PENNINE WAY

The 'Pennine Way' is a National Trail in England. The trail runs ^[1] from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and the Northumberland National Park, to end at Kirk Yetholm, just inside the Scottish border.

Contents

History

Usage

Route

Further reading

See also

Footnotes

External links

History

The path was the idea of the journalist and rambler Tom Stephenson, inspired by similar trails in the United States of America, particularly the Appalachian Trail. Stephenson proposed the concept in an article for the ''Daily Herald'' in 1935, and later lobbied Parliament for the creation of an official trail. The final section of the path was declared open in a ceremony held on Malham Moor on the 24th April 1965. The path runs along the Pennine hills, sometimes described as the "backbone of England". Although not the United Kingdom's longest trail,^[2] it is according to the Ramblers' Association "one of Britain's best known and toughest".^[3]

Usage

The Pennine Way has long been popular with walkers, and in 1990 the Countryside Commission reported that 12,000 long-distance walkers and 250,000 day-walkers were using all or part of the trail per year.^[4] They furthermore estimated that walkers contributed £2 million (1990) to the local economy along the route, directly maintaining 156 jobs. The popularity of the walk has resulted in substantial erosion to the terrain in places,^[5] and steps have been taken to recover its condition, including diverting sections of the route onto firmer ground, and laying flagstones or duckboards in softer areas. These actions have been generally effective in reducing the extent of broken ground, though the intrusion into the natural landscape has at times been the subject of criticism.
A number of Youth Hostels are provided along the route to break up the trek, in addition to many private establishments offering accommodation. It is easy for the walker to undertake just a short section of the trail, with 535 access points (on average, one every half-mile or approximately one kilometre) at which the Pennine Way intersects with other public rights of way.
As the majority of the Pennine Way is routed via public footpaths, access to those sections is denied to travellers on horseback or bicycle. In order to grant them a similar route, a Pennine Bridleway is also now under development (as of autumn 2005, two principal sections are open); the route is generally parallel to the Pennine Way, but starts slightly further south in Derbyshire.

Route

The paved surface of the Pennine Way on Black Hill

An example of one of the many waymarks used to guide the walker on the Pennine Way. This particular example is near Airton.

A survey by the National Trails agency reported that a walker covering the entire length of the trail is obliged to navigate 287 gates, 249 timber stiles, 183 stone stiles and 204 bridges. of the route is on public footpaths, on public bridleways and on other public highways. The walker is aided by the provision of 458 waymarks.^[6]
The route of the Pennine Way passes close to or through the following places (mountains and moors are marked in italics, towns and villages in normal type):

★ Edale

★ ''Kinder Scout''

★ ''Bleaklow''

★ ''Black Hill''

★ ''Saddleworth Moor''

★ Standedge

★ Littleborough

★ ''Stoodley Pike''

★ Todmorden (for the Caldervale line)

★ Hebden Bridge (for the Caldervale line)

★ ''Wadsworth Moor''

★ ''Keighley Moor''

★ ''Elslack Moor''

★ Lothersdale

★ Gargrave

★ Airton

★ Malham

★ ''Fountains Fell''

★ ''Pen-y-ghent''

★ Horton in Ribblesdale (on the Settle-Carlisle Railway)

★ ''Dodd Fell Hill''

★ Hawes (for the Wensleydale Railway)

★ ''Great Shunner Fell''

★ ''Kisdon''

★ Kisdon Force

★ Keld

★ ''Tan Hill''

★ Crosses the A66

★ Middleton-in-Teesdale and the Tees valley

★ ''High Cup''

★ ''Great Dun Fell''

★ ''Cross Fell''

★ Alston

★ Haltwhistle

★ ''Hadrian's Wall'' (near the B6318)

★ ''Shitlington Crags''

★ ''Windy Gyle''

★ ''The Cheviot''

★ Kirk Yetholm

Further reading

The Pennine Way has attracted a number of writers over the years, including Stephenson himself, who wrote the first official guidebook. A popular guide was authored and illustrated by the writer Alfred Wainwright, whose offer to buy a pint of beer for anyone who finished the Pennine Way is estimated to have cost him up to £15,000 until his death in 1991.^[7] Barry Pilton's book gives a more light-hearted and personal account of completing the Pennine Way, with a foreword by Mike Harding.

★ Pennine Way (2 volumes), , Tony, Hopkins, Aurum Press, , ISBN 1-85410-851-4, ISBN 1-85410-962-6

★ One Man and his Bog, , Barry, Pilton, Corgi Books, , ISBN 0-552-12796-5

★ The Pennine Way, , Tom, Stephenson, HM Stationery Office, , ISBN 0-11-700903-2

★ Pennine Way Companion, , Alfred, Wainwright, Frances Lincoln Publishers, , ISBN 0-7112-2235-5

See also

★ Long-distance footpaths in the UK

★ Anglo-Scottish border

Footnotes

1.
Trail stats, Pennine Way

2. This distinction belongs to the 1,014 km-kilometre (630 mi) long South West Coast Path
3. Pennine Way National Trail Ramblers' Association
4. Pennine Way survey 1990: use and economic impact, , , Countryside Commission, , 1992, ISBN 0-86170-323-5
5.
6. Pennine Way interesting facts National Trails
7. Alfred Wainwright: Grumpy, reclusive and eccentric Richard Askwith

External links

★ Pennine Way Official Site

★ Pennine Way Association

★ The Pennine Way Site