods and a café with ice cream in on the way down.
2. Halls Fell, Blencathra
As an introduction to rocks and scrambling I first climbed this, in the snow, aged just 6 – my Dad was well to the left on the adventurous-sensible spectrum. My own kids went up it aged 9 and 11, and I’ve been up and down it ever since.
3. Hartington Valleys
As it’s the UK’s most well positioned national park, midway between Manchester and Sheffield, I had to include the Peak District. As the name doesn’t suggest, it’s largely peak-free: but great walking doesn’t have to head for the heights.
4. Kinder Scout
On the other hand, it helps if you do… I chose slightly less frequented routes up to Kinder’s plateau edge and down off it again. But the walk between the blobby rocks along the plateau’s edge is as busy as such a fine route deserves to be.
5. Great Gable
The best hill in England. ’Nuff said.
6. Yorkshire limestone
Not just ever-popular Ingleborough, but the weird landscape lying below it. Even a quick trip underneath, exploring the famous show cave. And there’s a nice bit of woodland on this one as well.
7. Jurassic Coast
Coastwalking is different anyway – but walking on chalk is even more outré. The outing from Durdle Door to Osmington is surprisingly strenuous in terms of up and down, with a thrilling smugglers’ path through the cliffs on the way back again. Just avoid it in high summer.
8. Moel Siabod
Moving on to Wales, Snowdon is of course superb. But Snowdon’s also so crowded you can’t even get into the car park. And Snowdon’s best routes do ask for a slightly higher level of hill skill. So I’ve offered a nearby hill with smaller paths, a bi of riverside, and a touch of hands-on rock action. The bonus being the views across to Snowdon.
9. Pen y Fan
The terraced sandstone of south Wales is quite different from everywhere else. A ramble in from the south gives the full flavour of the long ridges, the easy grassy paths, and the sudden drops to the Vale of Brecon.
10. Ben Lomond
Ben Nevis, by the so-called Mountain Trail (formerly the ‘Pony Path’) is one of the harshest things in hillwalking. Save the big Ben for when you’re up for its bouldery ridge around the back. Meanwhile, for starters, Ben Lomond has a huge lake underneath, a well-made path up, and an airy ridgeline along the top. Then there’s the rather more rugged Ptarmigan ridgeline to come down by if you like.
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11. Meall nan Tarmachan
And for a second 3000-footer, the Tarmachans (actually a miniature hill range) offer a nice high car park, rugged, lumpy terrain, and slightly more challenging route finding and navigation.
12 St Cuthbert’s Way
For a first taste of long-distance walking, day after day in a line across the country, the pilgrimage in the footsteps (as it were) of St Cuthbert’s corpse is just about ideal. At 100km it’s nice and short; at up to 300m altitude it’s not too seriously up-and-down; it takes in two different countries along a varied terrain of small hills and big rivers, woodland and moorland and little country towns. While saving the best bit to the end: barefoot across the mud to the isle of Lindisfarne.
13 Tour de Scafell Pike
Youth hostels are the closest thing we have to mountain huts. A five day hostel-to-hostel circuit is just one of 1000 Lakeland tours you could do without needing to carry much more than for a normal daywalk. That’s the isolated Black Sail hostel – and yes, another picture of Great Gable.
14 West of the West Highland Way
But if you are prepared to take up the extra baggage, a heavy rucksack across Highland Scotland offers an extra level of commitment and delight. West of Loch Lomond and south of Fort William is spectacular mountain ground; but with long valleys running through, pretty good paths, a few sheltering bothies and a useful resupply point at Kinlochleven. Picture: Buachaille Beag at the exit from Lairig Gartain pass.
15 The Mamores
For full-on hillwalking, the Mamores are every bit as lovely as all the other 282 Munro-height hills of the Highlands. This walk linking two of them along an airy ridgeline has well made old stalkers’ paths to help you, and grand views along Loch Leven. As an alternative to Ben Nevis it’s about the same in terms of effort, rather more challenging in hill skills and terrain, and about ten times as enjoyable in terms of woods and waterfalls, airy ridges and occasional rocky moments. In my book the route’s also used as a detailed treatment of maps and pre-walk planning.
16 The Stubaital Höhenweg
For some, the end and ideal of mountain walking is walking from hut to hut through the Alps.2 Rocky paths high above the valley floor, occasionally with a comforting chain to hang on to; snow-covered summits dangling overhead and sometimes a glacier to dodge around the edge of; and a so-called hut (actually a medium sized hotel) with fairly inexpensive bunk-bed accommodation and cream teas served on the balcony.
And the rest…
The sample routes make up about 20% of the book. The main thing is all the other bits: the Shropshire hills, the Pennines and the Southern Uplands, the four other ranges of Snowdonia, Scotland’s 279 other high hills, the Welsh coast path, and the whole of Northern Ireland. Plus, of course, the convenient hill or moorland that (unless you live in London) is just a bus ride away. And if you do unluckily live in London – have you looked at the River Lea?
The Hillwalking Bible. Came out two weeks ago, see this post for an extract.
It’s in Austria, just south of Innsbruck. And by ‘some’, yes I do mean ‘me’.
No hills within easy reach of London? Look again! I used to live on one IN London that even has an ancient woodland on it… and fabulous views. (As long as your definition of ‘fabulous’ doesn’t require being able to see mountains!)
The River Lea is not half bad! Hard to compare it to some of these views in Scotland, though... thanks for giving me some inspiration for my next trip north!