carry on a long trek. Figure out what sort of clothing and footwear suits you best for those conditions. Keep a check on your progress day by day and hour by hour, to gauge how long it takes to cover varying distances and awkward terrain. Timings given in this guidebook are unlikely to be matched by most wayfarers; some will be faster, some slower, but the timings give a consistent standard throughout. Use them as a basic guide. If you complete a couple of stages faster, then it is likely that you will always do so, and you might want to cover extra distances further along the trail. If you fall behind the stated times, then figure out by how much, and apply that to all stages in future. If it is likely that one or two of the longer stages might take too long to cover, consider splitting them into shorter stages.
The Pennine Way main route stays high to cross White Law (Day 20)
While some people have run the Pennine Way in as little as three days, most take two or three weeks to walk the distance, and on average it tends to work out at around 18 days. The schedule offered in this guidebook takes 20 days, but there are places where stages can be extended. As with all long-distance walks, take each day at a pace that is neither slow nor stressful, and the trek can be completed comfortably and enjoyably. Fatigue and foul weather can result in alterations to carefully planned schedules, so wise walkers build a day or two into their plans to cover for such eventualities.
The Pennine Way can be adapted to suit walkers of most abilities, and there is no need to follow the schedule outlined in this guidebook rigidly. Long days can be split. Short days can be extended. Pick-ups can be arranged wherever the route crosses a road, with careful planning. Nor is there any need to walk south to north, but this is the direction most people choose. Some do walk north to south. If you do this, you will need to reverse all the route directions, which could be a little confusing at times, but the signposting and waymarking is as good in one direction as it is in the other. The following statistics relate only to the main route and don’t include any diversions off-route. Those who walk the Hebden Bridge Loop and Bowes Loop, for example, will cover an extra 8.5km (5¼ miles), while detours off-route and back onto the route in the Cheviot Hills add around 6.5km (4 miles). Given other short detours for accommodation, most Pennine wayfarers will end up walking around 450km (280 miles).
The route summary table at the beginning of this guide is based on a 20-day trek, following the daily stages presented in this guidebook. Below is a suggested itinerary for a 15-day trek, based on combining some of the shorter stages, or breaking the trek at different points to create longer stages. Anything less than two weeks would require considerable stamina and determination.
When to walk
The Pennine Way is naturally busiest in the summer months, when most people take their longest holiday of the year. This is a fine time to walk, as all facilities and services are available, and the weather is generally warm and sunny, with plenty of daylight hours. In early summer, flowers are in bloom, while later in the summer, the heather moors are flushed purple. There is a chance that boggy parts might be drier underfoot, and when the blue sky is flecked with little clouds, the Pennine Way becomes very appealing.
Spring and autumn can feature many fine days, and both seasons have their own particular charms. Spring sees the gradual greening of the landscape and the first flowers of the year, but there might be a late flurry of snow. Hawthorn buses burst into bloom while new-born lambs bleat plaintively in the lower pastures. Autumn sees the gradual ripening of seeds, hedgerow fruits at their best and many species of fungi pushing strange fruiting bodies into view. The days, however, are notably shorter and there may well be cooler, wetter weather.
Winter can be severe in the Pennines, especially when occasional falls of deep snow blanket the path and make route-finding particularly difficult. While winter traverses of the Pennine Way are rare, those walkers possessing the skills and stamina to complete the trek also have to cope with the fact that many facilities and services are absent. Hardy walkers need to be experienced and self-sufficient to backpack the route in the winter months. The hardiest of all are those who enter the Spine Race, thespinerace.com, whose elite entrants are capable of running the Pennine Way in the deep midwinter in less than 100 hours!
A dusting of snow in winter near Gorple Lower Reservoir (Day 4)
Travel to and from the Pennine Way
By air
For overseas visitors, the handiest access for the start of the Pennine Way is Manchester Airport, www.manchesterairport.co.uk, served by flights from around the world. Catch a train from the airport to Manchester Piccadilly and change for Edale and the start of the Pennine Way.
Leaving the northern end of the route isn’t as simple, requiring careful study of local bus and train timetables, but the airports at Edinburgh, www.edinburghairport.com, and Newcastle, www.newcastleairport.com, can be reached for homeward flights.
By rail
Regular daily Northern trains, www.northernrailway.co.uk, serve Edale from Manchester and Sheffield. Northern train services can be used to reach the Pennine Way via Hebden Bridge, Gargrave and Horton in Ribblesdale. Greenhead, near Hadrian’s Wall, no longer has a station, but Northern trains can be caught off-route at Haltwhistle. There are no railways near Kirk Yetholm, so if intending to travel home by rail, it is necessary to catch buses to Galashiels, for ScotRail, www.scotrail.co.uk, trains to Edinburgh, or to Berwick-upon-Tweed for Virgin Trains East Coast, www.virgintrainseastcoast.com, and CrossCountry trains, www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk, to Edinburgh or Newcastle.
By bus
There are several local bus routes crossing the Pennine Way. Where useful buses exist, either connecting with other parts of the route, or leading off-route to nearby towns and villages, there is a brief mention of them in the daily route descriptions. To check details of local buses in advance, useful websites include Traveline, www.traveline.info, and Traveline Scotland, www.travelinescotland.com, tel 0871 2002233 for either service. It is also possible to search Google Maps for bus services by using the ‘directions’ feature. Always obtain up-to-date bus times a day or two before needing them, as some services are sparse. Bear in mind that there are no bus services to or from Kirk Yetholm on Sundays.
Travel along the Pennine Way
Most railway lines and bus routes cross the Pennines from east to west and vice-versa, and only a few routes run parallel to the Pennine Way. Getting to and from the route is reasonably straightforward, but using public transport to get ahead by a stage or two can be quite awkward. Most stages have some form of public transport, but it varies from regular daily services, to one bus per week, and sometimes there is nothing at all. However, there are plenty of services that are worth bearing in mind, and particularly the minibus service offered into the heart of the Cheviot Hills towards the end. Sometimes, it may be necessary to call a local taxi, and it is also worth noting that some accommodation providers offer pick-ups and drop-offs, if given advance notice.
First and last nights
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