maps at a scale of 1:50,000. The sheet numbers are 74, 80, 86, 87, 91, 92, 98, 103, 109 and 110. For greater detail, eight Ordnance Survey Explorer maps cover the route at a scale of 1:25,000, and the sheet numbers are OL1, OL2, OL16, OL21, OL30, OL31, OL42 and OL43. The companion map booklet to this guidebook contains extracts from the Ordnance Survey Explorer maps, at a scale of 1:25,000, with the route highlighted, along with alternatives and off-route spurs.
Harvey, www.harveymaps.co.uk, publishes three maps covering the Pennine Way on water-resistant paper at a scale of 1:40,000. These are Pennine Way South, Pennine Way Central and Pennine Way North. The relevant maps are listed at the start of each stage of the route.
Waymarking and access
The Pennine Way is a designated right of way from start to finish; therefore it should be open at all times and always be free of obstructions. The route is made up of public footpaths, public bridleways, public byways and public highways. Signposts usually include the words ‘Pennine Way’, along with the official National Trail ‘acorn’ symbol. Marker posts generally feature only the acorn symbol and a directional arrow. Occasionally, the initials ‘PW’ may be painted or carved onto surfaces to give additional directions. Yellow arrows denote public footpaths; blue arrows denote public bridleways; and red arrows denote public byways.
Leaving the route at Windy Gyle allows for a descent to Trows (Day 19)
Following the ‘acorn’ symbols is fairly fool-proof, but bear in mind that the Pennine Way intersects with the Pennine Bridleway on a handful of occasions, and also runs concurrent with a considerable stretch of the Hadrian’s Wall Path. As all these routes are National Trails, they all bear the ‘acorn’ symbols, and some walkers do find themselves following the wrong trails!
Note that there are some very long stretches that have no signposts or markers, and this is the policy for what is after all a tough and often remote long-distance trail. In clear weather, providing careful note is taken of route directions, rudimentary map-reading skills will be enough. However, on some bleak and exposed moors, especially in mist, an ability to use a map and a compass is a distinct advantage. GPS users can download GPX tracks for each daily stage from the Cicerone website.
Weather forecasts
Walking for hours across bleak moorlands on an almost daily basis is fine, so long as the weather is good. There is little anyone can do about the weather, except to be prepared. Get into the habit of checking the forecast as often as possible, and keep an eye on the days ahead, so that if bad weather is predicted on a particularly tricky stretch, at least that can be included in planning. Forecasts on radio or television might be too general, but online forecasts provided by the Met Office, www.metoffice.gov.uk, can be tailored to more specific locations. For example, a detailed forecast is always available for the summit of Great Dun Fell! Numerous weather forecasts are available on smartphone apps.
Phones and Wi-Fi
Mobile phones don’t always get a signal along the Pennine Way, and coverage varies depending on your service provider. All of the towns along the Pennine Way have coverage, but some villages don’t, and rural telephone kiosks are gradually being removed. For internet access, Wi-Fi is offered by most accommodation providers, but there are a few who don’t offer it. If Wi-Fi is important, then be sure to ask about provision when bookings are made. Rural post offices keep disappearing along the route, but the remaining ones are mentioned.
Emergencies
The Pennines and Cheviot Hills are not particularly dangerous, and the biggest problem unwary walkers are likely to face is the prospect of losing their way on a featureless moorland. However, accidents and injuries could occur almost anywhere on the route and the intervention of the emergency services might be required. To contact the police, ambulance, fire service or mountain rescue, telephone 999 (or the European emergency number 112), and state clearly the nature of the emergency. Give them your telephone number and, most importantly, keep in touch while a response is mounted.
ALL ABOUT THE PENNINES
Pennine geology
As a teenager and a student of geology, I was not content simply to admire the Pennines. I wielded a hammer and chisel so that I could take great chunks of them home with me!
Pennine geology is relatively easy to understand, although in a few places it becomes very complex. The oldest bedrock is seldom seen on the Pennine Way, revealing itself only around Malham and Dufton. Ancient Silurian slate at Malham Tarn, along with Ordovician mudstone and volcanic rock above Dufton, date back 450 million years. These rocks are revealed only where fault lines bring them to the surface. The Weardale Granite, which underlies the North Pennines, outcrops nowhere and was only ‘proved’ by a borehole sunk at Rookhope in 1961.
In the Devonian period, around 395 million years ago, violent volcanic activity laid the foundations of the Cheviot Hills, at the northern end of the Pennine Way. All the lower hills are made of andesite lavas, while the central parts are formed of a massive dome of granite, pushed into the Earth’s crust some 360 million years ago and only recently exposed to the elements.
During the Carboniferous period, around 350 to 300 million years ago, a warm, shallow tropical sea covered the whole region. Countless billions of hard-shelled, soft-bodied creatures lived and died in this sea. Coral reefs grew, and even microscopic organisms often had hard external or internal structures. Over the aeons, these creatures left their hard parts in heaps on the seabed, and these deposits became the massive grey limestones seen to best effect today in the Yorkshire Dales.
Limestone pavement on top of Malham Cove (Day 6)
Even while thick beds of limestone were being laid down, storms were eroding distant mountain ranges. Vast rivers brought mud, sand and gravel down into the sea. These murky deposits reduced the amount of light entering the water, causing delicate coral reefs and other creatures to perish. As more mud and sand was washed into the sea, a vast delta spread across the region.
At times, shoals of sand and gravel stood above the waterline, and these became colonised by strange, fernlike trees. The level of water in the rivers and sea was in a state of flux. Sometimes the delta was completely flooded, so the plants would be buried under more sand and gravel. The compressed plant material within the beds of sand and mud became thin bands of coal, known as the Coal Measures. This alternating series of sandstones and mudstones, with occasional seams of coal, can be seen best in the Dark Peak and the South Pennines. Remnants of the series can also be studied on the higher summits of the Yorkshire Dales and North Pennines.
The Carboniferous rocks were laid down in layers, helping to explain what happened next, around 295 million years ago. An extensive mass of molten dolerite was squeezed, under enormous pressure, between the layers of rock – rather like jam between two slices of bread. This rock is always prominent wherever it outcrops, chiefly in the North Pennines and along Hadrian’s Wall, where it is referred to as the Whin Sill.
Almost 300 million years are ‘missing’ from the Pennine geological record, in which time the range has been broken into enormous blocks by faulting. The Yorkshire Dales and North Pennines display plenty of limestone, as their ‘blocks’ stand higher than the Peak District and South Pennines. Glaciers scoured the entire range during the Ice Age, and many parts are covered with glacial detritus in the form of boulder clay, sand and gravel. More recent climatic changes resulted in the upland soil becoming so waterlogged that thick deposits of peat have
