The National Trails. Paddy Dillon
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require the use of a map and basic navigational skills. Routes are easily lost in fields and woods, or on moorlands in poor visibility, while signposts and marker posts can be damaged or destroyed. When a trail enters a town or city, it is not always obvious how you should pass through the streets to return to the countryside. A decent map, and the ability to read it, will ensure that you stay on the route. Look on the signposts and waymarks as simply a means of confirming that you are still on course.
Path Associations
A few of the national trails have thriving ‘path associations’. The Pennine Way Association is naturally one of the oldest, as is the Offa’s Dyke Association. The South West Coast Path Association arguably has the toughest job, since they lobby in support of the longest of all Britain’s national trails. The path associations are largely made up of people who have walked the route and are therefore in the best possible position to promote it. With a thriving membership, they are able to report problems and get them attended to quickly, working closely with the relevant authorities in each area. They keep an eye on local services, and produce invaluable accommodation guides, often based on the personal recommendation of members and other walkers.
Ideally, every national trail should have a path association, but in fact only a handful do. However, every trail has a ‘path manager’, employed to deal with the many issues relating to a particular trail, and these managers are in direct contact with the authorities that have the funding and manpower to attend to these issues.
Maps
Detailed Ordnance Survey maps cover every national trail in Britain, and a list of these is included in this guidebook with each trail description. Walkers who want a lot of detail should use the Explorer series, which at a scale of 1:25,000 shows virtually every wall, fence and building along the way. Others will be happy to use the Landranger series, at a scale of 1:50,000, which is adequate on well-signposted routes, even though less detail is shown. For full details see www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk.
A–Z Adventure Atlases cover some National Trails using OS Explorer mapping in the form of books, so that large sheets of paper don’t have to be unfolded. Between one and five atlases are required, depending on the length of the trail, www.az.co.uk.
Harveys, an independent map maker, produces strip maps at a scale of 1:40,000 covering many of the national trails. The advantage of these maps is that they are waterproof, show dedicated information for each trail, and drastically cut down the bulk of mapping required. For full details see www.harveymaps.co.uk.
Ordnance Survey mapping is available in digital form, suitable for viewing on home computers, as well as for use outdoors on devices such as smartphones and tablets, which may have GPS capability. While using digital mapping can save carrying a bundle of paper maps, it is essential to keep devices charged and safe from damage. Harvey Maps offer digital versions of many of their national trail maps.
Guidebooks
Each of the national trails originally had an ‘official’ guidebook published by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, containing Ordnance Survey mapping at 1:25,000. In recent years, in England and Wales, Aurum Press (www.aurumpress.co.uk) took over publishing these titles. In Scotland the publisher Birlinn (www.birlinn.co.uk) acquired titles. Almost every national trail has a guidebook published by Cicerone (www.cicerone.co.uk) and these include extracts of Ordnance Survey Landranger mapping at 1:50,000. Cicerone guidebooks are available both as printed books and in digital form as ebooks, including some in Kindle format.
Heavy seas pound the natural rock arch of the Green Bridge on the Castlemartin Ranges (Day 10, Pembrokeshire Coast Path)
Throughout this book, guides containing OS maps or similar mapping are listed, though some trails have simpler guides too. Most trail guidebooks offer detailed commentaries on the routes as well as notes about the landscape, its history, heritage and wildlife. Guides often have different angles and walkers should ideally browse through all of them to find out which best meet their needs.
Long-distance Laughs
No matter which trail you walk, or how much you suffer, you’ll always find someone suffering more than you. There must be something about long-distance walking that compels some people to keep trekking when they’d be better advised to quit. A certain grim stoicism seems to sustain them when the going gets tough, and this has led to the publication of a small sub-genre of long-distance walking books with a distinct humour all of their own. Those who are struggling, or feel they may struggle once they start, or those who wonder if anyone has ever suffered as badly as they are suffering, should realise that they are not alone and read one or all of the following:
One Man and his Bog, by Barry Pilton, Corgi
Pennine Walkies, by Mark Wallington, Arrow
500 Mile Walkies, by Mark Wallington, Arrow.
Websites
The main online resource for all the national trails in England and Wales is www.nationaltrail.co.uk. This site gives links to the ‘official’ sites for each national trail, where abundant up-to-date information can be discovered. Most of the sites include accommodation details and plenty of other practical notes that are useful for anyone planning a trek. In Scotland, the four original classic ‘long-distance routes’ are now part of a wider selection of trails known as Scotland’s Great Trails, covered by the website www.scotlandsgreattrails.org.uk. Walkers who search the web for information will of course be able to find plenty of other resources, including ‘blog’-type accounts written and illustrated by walkers who have trekked the trails. (See also Appendix A, Useful Contacts.)
Accommodation
When the Pennine Way was opened in 1965 it was generally assumed that the majority of walkers would carry full packs and camp at intervals along the trail. Many did, but there was also good provision of youth hostels along the way, and the Youth Hostels Association once offered a service allowing walkers to book all their bed-nights in one fell swoop. Things have changed over the years, and while there are still plenty who camp, the provision of hostels has been drastically reduced. Many now choose to stay in bed-and-breakfast accommodation, and some are quite happy to pay someone else to make all the arrangements for them, booking their long-distance walk through commercial trekking companies.
Some national trails are eminently suitable for backpacking and camping, but others have very few campsites. Some trails have far more youth hostels than others, but Glyndŵr’s Way has none at all. Anyone planning to stay indoors every night will have to mix and match several types of accommodation. All the ‘official’ trail websites include searchable accommodation lists, and it is wise to refer to these at an early stage of planning. Some locations may offer plenty of lodgings, but may also be very popular and likely to completely run out of space in high summer. Other crucial stops may have nothing more than a single, small bed and breakfast, and if you can’t get your name on a bed, then your entire trip might fall apart because of it. The Southern Upland Way has some very long distances between services, and walkers will either have to cover that distance, camp in between, or spend a night at a bothy to get a roof over their heads. Careful planning will ensure that you have a bed each night.
The bracken slopes of Hergest Ridge rise above the village of Gladestry (Day 4, Offa’s Dyke Path)
I’m sure there are many who would love to walk a national trail, but find themselves overwhelmed by the minutiae of planning. For these people, all is not lost, since many