Journal
Planning, honestly.
Guides to the parts of a long walk the maps leave out: how many days, where the trains are, what to book first.
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27 posts
West Highland WayPlanning3 min read
Is the West Highland Way hard? An honest guide
Well waymarked and rarely high, but long days, four climbs of about 300 metres, and a moor with nowhere to shelter. And one night that seven days cannot fit a bed into.
Planning3 min read
Luggage transfer on seven trails, compared
Who will move your bag between beds, on which trails, and what they say it costs. Five trails have someone covering the whole route; Offa's Dyke takes two or three; the North Downs Way has no one.
West Highland WayPlanning2 min read
Water and lunch on the West Highland Way, mile by mile
Taps and shops every day of a seven-day walk, until the end: nineteen miles with no food shop across Rannoch Moor, and a last day with nothing at all for twelve.
West Highland WayPlanning2 min read
Where to stay on the West Highland Way, night by night
Seven days, six nights. Drymen, Tyndrum and Kinlochleven have plenty; between Tyndrum and Kinlochleven the map has three hotels and a bunkhouse, and one night has none.
North Downs WayPlanning2 min read
Is the North Downs Way hard? An honest guide
Mostly level walking along a chalk scarp, with short steep climbs where it drops and rises again. The hard part is water: two stretches of more than thirty miles with no tap on the map.
North Downs WayPlanning3 min read
Water and lunch on the North Downs Way, mile by mile
Food is easy: a shop every day of a nine-day walk. Water is not: ten of the map's thirteen taps are in the first 32 miles, and then there are two long gaps.
Pennine WayPlanning2 min read
Water and lunch on the Pennine Way, mile by mile
No tap on the map for the first 67 miles, and from Bellingham to Kirk Yetholm, 40 miles, nowhere to buy food at all. The middle is easier; the ends want planning.
Hadrian's Wall PathPlanning2 min read
Where to stay on Hadrian's Wall Path, night by night
Seven days, six nights, and one of them, at Carrawburgh, has a single place listed near it. That is the night to book first; the rest have four to eleven.
Offa's Dyke PathPlanning3 min read
Where to stay on Offa's Dyke Path, night by night
Thirteen days, twelve nights. Most have three places or more on the Trail's list, though often a mile or so off the path; two in the north, Trefonen and Croes-wian, have one and none.
Cotswold WayPlanning3 min read
Where to stay on the Cotswold Way, night by night
Nine days, eight nights, and places to stay at every one of them. The thinnest night is Petty France; the harder question is for anyone hoping to hostel.
North Downs WayPlanning3 min read
Where to stay on the North Downs Way, night by night
Nine days, eight nights. The Trail's list is the longest of any trail on this site, yet no night has more than six places near its stop; Albury and Caterham are the ones to book first.
Pennine WayPlanning3 min read
Where to stay on the Pennine Way, night by night
Eighteen days, seventeen nights. Hawes and Hebden Bridge have plenty; five nights are thin, and the last day is nearly 25 miles.
South Downs WayPlanning3 min read
Where to stay on the South Downs Way, night by night
Nine days, eight nights on the way. Most nights have a handful of places within reach; three have one or two, and those are the ones to book first.
Hadrian's Wall PathPlanning2 min read
Is Hadrian's Wall Path hard? An honest guide
Gentler than its reputation: two cities, a river and a lot of fields, with the hard part saved for two days on the crags in the middle.
Offa's Dyke PathPlanning3 min read
Is Offa's Dyke Path hard? An honest guide
Harder than its height suggests: 178 miles of short, steep hills along the Welsh border, with a ridge at each end and the switchbacks in the middle.
Cotswold WayPlanning2 min read
Is the Cotswold Way hard? An honest guide
Not high, and never far from a village. But it climbs more than its hundred miles suggest, in short steep pulls onto the edge, several a day.
Pennine WayPlanning3 min read
Is the Pennine Way hard? An honest guide
Yes, in the ways that matter: long, high, wet underfoot and in places a long way from anywhere. Here is where it is hardest, and what makes it possible.
Offa's Dyke PathPlanning3 min read
Water and lunch on Offa's Dyke Path, mile by mile
Towns at the ends and a handful in the middle, with three long stretches between them where the map has pubs at best, and no tap on the map for 78 miles. Here is where they are.
Cotswold WayPlanning2 min read
Water and lunch on the Cotswold Way, mile by mile
A village most nights and a shop most days, except along the escarpment above Cheltenham, and a last thirty miles with no tap on the map. Here is where they are.
Hadrian's Wall PathPlanning2 min read
Where to buy lunch on Hadrian's Wall
The walk starts in a city with two hundred food shops near the path and then crosses thirty miles with none. Here is where they are, from the map, day by day.
South Downs WayPlanning2 min read
Where to buy lunch on the South Downs Way
The Way passes twice as many pubs as food shops, and between Heyshott and Bramber it passes no food shop at all for twenty-five miles. Here is where they are, day by day.
South Downs WayPlanning4 min read
Seven Sisters or inland? The South Downs Way's last day, measured
At Alfriston the Way splits in two. One route goes over the cliffs, the other over the downs behind them. Here is what each one costs, from the same survey.
South Downs WayKit3 min read
What to pack for the South Downs Way, and what the chalk changes
Most kit lists would do for any trail. This one is built around the three things particular to this one: the gaps between taps, a ridge with no shade, and chalk underfoot.
South Downs WayGetting there4 min read
The South Downs Way in weekends, by train
Twelve stations sit on or near the Way. Six of them cut the hundred miles into five weekends you can start on a Saturday morning and finish on a Sunday afternoon, without a car or a lift.
South Downs WayPlanning2 min read
South Downs Way in 5, 7 or 9 days: which pace suits you?
The same hundred miles is a different walk at fourteen miles a day and at eleven. Here is what each number means on the ground.
South Downs WayPlanning3 min read
Is the South Downs Way hard? An honest guide
Not hard the way a mountain is hard. Hard the way a hundred miles is, with some particular things about chalk that nobody warns you of.
Planning3 min read
Your first long-distance walk: which trail fits your week?
Seven of Britain's great trails, by the numbers that decide: how far, how many days, and whether a train gets you there and back.