Pennine Way

The Pennine Way was the first of the National Trails. Tom Stephenson asked for "a long green trail" up the Pennines in the Daily Herald in 1935, and it took thirty years: the Way was opened on Malham Moor on 24 April 1965. It starts in Edale, at the foot of Kinder Scout, and the first day goes straight up onto the plateau that made the case for it. On 24 April 1932, four hundred walkers set out from Hayfield on the other side of Kinder in the mass trespass, a protest against moors fenced off from the people who lived beside them. The access movement grew from it.

The climb comes early: up Jacob's Ladder and onto Kinder Low, 633 metres by our terrain, then along the western edge past Kinder Downfall, the tallest waterfall in the Peak, where a strong west wind blows the water back up the cliff. This is gritstone and peat, the Dark Peak, and for much of the day the path is a line of stone flags laid over bog that would otherwise swallow a boot.

Beyond the Snake Pass the Way crosses Bleaklow, 630 metres at its head by our terrain, a wide dome of peat groughs where the path matters most in mist, and drops to Crowden in Longdendale. Then Black Hill, 580 metres by our terrain, and down across the moors to Standedge, where the A62 crosses the tops.

It is 46 kilometres from Edale to Standedge on our line, with 1,209 metres of climb, and it is the part of the Way that sets the tone: high, open, wet underfoot, and emptier than you would expect so close to Manchester and Sheffield.

North of Standedge the Way runs along the moors that separate the mill towns of Lancashire from the mill towns of Yorkshire, and for a day and a half you can see both. This is the South Pennines: lower than the Peak, never far from a reservoir, a road or a valley full of chimneys, and walked mostly on the edges of the moor.

Blackstone Edge, 470 metres by our terrain, is a line of gritstone crags above Littleborough, crossed by an old paved way that climbs over the top. Beyond it the Way follows a string of reservoir tracks and then rises to Stoodley Pike, the obelisk above Todmorden that you will see from miles off in both directions. The first monument there was begun in 1814 to mark the defeat of Napoleon; it fell in 1854, and the one standing now was finished in 1856, at the end of the Crimean War.

The Way drops into the Calder valley near Hebden Bridge, which is a short walk off the route and has a station and plenty of beds, and climbs out again over Heptonstall Moor and past a chain of reservoirs to the moors above Haworth. Then it comes down, at last, into gentler country: Ponden, the Worth valley, and Ickornshaw, a hamlet beside Cowling where the Lancashire border is behind you and the Dales are close.

It is 48 kilometres from Standedge to Ickornshaw on our line, with 895 metres of climb, and more towns within reach of the path than anywhere else on the Way.

This chapter crosses from gritstone into limestone, and the change is the most striking on the whole Way. It starts on the last of the moors, over Pinhaw Beacon, 387 metres by our terrain, and comes down to Lothersdale and the lowland fields of the Aire Gap, the break in the Pennines where the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the railway both get through. At East Marton the Way follows the canal towpath for a short stretch, and at Gargrave it crosses the river and the railway.

Then it follows the Aire up to Malham, and the limestone arrives. Malham Cove is a curved cliff 80 metres high; the Way climbs about four hundred stone steps up its west side and crosses the limestone pavement on top, a grid of clints and grikes where the water has gone underground. Above it is Malham Tarn and the open country of the Yorkshire Dales.

From the tarn the Way climbs Fountains Fell, 583 metres by our terrain, and then comes to Pen-y-ghent, the one real mountain shape of the southern Dales: a stepped gritstone cap on a limestone base, climbed by its nose. It is 693 metres at the summit by our terrain, and from the top the Way drops down the long track to Horton in Ribblesdale, which has a station on the Settle to Carlisle line 400 metres from the path.

It is 52 kilometres from Ickornshaw to Horton on our line, with 1,212 metres of climb, and it is the chapter people who have walked the Way tend to describe first.

From Horton the Way leaves the Three Peaks country along old green roads and climbs slowly north across Cam Fell, on a Roman line and a later packhorse way, with Ribblehead and its viaduct off to the west. This is a long, high, mostly gentle day, and the first stretch where you can walk for hours on firm ground.

It comes down into Wensleydale at Hawes, a market town with shops and beds, and then crosses the dale to Hardraw and climbs the long southern ridge of Great Shunner Fell. The summit is 715 metres by our terrain, and on a clear day the whole of the northern Dales is laid out around it. The descent is to Thwaite, in Swaledale, and from there the Way follows the side of the dale north past Kisdon to Keld.

Keld is where the Pennine Way crosses Wainwright's Coast to Coast, and for one village two long walks share the same few paths, the same waterfalls and the same beds. North of it the Way climbs out of Swaledale onto the moors, and ends the chapter at Tan Hill, where the inn stands alone at 528 metres and is, by its own reckoning and most others, the highest pub in Britain. Our terrain puts the path beside it at 525 metres.

It is 49 kilometres from Horton to Tan Hill on our line, with 1,225 metres of climb.

North of Tan Hill the Way crosses Sleightholme Moor, which is wet, and comes down into the Greta and Baldersdale country of reservoirs and hill farms. Here it passes the Stainmore Gap, where the A66 crosses the Pennines, and goes on over the moors to Middleton-in-Teesdale, where it meets the Tees.

The next day follows the river upstream, and it is one of the finest river walks on the Way. The Tees runs over the Whin Sill, the same hard dolerite that carries Hadrian's Wall further north, and each time it meets it there is a waterfall. Low Force first, then High Force, where the river drops 21 metres in two steps over the dolerite. Above it the dale widens into the open upland of Upper Teesdale, and the Way follows the river to Cauldron Snout, a long stepped cataract below the dam of Cow Green Reservoir, which the path climbs beside.

From the top of the Snout the Way turns west and crosses the watershed to High Cup Nick, where the ground falls away without warning into a U-shaped valley rimmed by the dolerite cliffs of the Whin Sill. The path follows the rim and descends into the Eden valley at Dufton, a village of red sandstone around a green.

It is 59 kilometres from Tan Hill to Dufton on our line, with 831 metres of climb. The distance is the longest of the chapters; the climbing is not.

From Dufton the Way climbs straight up the scarp of the North Pennines to the highest ground it reaches: over Knock Fell, past the radar dome on Great Dun Fell, 839 metres where the path passes by our terrain, across Little Dun Fell and onto Cross Fell. At 893 metres, Cross Fell is the highest point of the Pennines and the highest ground on the Way. It is also the home of the Helm Wind, the only named wind in Britain, which can pour down the western slope in a long roll of cloud.

This is the most exposed day of the walk, and in bad weather the most serious. The summit plateau is broad and featureless, and the descent to the north-east passes Greg's Hut, an old mine building that is now a bothy, before a long track down through the old lead-mining country to Garrigill.

From Garrigill the Way follows the South Tyne to Alston, which claims to be the highest market town in England, and on down the valley past Slaggyford and Knarsdale. The walking changes again here: field paths and riverbanks, and a slow descent to the moors above Greenhead, where the Way meets Hadrian's Wall.

It is 58 kilometres from Dufton to Greenhead on our line, with 1,403 metres of climb, most of it in the first day.

At Greenhead the Pennine Way joins Hadrian's Wall and follows it east along the crags of the Whin Sill for a day: past Thirlwall Castle, up onto Walltown Crags, along the switchback of the Wall past Cawfields and Winshields to Steel Rigg and beyond. It is a stretch the Way shares with the Hadrian's Wall Path, and some of the finest walking on either. The Hadrian's Wall guide on this site describes it in detail.

At Rapishaw Gap, beyond Steel Rigg, the Way leaves the Wall and turns north, and the country empties again. It crosses the loughs and moors north of the Wall and enters Wark Forest, the first of the great conifer plantations, then comes out onto field paths and down to Bellingham in the valley of the North Tyne. Bellingham is the last place of any size before Kirk Yetholm: its shops are the last on the map within a kilometre of the path for 64 kilometres.

North of Bellingham the Way crosses open moor again and then enters Redesdale Forest, following forestry roads down to the Rede at Blakehopeburnhaugh and on to Byrness, a small forestry village at the foot of the Cheviots.

It is 60 kilometres from Greenhead to Byrness on our line, with 877 metres of climb, and after the crags it is mostly quiet going.

The last chapter is the hardest single stage of the Way and, for most people, the best. From Byrness the path climbs straight onto the Cheviot ridge and follows the border between England and Scotland, often along the fence that marks it, for the whole of the day and most of the next. There are no villages on it. There are two small emergency shelters, one below Lamb Hill and one near Auchope Cairn, and otherwise nothing but the border, the hills either side and the long views north over the Scottish Borders.

The ridge passes the Roman camps at Chew Green and climbs over Lamb Hill, Beefstand Hill and Mozie Law to Windy Gyle, 618 metres by our terrain. The Way stays high past King's Seat and Auchope Cairn, with the main summit of the Cheviot to the east, and then crosses into Scotland for good over The Schil. From there it drops off the ridge and down the valley of the Halter Burn to Kirk Yetholm.

The Way ends at the Border Hotel on the village green. The National Trail says a half pint waits there for every Pennine Way finisher.

It is 40 kilometres from Byrness to Kirk Yetholm on our line, with 1,046 metres of climb, and it can be split over two days by dropping off the ridge to a bed below it for a night.